To the American people — THEIR PROSPERITY, HAPPINESS, FREEDOM AND NATIONAL SECURITY, THIS VOLUME IS DEDICATED. Copyright, 1920, by P. S. Bond (£$ ~m MAY 1 4 1920 Your Boy &f The Other in Universal Training The Nation's School for Citizenship A Message to the Fathers and Mothers #/ America Being A Short Exposition of the Leading Facts and Arguments in Connection with Universal Training Why We Need It and What It Is What It Means to the Nation What It Means to Your Community What It Means to Your Boy CoL Pc S. Bond and Col. C. F. Martin United States Army With an introduction by Gen. Leonard Wood 1920 Press of The Military Engineer Washington Barracks, D. C CONTENTS yrt/i y Page INTRODUCTION BY GENERAL WOOD iii Lest We Forget iv Author's Preface v-vii Foreword viii PART I. UNIVERSAL TRAINING A SCHOOL OF CITIZENSHir. Where Are We Heading? 1 You and Your Community 8 The Need of Better Education 16 Illiteracy 30 The Dangers of Anarchy 34 - The Waste of Human Capacity; Fitting the Individual to His Task 39 Loss to the Nation from Careless and Dishonest Work 44 The Influences of Environment, Association and Suggestion 49 Character Building and Habit Formation . 56 The Democratizing Influence of Universal Training 60 Better Relations between Capital and Labor; Greater Production of Wealth 63 Discipline and the Team Spirit 84 Universal Training and National Health 92 Diffusion of Benefits 110 Universal Training for Women 110 Your Boy and the Other One 111 The Civilization Yet to Come 121 PART II. WHAT UNIVERSAL TRAINING MEANS. Origin and History 127 How the System Operates 132 Benefits of the Military Phase of Training 144 Cost of Universal Trainirg 145 The Urgent Need of Prompt Action in Establishing a Militarv Policy 1 156 Functions of the Regular Army 159 Length of the Period of Training 167 The Best Age for Training 176 The Need for Federal Control 178 Who Favor Universal Training 181 PART III. UNIVERSAL TRAINING % AND NATIONAL DEFENSE. • The Need of Preparedness " __, 187 Weakness of the Voluntary System. ••.» 236 The Bogey of Militarism _'__ 244 Labor and Universal Training 251 The Obligation of Service 260 Patriotism 264 Appendix. Synopis of Legislation Providing for Universal Training now Under Consideration by Congress. MAY 14 1920 ©CU566986 / INTRODUCTION //..W Colonel "Mike" Kelly, formerly of the Baltimore "Orioles,' bats up a few flies. a [33] The Dangers of Anarchy Democracy, if the best, is also the most sensitive form of government, a feature characteristic of all highly developed things. No other form of govern- ment is so dependent upon the character of the peo- ple, nor so quickly affected by conditions, whether for good or for evil. Anarchy means no government, it means license in place of liberty; chaos, crime and violence, instead of peace and tranquillity. "We are so used to law and order in our communi- ties that we have not hitherto, perhaps, fully real- ized how sensitive is our civilization, nor how readily it might be utterly overthrown by anarchy and radi- calism. We have been so used to perceiving the orderly course of government, law, commerce and industry that we lose sight of the current of human passions which flows beneath, held down only by law and custom. In our time we have seen an un- toward event change the apparently civilized Russian nation into savages. We have seen red disaster over- turn the pillars of order and society, and plunge the nation into anarchy, starvation, robbery and murder. We turn shudderingly aside and try to assure our- selves that no such disaster could possibly befall America. But that the same sinister forces are in play beneath the surface of our own social fabric is plainly indicated by the present restlessness of the [34] laboring classes, and still more plainly by such dis- orders as those attendant upon the recent strike of the police force in Boston, one of our oldest and most sedate communities. We have seen other fitful out- breaks of anarchy in many parts of the country, such as the I. W. W. demonstrations, the "red" parade in Cleveland on May Day, 1919, dynamite bombs sent to prominent citizens through the mails, the murder of soldiers on parade at Centralia, Wash., etc. If the present situation is much complicated by great labor strikes, throwing thousands of men out of em- ployment, rendering them desperate and an easy prey to anarchist agitators, it may easily blaze into actual revolution. The Boston police strike has shown that there is a large element of supposedly law- abiding citizens, who are yet so poorly disciplined and so lacking in patriotism, as to defy the com- munity, and throw organized society into anarchy and riot to satisfy their own selfish desires. Boston is not unique in this respect. The same elements of disorder and anarchy are present in every large American city to an at least equal degree. The recent great strike in the steel industry was not merely a strike, but an incipient revolution. It was not merely a protest by labor against industrial conditions but an outburst of anarchy or bolshevism, engineered by paid agitators, seeking to disturb, for their own selfish purposes, the tranquillity of a peace- ful industrial region. Had this strike been a success [35] it would have spread like wildfire, it would have stopped