 The CMTC were authorized by the National Defense Act of 1920 as a compromise that rejected universal military training.The CMTC was preceded by the Plattsburg Movement, a series of summer training camps that in 1915 and 1916 hosted some 40,000 men largely of elite social classes, the later CMTC trained some 400,000 men from 1921 to 1940.The CMTC was a continuation of the "Plattsburgh camps", a volunteer pre-enlistment training program organized by private citizens before the U.S. entry into World War I.