Tumulty. Speer wrote that he knew the President would like to know how the chaplains were doing in France, and thus quoted a portion of a letter from Bishop Brent, who at that time was serving as "General Headquarters, A.E.F. Chaplain." In the letter Brent inquired about the status of the bill and then said: We are dreadfully shorthanded here. As far as statistics can advise Speer wrote that Brent did not overstate the matter, and he appealed to Tumulty to inform the President about the need for action on the bill "endorsed by 40,000,000 members of our Christian Churches, Protestant and Catholic alike." 83 Tumulty, an excellent judge of the political consequences of Executive inaction on such matters, did as Speer had asked. Within two weeks, Congress passed the bill, and on 25 May 1918 the President signed it into law. That done, the War Department began to appoint chaplains as rapidly as possible. 84 Before Catholic and Protestant churchmen began to promote the bill, and apparently without their assistance, leaders from "faiths not now represented in the body of Chaplains in the Army" were promoting legislation that would authorize the appointment of "chaplains-at-large." Such chaplains were to be appointed from minority religious groups and assigned to provide religious care for their members within a large area rather than within a regiment. On 17 May 1917 a bill to authorize the appointment of Jewish chaplains was introduced in the Senate, but it was never reported. It was not until five months later, 6 October 1917, that Congress passed legislation to provide for the appointment of 20 chaplains-at-large. Six of those spaces were designated for Jewish chaplains, the first of which were immediately filled by rabbis already serving in the Army as enlisted men. The Act of 25 May 1918 permitted the appointment of additional chaplains from minority groups. 85 During the time of the severe chaplain shortage, the welfare agencies affiliated with the War Department Commission on Training Camp Activities became what Bishop Brent called the "saving element" in providing spiritual care for the "flower of America's youth." In stateside camps and overseas, the Y.M.C.A., Y.W.C.A., Knights of Columbus, Jewish Welfare Board, and Salvation Army established "huts," clubs, and tents, in which religious ministrations and recreational activities were offered. Many workers in those organizations were clergymen who filled in for or worked with chaplains. In addition, the American Red Cross chaplains, assigned to the overseas Red Cross hospitals, did their part to relieve the shortage. Occasionally, there was friction between the chaplains and the religious workers of the agencies, but they generally cooperated in good faith. Where chaplains were dependent upon the agencies for facilities in which to hold services or meetings, the workers obliged. Moreover, each agency usually offered its facilities to Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish chaplains, as well as to all soldiers. Bishop Brent, to whom General Pershing gave the responsibility for the "organization of chaplains and the coordination of all moral and spiritual agencies at work in the A.E.F.," said that when friction did develop, it was "not that the welfare societies were unwilling to provide facilities, but that the great number of activities going on under their roofs made it at times not easy to provide the time or the conditions best suited to religious worship." 9 86 In the stateside camps, "camp pastors" or "voluntary chaplains" also played an important part in alleviating the chaplain shortage. They were clergymen who could not enter the Army due to their age or personal responsibilities, or because of the lack of chaplain spaces before the Act of 25 May 1918. They were paid by their denominations. By definition, a camp pastor was a clergyman "appointed by a denominational war commission to reinforce the service of the churches in the neighborhood of a camp and, in cooperation with the chaplains and YMCA secretaries, to render pastoral service to men of his own communion within the camp." ." 87 Some pastors were called voluntary chaplains, because they were appointed by the commandant of a camp or other military post to act as temporary chaplains, or as assistants to the regular chaplains. At Camp Devens, Massachusetts, a camp pastor worked freely throughout the camp among the troops that lived in the Y.M.C.A. building, where he also conducted Sunday services. At Camp Dodge, Iowa, the camp pastors were given access to the camp, recognized as assistants to the chaplains, and unofficially attached to various 88 regiments. At Camp Upton, New York, the post commander designated them as temporary chaplains and assigned them to units without chaplains. S 89 For the most part, the ministries of the camp pastors proved invaluable and were duly recognized, particularly during the severe chaplain shortage. Unfortunately, however, friction occasionally developed between some of them and other religious forces in the camps, chaplains and welfare agency workers alike. Some military authorities alleged that a few of them were guilty of "indiscretions" and suffered their presence when they came into camp. The Third Assistant Secretary of War, Frederick P. Keppel, was convinced that they undercut the work of the chaplains. The Committee on Camp Neighborhoods of the General War-Time Commission was aware of those circumstances and attempted to organize and direct the efforts of the pastors at a series of conferences during the first four months of 1918. Also aware of the circumstances, the Adjutant General attempted to prohibit all of the pastors from entering the camps once the Act of 25 May 1918 became law. The General War-Time Commission intervened, however, and persuaded the War Department to permit the pastors to enter the camps if they were certified by both the commission and the War Department, invited into camp by the post commander, and worked under the supervision of a chaplain. Thus, the end result