the wheels of industry and plunged the coun- try into disorder and bloodshed. Investigation proved that anarchist agitators started the strike by deceiving and misleading the illiterate, ignorant foreign labor element of the industry. The strike failed to bring on a revolution because the intelligent American worker refused to be misled by selfish agi tators, and was too patriotic to lend his support to a movement which would plunge the country into dis- order, bring suffering on innocent citizens, and threaten our free institutions. Only amongst the illiterate and ignorant, and those who from lack of education do not appreciate their duties as citizens, could such a movement be fomented. The failure of this strike was one of the greatest victories of Ameri- can labor — a victory of good citizenship, patriotism, law and order over bolshevism and anarchy. It will do more than many apparently successful strikes to bring about a better relation between capital and labor. So long as we permit alien immigrants, totally lack- ing an understanding of and sympathy with our in- stitutions, customs, traditions and ideals, to settle at will in this country without requiring them to learn our language, acquire at least the rudiments of education, and assume the full obligations of citizen- ship — just so long as we permit this we will per- petuate the dangers of anarchy in free America. [36 j These aliens should be kept under strict surveillance, and the incorrigibles among them, the really anarch- istic element, should be deported, whether or not they have nominally assumed the status of citizens. But the number of such is comparatively small. In the great majority of cases helpful sympathy and education, systematically and thoroughly applied, would make of these people really useful and patriotic citizens. All should be required to learn our lan- guage and assisted in learning it, and should be edu- cated in the fundamentals of American citizenship. All should be required to become citizens within a stated time, on pain of deportation. The segregation of immigrants should be discouraged, even prevented where necessary, and foreign language newspapers in the United States should be suppressed as rapidly as practicable. The younger element should be sub- jected to compulsory education, including attendance at public schools and universal training. In brief this great mass of foreigners should be thoroughly and systematically Americanized, something which has never before been done. There are two general methods of preventing dis- ease, including anarchy, which is a form thereof. One is to eradicate the infection at its source. In the case of anarchy this is accomplished by watchfulness on the part of the authorities looking to the exclusion or deportation of the undesirable, dangerous element. The other method is to inoculate our citizens against [37] the disease, to render them immune from infection. This is accomplished by universal education in good citizenship. Both measures are necessary to produce satisfactory results. Anarchy is born of ignorance, and the weapon with which to fight it is education. The ranks of anarchy are recruited from the dregs of industrial life, the failures who have been forced into idleness and often subsequently into crime, because they have never learned to do honest work efficiently and conscien- tiously. Many of these men would have been useful members of society had they been properly educated and placed in a congenial environment. The best security of society against such outbreaks is not pistols and clubs, nor tanks and machine guns, but a better disciplinary training of our whole people which renders them immune from anarchistic infec- tion. The life of the soldier is consecrated to the de- fense of the state and its free institutions. He is the implacable foe of anarchy in any form. A system of training that adds each year some 650,000 disciplined young men to the body politic, is our best insurance against the* forces of anarchy. The American Legion, or association of veterans of the World War, is already one of the most powerful influences in America for law and order, and against anarchy and bolshevism. Universal training which the American Legion endorses, will create a greater [38] legion, including every man in America, and dedi- cated also to law, order, and good citizenship. Universal education which enlightens the mind, broadens the view, and impresses upon every man of the nation the responsibilities of citizenship, strikes at the very root of the evil of anarchy, in inoculating the citizen against its influences. The Waste of Human Capacity. Fitting the Individual to His Task It is an undeniable fact that most men fall far below their possibilities. Not one in a thousand ac- complishes anything like that of which he is capable. There are many reasons for this, amongst which are lack of interest or ambition, or a feeble incentive, un- congenial or unsuitable employment, inadequate prep- aration or training, poor health, and an imperfectly developed sense of duty or lack of conscience in one's work. Education can and will remedy all these deficiencies to a tremendous extent. Many workers are mere time-servers, without am- bition for themselves or a sense of obligation