City College of New York - Microcosm Yearbook (New York, NY)

Page 15 text:

impossible lo get an accurate record of each case. Thirty-seven members of the Faculty entered military service, ten obtained leave of absence in order to take up cx|)erts’ work required by the war activities of the country or sen-ice with the Y. M. C. A. and Red Cross, while a great many who remained on duty at the College did war work besides. In September, 1917. the State Military Law (Slater Law) made military training compulsory for all students between the ages of sixteen and nineteen. This included many students of Townsend Harris Hall and some of the lower classmen of the College. The drills began on September 27 in the armory of the Twenty-Sec- ond Engineers with an initial attendance of about twelve hundred. At this time organizations all over the country were raising funds to send ambulances to France. Our Alumni raised such a fund and sent a College of the City of New York Ambulance to France with the Metropol- itan Unit which was being assembled by the City Club. Malcolm I». Schloss. a sophomore, was sent with it as driver. The unit was twice decorated for gallantry in action, awarded the eroix dc guerre with palms and permitted the honor of wearing the fez. Schloss also was individually cited and received the eroix dc guerre. Other students were cited in like manner as soldiers. At this writing the complete roll of honor has not been made up and it would; therefore, be best to refrain from giving a partial list. Our College was especially honored when, in the summer of 1917. the Signal Corps. Department of the East, selected it as the place in which to conduct the first Signal Corps School established in the Country. The technical work was under the immediate care of Professor Alfred N. Cold smith and the school was part of the Division of Vocational Subjects and Civic Administration. Beginning with a group of about fifty men. it grew rapidly, until, at the time of demobilization, it had over five hundred men. These soldier students were well selected and of a high grade of intelligence. The course of study was for seventeen weeks, new groups being taken in each month—a hundred at a time. Responding to an emergency call from overseas the College equip- ped an entire multiplex telegraphy laboratory in less than a week. This necessitated the complete demolition of the forge and founderv room, refinishing, and the installation of elaborate electrical equipment with all neces- sary wiring. In less than two months the first contingent of multiplex ojicrators was on its way from the Col- lege to France. The Navy Intelligence Bureau established one of its wireless stations in the North or Bell Tower of the Main Building, utilizing our radio plant for the detection of submarines and for other secret work of the Navy. The Navy Department also established at our College, as part of the Division of Vocational Subjects and Civic Administration, the only Radio Compass School in the country. Petty officers who had completed the radio course at Harvard received post-graduate instruction with us before l cing assigned to duty at sea. The importance of the-work of this school in a new field of naval warfare i.an hardly be measured. After the Armistice, the school was transferred to Pelham Bay to be continued as part of the Navy's system of officer training. 13

Page 14 text:

J Cliiir (ttnllwjp in t r Hkr The war was a test of many American institutions and it was also a school. It tried the spirit of bus- iness. of tile professions, and of political parties, and it also proved the colleges. Though actual warfare was for us very short in duration, its experiences taught valuable lessons. While, to be sure, there were in- dividual cases of politicians, business men. college professors,- and students who revealed grave defects of char- acter under the test of war, our institutions as a body responded, to the call of war in a most inspiring manner and acquitted themselves gloriously in the struggle. The students, alumni, faculty, and trustees of our own college made an enviable record and the College has learned lessons which will bear fruit in the future. It will be recollected that in the latter part of March and in the first few days of April, 1917, the Gov- ernment seemed to entertain some doubt concerning the feelings of America on the question of entering the war. Our student body was one of the first to pledge support to President Wilson in the crisis. Mass meetings were held by the students of the Day Session and of the Evening Session at which resolutions of loyalty were solemnly and unanimously adopted. These meetings were not noisy or boisterous or tilled with thoughtless expres- sions of schoolboy enthusiasm; they were calm and pervaded with a deep feeling of loyal responsibility and obli- gation to dedicate all to national service. On the fifteenth of February, the Faculty resolved to place itself and all the resources of the College. Iioth physical and intellectual at the service of the National Government, and the Hoard of Trustees, on April 3, joined in the resolution and transmitted it to the President of the United States. The College had. earlier than this, organized a Department of Military Science with a course of study outlined by the War I epartment. and Professor Herbert M. Holton was placed in charge of the work. When Professor Holton left with his regiment for France, after the Declaration of War, Captain King. D. S. O.. Canadian Army was made Professor of Military Science. The Evening Session organized the first battalion for college men in the country, to which were admitted men from any college. This battalion drilled in the Stadium at night and had representatives from twenty-six American institutions and five foreign universities. Hcforc the Man-Power bill was passed, the College was giving military training to its Day Session students, those of the Evening Session, those of Townsend Harris Hall and the College men’s battalion. After the Declaration of Whr. many of the upper classmen of the Day Session and of the Evening Session enlisted as volunteers in various branches of the armed service, and those who remained at home con- tinued energetic preparations of drill and study. Two hundred and sixty-five Day Session undergraduates entered the service before the Student Army Training Corps came to turn the whole College into a great training camp. Even more of the mature men of the Evening Session left college to join the colors, but here it has been 12

Page 16 text:

With the opening of the College in October. 1918. the War Department made arrangements for the conduct of units of the Student Army Training Corps. All men over eighteen at the time had been required to register with the Draft Hoards. Those who were qualified for College had the privilage of immediate enlistment for the purpose of assignment to the Student Army Training Corps. At our College the enlistment was very large. All the students under eighteen and those rejected as physically unfit were sent to the old Twenty-Third Street Building for civilian instruction. Fortunately that huilding had been renovated as a College of Commerce and was in condition to he used for the teaching of over seven hundred civilian students. All the buildings on the heights were devoted to the Student Army Training Corns. This corps was divided into two great sections. The Signal Corps School, which had formally been conducted by the College in direct contact with the Signal Cor| s. now became a part of the Vocational Division of the Student Army Training Corps. It was known as the “B” section of the Student Army training Corps. The “A” section was made up of our own students who were to receive general training to fit them for officer service in the infantry or for service in certain special branches, such as ordnance, engineering, artillery and chemical warfare. The College authorities were faced with the problem of not only instructing but of housing and feeding all the men of the Student Army Training Corps. The general arrangements and responsibility of this work rested with the Vocational Division of the College which had already made similar arrangements for the Signal Corps group. At this | oint the Trustees of the College provided funds on their own personal guarantee to enable the Di- rector of the Division to finance ojierations connected with housing and feeding. The Trustees authorized a loan of $50,OCX) from the Corn Exchange Bank, and Messrs. Baiuch. Kohns, Lydccker, and MeAneny personally endorsed the note. The Loth Building at 150th Street and Amsterdam Avenue was quickly leased and within three weeks con- verted into a very thorough- equipped barracks which cared for over seven hundred and fifty students. The Great Hall was cleared of its chairs and turned into a barracks as were many of the classrooms and corridors of the College. The Students Concourse was strip| ed of its moveable equipment and turned into a great mess hall. The gymnasium became Military Headquarters. In a surprisingly short time the college group on St. Nich- olas Heights were turned into an Army |K»st and no civilian students were cared for during the day with th e only exception of the preparatory students who continued their recitations in Townsend Harris Hall. Of course the Evening Session and Vocational Division of the College continued work as usual, and even grew during the jieriod of the war. The division of the student body according to the courses of study taken was as follows: The Army sec- tion was made up of 834 men pursuing courses prescribed for candidates looking forward to commissions in the Infantry and Artillery: 149 in the Air Service; 79 in the Chemical Service; 44 in the Engineering Corps, and 25 14