was a compromise that was acceptable to both parties." Yet the camp pastor issue lingered, and before it disappeared, it generated a series of public protests and was thoroughly aired in denominational periodicals." In the meantime, fortunately, many dedicated and effective clergymen were permitted to continue their aid to the chaplains and spiritual care to servicemen. Like the welfare agencies of which Bishop Brent spoke, they were also a "saving element" during the chaplain shortage. Following the war, after his experience with the religious workers of the welfare agencies in the A.E.F., and perhaps knowing of the camp pastor controversy in the states, Brent said that there was no substitute for the chaplain. Without detracting from the ministries of either the religious welfare workers or the camp pastors, he said: Both in theory and in experience the truth has been driven While the battles to increase the number of chaplains and to permit camp pastors to continue their ministry on military installations were in progress, religious leaders were making other cooperative efforts to improve the chaplaincy and thereby ensure adequate religious care for American servicemen. In April 1917 the General Committee on Army and Navy Chaplains wanted to hold a conference of "existing chaplains." By July, after considering the matter at some length, it desired to hold a training conference for chaplains and candidates for the chaplaincy. Devoted to a relevant spiritual ministry, committee members thought it only logical to train chaplains to be "well informed soldiers and men conscious of a spiritual mission." 93 They were undoubtedly aware of the dearth of professional training made available to chaplains by the Army. For professional development, for instance, chaplains could refer to one of four "manuals". William Young Brown's The Army Chaplain: His Office, Duties, and Responsibilities, 1863; George W. Simpson's Manual for U.S. Army Chaplains, 1893; George J. Waring's Chaplain Duties and How Best to Accomplish his Work, 1914; and Joseph Clements' Duties and Privileges of Chaplains, 1915. Only Waring's manual was published by the Government Printing Office; and all of the manuals possessed only very limited value for working chaplains. The only Army-sponsored professional training for chaplains was that which a newly appointed chaplain received under the tutelage of an experienced, successful chaplain. Line officers could meet together, participate in various kinds of training, and attend schools to prepare for their examinations for promotion and increase their personal effectiveness; chaplains were on their own. After making preliminary plans for the conference, the General Committee learned that the Secretary of War and the Adjutant General questioned its necessity and preferred that it not be held. The Committee therefore voted not to pursue the matter in the immediate future. Instead, it endorsed Nave's Handbook of the Army Chaplaincy, recommended that each denomination supply its chaplains with a copy, and prepared a letter to all newly appointed chaplains covering information not contained in the manual. Later, the Committee distributed copies at no charge to all newly appointed chaplains. The decision to endorse retired chaplain Orville J. Nave's handbook, published in 1917, was made on 13 August 1917. Ironically, less than two months earlier, on 23 June 1917, Nave, who had spent at least 30 years working in behalf of the chaplaincy and the religious welfare of servicemen, was struck by a trolley car in Los Angeles, California, and died the next day." Behind the scenes, the General Committee continued its interest in training for chaplains, particularly newly appointed chaplains, and in the fall of 1917, it presented a plan for a chaplains' training school to the War Department. Surprisingly, the War Department responded favorably and gave the proposal to Chaplain Aldred A. Pruden of Fort Monroe, Virginia, to develop the details. Meanwhile, a group of faculty members from four seminaries in the Boston-Cambridge area submitted to the General Committee another proposal to train camp pastors and candidates for the chaplaincy. Their proposal suggested that a training school be established on the campus of the seminaries and that its curriculum emphasize the spiritual mission of the chaplain. In contrast, Pruden's plan called for an Army-operated training school at Fort Monroe, Virginia, and a curriculum that would introduce newly appointed chaplains to military life. In January 1918, after considering both plans, the General Committee approved Pruden's and recommended it to the War Department; the War Department approved the plan in February 1918. In all the negotiations regarding the establishment of the school, there was considerable cooperation between the General Committee and a representative of the National Catholic War Council." 95 Learning that the Training School for Newly Appointed Chaplains and Chaplain Candidates was to be established at Fort Monroe, the Acting Chief of the Coast Artillery Corps, who wanted the facilities for training heavy artillery troops, attempted to arrange for the transfer of the school to Fort Screven, Georgia. Again, however, Protestant and Catholic leaders cooperated in an attempt to persuade the War Department to permit the first session of the school to be held at Fort Monroe, and subsequent sessions at Fort Hamilton, New York. They succeeded in the former, but following the first session, the school was transferred to Camp Zachary Taylor, Kentucky. The first session began on 1 March 1918, and the second on 20 April 1918.9 With a few minor changes. Pruden's plan for the school was published by the War Department on 23 May 1918 as Special Regulation No. 496. It provided that the student body at each session consist of 40 newly appointed and commissioned chaplains and a like number of approved candidates for the chaplaincy. The candidates were to receive the pay and allowances of privates first class, but otherwise be equal to |