to their employers or their community. Others who are both ambitious and loyal fall far below the full measure of which they are capable because they are improperly trained for or unsuitecl to their tasks. By our present crude methods less than half the energy in a ton of coal is actually converted into useful heat, light or power. And it is a conservative estimate to say that [39] by our crude methods of education much less than half our human powers and capabilities find their full ex- pression and usefulness. Many of us have seen a gang of laborers double their former output under the direction of a wise and energetic foreman. We have seen baseball teams of * t scrubs ' ' and ' ' cast-offs ' ? win pennants and championships under the direction of managers who knew how to call forth the best there was in their men. The earnings of corporations have been doubled or quadrupled with the same plant and the same employees by placing a more competent management in charge of production. Most of our tremendous human powers are uselessly expended, or lie dormant awaiting the touch of the magician who can call them into action. Emerson said that what he most needed was some- body to make him do what he was capable of doing. Most of us need a suggestion from outside to awaken our sleeping forces or uncover our hidden talents. Right education, right suggestion, contact with alert minds, will awaken these dormant faculties and galvanize us into splendid action. Think of the vast talents and tremendous powers that lie within the hundreds of thousands of young men who each year cross the threshold of manhood. Think what it will mean to the nation when all these powers and talents are discovered, awakened, stimulated and directed in a great national school of universal training. The prospect is too vast and magnificent for words. [40] • To-day hundreds of thousands, yes, millions of our voung men find themselves in an environment that not only offers no appeal to their talents and capa- bilities, but actually smothers the ambitions that stir within them. Their youth is wearing out in soul- cramping drudgery. They are like caged animals with never a view of forest, stream or sky, the world of sunshine and opportunity that lies without. Is it thus we can create a better Americanism'? Is it thus we can make men love the land of their birth or adoption? Is it thus we can prevent the poison of discontent and anarchy from entering their souls? It is not physical need alone, but also stifled expression that is at the root of our social unrest. Work is necessary to life and to happiness. But it should be congenial. Congenial work is a sort of comradeship. A congenial occupation, equally with good health, is a prime requisite to happiness and use- fulness. He who has it is a free man ; he who has it not is a slave. Fulness of expression, fulness of life, is found only in the right environment. Industry has awakened to the need of putting the man in the right place, but possesses no adequate ma- chinery by which this may be accomplished. During the great war the government applied on a vast scale a system of classification of the drafted men. In many cases the individual had already started on the wrong path. Universal training will start the young man right, will prevent square pegs [41] getting into round holes, and will prevent much of the inefficiency and failure, the unhappiness and misery which are now inevitable amongst the count- less thousands of "misfits" who have never had a chance to find out what they can do. The mobilization for the late w r ar showed how rich is our nation in potential capacity for usefulness. Hundreds of thousands of intelligent men were dis- covered, and their instructors marveled at their apti- tude and eagerness to learn. They were intensely desirous of fitting themselves for some congenial and useful trade, but had never previously enjoyed the opportunity. The need for trained men is so great that the untrained man usually finds no opening ex- cept unskilled labor at which too often, for lack of op- portunity or stimulus to his ambition, he spends the best years of his life. Millions of men are in the ranks of common labor who would be skilled artisans if properly trained. Whether a man receives training in the trade for which he is best fitted is, under our present haphazard system, usually a matter of blind chance. We have no general system for fitting the individual to a congenial task. The capable machinist remains a farm-hand, the embryo engineer becomes a preacher, a good surgeon is made into a bad lawyer. Vocational instruction in connection with universal training is no untried experiment. The Vocational Training Section of the Students' Army Training Corps was organized during the war to meet the de- [42 ] mand for trained artisans for the American Ex- peditionary Forces. It scored a brilliant success. Although in operation only three months, half of which time was after the armistice, and greatly hampered by the epidemic of "flu," it trained no less than 120,000 artisans of all classes, 90,000 of whom were sent to the army, where they rendered -ex- cellent service. The men were selected and assigned to receive training in different vocations as far as possible in accordance with their