The government paid for the men’s maintenance, medical and dental care, and clothing in addition to providing an allowance of five dollars per month. “I was amused by the fact that the men refer to their $5.00 monthly stipend as ‘the $5.00 monthly insult’.” (Charles Read, Report of May 8, 1946 visit)

Almost from the time they opened, the government operated camps experienced unrest and non-cooperation.  The letter that follows communicates Edwin B. Bronner’s experience at Lapine.

This camp is a hole, I just couldn’t have believed that it is what it is before arriving here.  My only experience with base camp was the six months at Elkton when it was the model camp of the system. . . . Work here at Lapine is past being a joke. . . .There are 20 men in the woods cutting wood to keep the fires going.  Everyone else is on overhead.  The wood cutting crew turns out maybe one cord of wood a day, that is, the entire 20 of them together cut one cord.  There seems to be little effort on the part of anyone to get much done.  The men in the kitchen work about 4 hours a day at the most.  There are two men in one office where one fellow told me that he works hard for 3 days at the end of each month to turn out reports.  As a result there is not a person in camp, administration included, who feels that the men are doing any significant work.  When I arrived the director told me that the wood crew, where I was assigned, were clearing off land for the reservoir, and not to pay any attention to these people who said that we were just cutting wood to keep the camp warm.  The same day he told a new foreman on the job that it was important to get the wood cut because if we didn’t cut six cords a day we wouldn’t keep the camp fires going.  Foreman and all agree that as soon as the ground is a little harder the big equipment will go out and clear from one to two acres of the forest in a day. . . .

There is no organization of the men in camp at all.  As a result rumors fly though the men a dozen a day.  The administration makes no attempt to let the men know what is happening. . . .

The Oregon Federal courts are entirely too easy on walk-outs and other cases against COs, so SSS has had to figure out a scheme.  Men have been getting 60 day sentences, suspended sentences, probation for 60 days and such things as that.  Murch, camp director, has been told by the judge that he, the judge, will accept the word of the COs against Murch’s, and Murch has been laughed out of court on some of his cases against men. So, bad boys are now transferred to Minersville where they will be under Sacramento courts which are much stiffer. . . .

There are almost no recreational facilities.  The Saturday night movies are unintelligible because the sound equipment is completely shot, and even so the machine breaks down completely at least twice every time used. . . .

There are some good things.  There is a big lake in front of the camp.  Some boating now, and swimming soon.  The dorms are clean and comfortable, the food is better than at Elkton, but not served carefully.  Men can go into town on week-ends, several have cars, and the truck goes in both Saturday and Sunday. Perhaps if work on the dam begins soon work morale will go up, because there would seem to be some use in such a project.  However, the utter lack of rapport between the men and the administration precludes any real improvement of the situation.  Singing songs about conscription, Kosch and Murch do not help relations.  Foreman cussing out the yellow bellied slackers doesn’t help.  Men feel that they are fighting hand to hand with conscription and SSS . . .   Men feel that by slowing down on work they are proving that conscription won’t work.  They aren’t, because they are transferred to Minersville, and they only develop inner bitterness which is unhealthy, and the contempt of the foremen.  In the hate which some men have for the administration and SSS they are destroying themselves, it is pitiful to see what it is doing to some men.  I feel that many will never recover, I hope I am wrong. (Letter from Edwin B. Bronner, April 6, 1945)

Charles Read, who visited the camp on May 8, 1946, reported on the camp life as follows.

There is no organized group life in the camp except for some Bible study by fundamentalist groups and JWs [Jehovah’s Witnesses], of whom there are a good many.  The rest of the camp is rather disorganized, owing to the lack of capable leaders, I expect. . . .  There are some athletics, but there is a bad lack of equipment. . . .  The only regular expenditure is for a weekly third-rate movie.  Murch selects the movies and they are exceedingly poor. . . .  There is little desirable material in the library, and they have only a few magazines. . . . It seems likely that a number of men will walk out in case the draft act is extended.