176 THE FORT SHERIDAN ASSOCIATION men enrolled, only some 1 7,000 actually attended, the shortage being due to the call of troops of the Regular Army and the National Guard to the Border, and the threatened railroad strike. Because of the latter, many busi- ness men were afraid to get far away from their business. Another handicap due to the call of troops to the Border was the resulting shortage of regular officers w^ho w^ere available to act as instructors. The new^ membership to the training camps association, resulting from the 1916 camps, gave an in- creased impetus to the recruiting and other activities of the association, and when we entered the war in 1917 the stage was set for a very much larger attendance in the 1917 camps than had been had in all the previous camps put together.
As soon as it w^as ascertained that we were to enter the w^ar, the members of the training camps association began to plan how^ they, as an organization, could best help the country, and it w^as due to their efforts that the first series of Officers' Training Camps were inaugurated at such an early date, and with such a large attendance.
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