own desires, con- sidering also their aptitudes and previous training. At the close of the war plans were perfected whereby 500,000 artisans would have been thus trained by the following July. This splendid experiment proves beyond question that even better results can be ac- complished under universal training. At each camp an employment bureau would be operated in connection therewith. The young men would be rated in each vocation according to their proficiency as determined by their instructors, which would provide a powerful incentive for effort on the part of the students. Here prospective employers could find men instructed in any desired vocation, rated according to proficiency as shown during their course of training. This would be of vast help to in- dustry in replacing the present unsatisfactory methods of employing young men, and would also benefit the students by placing many of them in desirable posi- tions of congenial employment immediately upon their [43] release from the camps. The experiences of employ- ers with these men would enable them to make intelli- gent recommendations as to changes and improve- ments in the methods of general and vocational in- struction at the camps. Experts in manufacture, agriculture, and other industries would be brought to the camps to inspect the methods in vogue and to indicate where they might be bettered. All this would result in a progressive and uniform improvement in the methods of training, which would benefit all con- cerned. An educational system should aim to develop the latent capacities of the individual, and not to force him into a rut where he does not fit. Too many of our schools, with their rigid curriculums and lack of facili- ties for even the suggestion of vocational training, do not accomplish this aim. Universal training by starting the boy in the vocation towards which he leans, would eventually fit the great majority of our men into the places nature designed them to occupy. Such a system of training, in developing the latent capacities of youth on an enormous scale, would effect a complete transformation in our national life. Its pos- sibilities are boundless, and transcend the imagination. Loss to the Nation from Careless and Dishonest Work It is not the individual alone, but the entire nation that suffers from the waste of human capacity due to [44] [45] lack of conscientiousness and misdirected effort re- sulting from need of proper education, training and opportunity. There are many business men and industrial work- ers who lack conscience in their work, who deliber- ately shirk, or slur, or skimp or cheat. Some of these are wilfully dishonest. It is such that put inferior material into manufactured articles, sell paper shoes to the government, or tainted food to the people, who steal or cheat in a thousand petty, sordid ways. These people have no proper conception of their duty to the community, no knowledge of the great truth that "honesty is the best policy. " So sordid and dis- honest have many men become through lack of right influences that they actually look upon trickery and deceit in business as perfectly legitimate. And far from feeling any remorse, or thinking of the unhappi- ness and suffering caused others, they actually con- gratulate themselves on their own "cleverness." In an investigation some years ago of some of our retail markets it was found that certain merchants paid their employees according to the amount of cheating they could do. Food was weighed in the presence of the customer, and was then sent back to have its weight "verified." The salesman was then credited with the deficiency of the actual weight under that which he had induced the customer to accept as cor- rect. Think of the state of our country were such a standard of business morality to become general. Yet [46] undoubtedly it is the moral standard of far too many of our citizens. But there is a much larger class of workers who, while not actively dishonest, are yet careless, indif- ferent, slipshod and inaccurate. They have never learned to do their work conscientiously and well. Our manufactured goods suffer in foreign markets because our workmen are not more painstaking and conscientious, and our citizens at home suffer in pay- ing high prices for inferior commodities and service. Descending farther in the scale we come to the great class of "drifters," or "ne'er-do-wells," the dregs of the incompetent and shiftless working class. Their carelessness and inefficiency or pure laziness have made it impossible for them to succeed in honest work, and they drift first into idleness and often sub- sequently into crime. This class produces nothing useful, since figs do not grow on thistles, and its support is a total loss to the community. Not only that but this class is an actual menace to the peace and order of the country, and a source of great expense, for from its ranks anarchy and crime obtain their recruits. And finally in natural sequence we come to the ac- tively criminal class, who not only produce nothing useful, but prey upon society, and cause great suffer- .. ing and unhappiness to honest citizens, and a vast outlay by local governments for police force, courts, jails, penitentiaries, etc. In most cases criminal [47] careers are directly