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The Journal of San Diego History Service organizations filled the camp. The YMCA alone managed five buildings and two tents. The organization supplied the men with writing and reading materials, organized church services, constructed a 3,000 seat multiuse building for large events, and administered to the Hostess House where families and friends could visit with the soldiers. The last was a gift from La Jolla philanthropist Ellen Browning Scripps. The Knights of the Columbus attended to the spiritual needs of Catholics with two separate buildings, while the Jewish Welfare Board did the same for Jewish soldiers. After an initial refusal, then a brief debate, the government also permitted the Freemasons a working space. The Red Cross managed the largest service building on the camp, and the American Library Association actively served along side the Christian Science House and the Church Federation House. The War Department also constructed a Liberty Theater, operated by the Commission on Training Camp Activities, on every camp and cantonment. Kearny’s 3,000-seat house presented everything from training lectures to comedy reviews to boxing matches. A unique space that camp residents called the Civic Center housed the civiliancontrolled commercial and amusement elements of the camp. The Army’s Division Post Exchange administered the center which included a 125-seat restaurant; a lunch room seating sixty; three photographic galleries; two large billiard rooms, each containing thirty tables; a ten-lane bowling alley; a 1,100 seat theater with another 2,000-seat auditorium under construction; a tailor shop; soda fountain; grocery store and skating rink; the largest shooting gallery in America; a hatcleaning and blocking service; and a special equipment store for officers. The camp planners designed the center to meet the varied material needs of thirty thousand men and, on completion, became the “largest mercantile establishment in Southern California.” The trainees appreciated these services but apparently considered the post office, which processed over 350,000 letters per month, by far the most important building. To support the moral welfare of the trainees, the War Department created an agency called the Commission on Training Camp Activities that maintained a conspicuous presence at each facility. The Commission strived to make life normal for the soldiers and to keep the environs of the camps clean and wholesome, while suppressing “certain vicious conditions” associated with camp life. The Commission also created Post Exchanges and Soldiers Cooperative Stores and gave considerable attention to the “Control of Alcohol and Prostitution” near the camps. The Liberty Theater hosted many of these informative and mandatory lectures for the trainees. Not to be outdone, the city fathers also took on the role of moral caretakers. City leaders, health officials, and military representatives met to discuss ways to 264
Patriotism and Profit: San Diego's Camp Kearny Major General Joseph E. Kuhn, Commander, Camp Kearny; Captain I. E. Novak, Commandant, Czechoslovakian Army; and Major Ernest Riall, American Red Cross, July 1919. ©SDHC 83:14670-01. “prevent the social evil from getting a foothold in San Diego” and to keep “fallen women from plying their trade.” 40 Mayor Wilde sponsored a resolution to ban dancing in local cafés that sold liquor and refused to allow the City Council to 265
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