Today, when the Congress of the United State considers proposals to reestablish, along new line, a corps of young people volunteering for national environmental service, it is instructive to note that many of the issues as the proper role. Recruitment and organization of an ecology army were first confronted and debated by the founders of Camp William James. When the Sate of California set up, in 1976, its own California Conservation Corp, it helped to draw attention once more to the issue of service by young people as The Moral Equivalent of War. . . . There could therefore be now more appropriate time to retrieve the history of Camp William James, the first practical effort to give effect to the idea of national service in time of peace. From the Preface by Page Smith