traceable to a lack of the will, or lack of opportunity, to do honest, useful and con- genial work. Most criminals maintain that they are the victims of society rather than of their own short- comings and vices. And to a very great extent they are right in this attitude. When society gives to every man an education which will form his character in the right mold, and a training which will enable him to obtain congenial employment and earn an honest living, there will be a mighty decrease in crime. It is said that great men create their own oppor- tunities, and this is probably true in some cases. But we are pleading the cause of the average man. The average man is equal to his opportunity when it comes. It should come to him as a matter of course, even as a matter of law, and not as at present usually as a matter of chance. It is said that this is a land of opportunity, that there is a chance for every man which he has only to reach out and seize. But most men are groping in the dark, and if they find their opportunity it is only by blind chance. It is not their fault if they are in the dark, they have never been led into the light or told how to reach it. When uni- versal training has opened their eyes and shed light upon the world of opportunity many men will reach vigorously forth and seize the opportunities God in- tended them to have. The nation suffers incalculable loss because of the [48] existence of the classes which we have mentioned, and their number is far greater than ordinarily supposed, they are of course in the majority. Undoubtedly we can effect a tremendous diminution in their number by a searching education to teach the principles of the "square deal, " inflexible honesty in all business rela- tions, a sense of obligation to one's fellows, conscience in one's work, however humble it may be. Only the man who feels his obligations and does his work con- scientiously receives advancement and attains success. Thoroughness is the mark of every successful man. Genius takes pains. The only enduring happiness is that which comes from a sense of loyal service ren- dered or work honestly and conscientiously done. The Influences of Environment, Association and Suggestion We learn more from observation, example, environ- ment and association than from precept or teaching. Those who spend their lives, especially their early, formative years, in an unfavorable and unenlighten- ing environment, never have a chance to learn, to see the light. They not only never learn the finer things of life, they do not even know that such exist. Knowledge they mistake for conceit, cleanliness and neatness of dress and person for foppishness or effeminacy, morality for prudishness, delicacy or sentiment for weakness or cowardice. We unconsciously absorb knowledge and acquire [49] wisdom from a favorable environment, even without any special training, just as a child learns to talk without any effort on the part of its parents to teach it. The average American possesses the instincts of a gentleman. But he will not actually be a gentleman unless brought up in a refined environment where ungentlemanly conduct is not tolerated. A foundling from an asylum, if brought up in a cultured family, will usually become a gentleman and a credit to the family. And the child of refined parentage, if reared amongst thieves, is very apt to be a thief. Whatever our capabilities or instincts may be they usually re- main dormant and hence useless, unless w r e are placed in an environment favorable to their development and expansion. Americans are naturally patriotic. But they will not be true patriots unless reared in a patriotic atmosphere. Weeds spring up in the most fertile of soils which is uncultivated. In fact, the more fertile the soil the larger the crop of weeds. The white man is said to have, of all races, the great- est capacity either for good or for evil. He is the most sensitive and responsive to the influences of association, environment and suggestion. He can rise highest or sink lowest according to his surroundings. It is the spirited thoroughbred that becomes vicious if wrongly used, the under-bred, cold-blooded animal seldom does. High spirited children give their parents most concern, because while possessing the [50] greatest capacity for good, such children possess also the greatest capacity for mischief if their talents and energies are not properly directed. "We can give all our children the chance to profit by a favorable environment. At this great school millions of boys will be transplanted at their most impressionable age from an unfavorable environment in which they might otherwise have spent their lives. Many a boy will be rescued from a cold and depress- ing atmosphere at a time when his manhood may be made a beautiful or an ugly thing. Think of the weakness, the one-sidedness, the narrowness, the atrophy and perversion that mark the brains and the characters of thousands upon thousands of men who have been reared in an environment that has stunted their growth and cramped their development! It is said that rooms retain the character of their former occupants so that one feels cheered or de- pressed upon entering them. The atmosphere of in- tellectuality that pervades a time-honored institu- tion of