Newton D. Baker to Woodrow Wilson

Mr. Swem sent me by your direction the letter from Senator Phelan about the camp at Palo Alto.

The situation was that the camp site selected there turned out, by reason of the peculiar character of the soil, to require a very elaborate system of water sewage disposal, a previous encampment at that place having imperilled the lives of the residents of Menlo Park and Palo Alto for lack of such a system. The State Board of Health, probably properly, prohibited the use of the camp without the installation of these facilities. They would cost perhaps $300,000.00 more than the sewage arrangements originally proposed and would take a month to construct. In the meantime, the National Guard of California would be without a place of encampment. I, therefore, directed them to be sent to the camp at Charlotte, N. C., which was already prepared for the New England division but left vacant because we are going to send the New England division to France at once. My intention is to send the California division to France next; so that by the time the camp at Palo Alto could have been rendered habitable, the troops would have been either on their way across the continent or across the ocean. There, therefore, seemed nothing else to do but to hold up, for the time being at least, the completion of the Palo Alto camp.

I send this information only for your personal use should you be called upon by another other Californian in the matter. Senator Phelan and Mr. Kahn, who have been particularly active about it, both understand now the situation.

Respectfully,
Newton D. Baker

The President