The men are quartered in barracks with high ceiling and plenty of air and their cots are arranged in rows like a ward in a hospital. They have to make up their own beds and keep their clothing arranged on the shelf overhead. The beds must be made up early in the day and an officer makes a daily inspection to see that everything is in order. Every detail must be carried out with a precision which covers even the distance; the extra shoes must be placed from the foot of the bed, toes together in a straight line.
Cleanliness and tidiness are the rule in the barracks and this makes for sanitation and minimizes the chances of disease.
A modern laundry at Camp Lewis has taken away one of the picturesque scenes of army life and that is the soldier bending over a washtub or basin washing his socks and shirts. The laundry takes care of the soldier's clothing and bedding for a consideration of $1.26 a month and he doesn't have to soil his hands with his dirty linen—at least while he's at Camp Lewis.
Keeping clean is a slogan enforced by an entire department at camp, the division sanitary inspector's department, and rules for which this official is responsible provide for daily scrubbing of floors in mess halls, thorough cleaning of tables, stoves and shelves so that only a tornado or a dynamite blast could menace the cleanliness of the food with which the soldiers are served. And the inspectors keep close watch on every barracks to see that sanitation rules are carried out to the letter. 