learning actually makes itself felt. What cannot be made the inspiration of the atmosphere of a great national university of democracy, a school for character formation, community spirit and patriotism? Edward Everett Hale says, "The best part of a college course is the fellows you meet there." At the camp the boy will meet and associate with boys from his own and other walks of life. He will learn [51] their points of view, their ideals and ambitions. By this association his own wits will be sharpened, his outlook on life broadened, his character formed. He will conceive new ideals and new ambitions. "We learn something from contact with any person, and we profit by association with any person of good character. Here our boys will come in contact with and learn the best thoughts of liberally educated and broad-minded men and women. They will have a chance to see forms of human endeavor that they have never seen before. Their interest, imagination and ambition will be stimulated by this association and environment. They will return from their train- ing freed in great measure from the shackles of their former surroundings, with a wider knowledge of the opportunities open to them, with more character, self-reliance and ambition. They are thus better equipped to select their life work and to succeed therein. Think of the power of the influence of right sug- gestion that can be built up by all the noble men and women whose services will be pledged to this great school of citizenship ! Think of the power for making of a great and glorious nation, which will set an example to a pain-racked world in directing the en- ergies and shaping the characters of the great class of over half a million young Americans whose culmi- nating powers, like a mighty tidal wave, beat year after year upon the gates of the universe ! [52] The power of suggestion is to-day well understood and appreciated. It is used practically in the medi- cal profession, in business, in all forms of advertising, and by understanding parents in the upbringing of their children. Often a speech, a lecture, a book, or even a word spoken at the right moment, has changed the current of a life. In our national school the most powerful and beneficent suggestions would at every turn meet the eye and the ear of the young man, and at the age when his most enduring impressions are received. The best educators, the most accomplished musicians, the most talented entertainers, the most eloquent and patriotic lecturers and public speakers can and will be employed to cultivate the minds and characters of the students, to point the way of life, and to stimulate them to the finest ideals of conduct and effort. Add to this all the suggestive power of fine paintings, good books, beautiful scenery; the educational and stimulative power of motion pic- tures at their best, the powerful suggestion of in- dustry, and professions as conveyed by the proper machinery and equipment in the shops and labora- tories furnished and operated by the government. These beneficent influences would all play their tre- mendous part in revealing to the impressionable young students their hidden capacities, their unreal- ized powers and sleeping ambitions. The wonderful benefits that would accrue to the young men and to the nation from the mighty reser- [53] voirs of talent and energy that would thus become dynamic, are beyond calculation. In order to have a just appreciation of the benefits of this scheme of national training, it is necessary that we sense the full meaning of the word "uni- versal," that we comprehend the vast size and the mighty scope of the system, with the whole power of earth's mightiest nation behind it. It is not one boy that we will train, not many boys, not millions of them, but ALL. How often have you seen a fine, clean, manly youngster and said to yourself, "What a nation these United States would be if all our boys were like that ! " It is in your power, fellow citizens, to act- ually realize that unspoken wish. All our boys, that is nearly all of them, will be like that if we give them the opportunity. Millions of them dumbly cry for the chance. They are all good boys, of good blood, with their hearts in the right place. They all have the birthright of opportunity. Let us make birth- right something more than a popular saying. They will all be boys who will make our hearts swell with joy and pride once we have come to appreciate our heretofore neglected duty to train all of them right, and give all the opportunity which is truly their birthright as American citizens. Can you conceive what it will mean, fellow citizens, when all our boys are put through a school which will make them strong, alert, intelligent, ambitious, clean, efficient and loyal, [54] [55] honorable and patriotic? Does it stir your pulses to think of a nation of such boys? That is what uni- versal training aims to accomplish. That is what it can, must and will do. We Americans believe in "big business." It is our genius. Big machines, big corporations, big projects, big output, are what have made us the world's biggest nation. But why stop there? "Why not "big business" in that which is far more im- portant than our industries, our farms, our mines, our railroads? Why "big business" in the making of steel and little, picayune business in the making of MEN? Why not the biggest business for the most important business — the making of good American citizens, of clean, strong, true, loyal men? Character Building and Habit Formation As a man thinketh in his heart so he is. Our energies are awakened and directed by our desires, our characters are shaped by our thoughts. A man's nature or character is simply his manner of thought and action, what he thinks and does. Therefore he must acquire the habit of right thinking to rightly mold his character. It is well known that our bodies can be made sick or their physical tone built up by the power of thought. Some teachers even assert that not only can we remodel our characters by tak- ing thought, but that we can renew, rebuild, re- [56] fashion our bodies. Certainly the power of thought in character formation is beyond question. The possibilities of brain development and habit formation are not as yet fully appreciated. Modern psychologists tell us that changes can be made in the brain by the process of deliberate habit formation. Man is so organized that if he does a thing once, or refrains from doing it, his nervous system will tend to do the same thing or make the same refusal in a similar situation. If he does the thing again and repeatedly he establishes a habit, which is unconscious or second nature. As Professor James says a man becomes a walking bundle of habits, and the hell in the hereafter of which theology tells us, is no worse than the hell we make for ourselves in this world by habitually forming our characters in the wrong way. In a period of several months at this great and wisely planned university a magnificent opportunity will be afforded for the inculcation in the youth of the land of the habit of right thinking and action, which . means right character formation. Environ- ment is the most powerful single influence in the formation of habit and character. Mental and moral qualities, like muscles, grow strong from exercise, and atrophy from disuse. We want symmetrical brain and character development. We must furnish food for thought to personalities that are growing one-sided or that are being sup- [57] pressed or stunted by wrong environment before they have had a chance to grow into expression. A great thinker once remarked that if only honor remained life was still worth the living. We need a higher sense of honor in all human relations. The success won at the sacrifice of honor is not worth the winning, for in it we lose the respect of our fellows without which success is hollow and useless. "What shall it profit a man to gain the whole earth if he lose his own soul?" Here, as at no other period in the young man's life will the opportunity be afforded to instill the principles of uncompromising honor in all one's dealings. At our great national Academies at West Point and Annapolis "honor training" is regarded as by far the most important part of the. curriculum. They are schools for character building. The way to make a man truthful is to hold his word sacred. The way to make him honorable is to show faith in his honor. These simple rules are the basis of West Point's honor system of discipline. The spoken word of a cadet is the most sacred thing at the Academy, and requires no evidence for its support. The honor of the institution is thus in the hands of the cadets themselves, and very jealously do they guard it. Here a comrade's word and a comrade's honor may be depended upon absolutely. Accordingly the best part of the discipline is that to which the cadets subject themselves, and which is not covered by the written regulations of the [58] Academy. It is the intangible something known as the "spirit of West Point," than which there is noth- ing more real and true. This spirit has pervaded the air of the Academy since its foundation, and is ex- pressed in the three simple words which form the motto of West Point, "Duty, Honor, Country." It is the spirit of honor and truthfulness, of courage, doggedness and determination, of pride in the clean and honorable records of those who have gone before, of determination to maintain and add to those records, not to fall by the wayside a victim to the allurements of wealth and pleasure, but to remain until death a worthy son of the Spartan Alma Mater. This is the spirit which is West Point. Both Academies take a just pride in the fact that in over a century of faithful public service, cases of moral obliquity amongst their graduates are so rare as to be practically negligible. They have been mar- velously successful in the building of character and the inculcation of an uncompromising standard of honor and truth. What has been accomplished at West Point can be accomplished b^ the same methods at our University of Citizenship, for the material with which we will deal, the youth of America, is the same. The spirit of honor and truth will pervade the air of the cantonments so that the cadet entering will be unconsciously imbued with it. No such school of character as this has ever been [59] conceived by any other nation. We will set an ex- ample to the world, The Democratizing Influence of Universal Training "Winning the war did not end the struggle for democracy. An education which will remove the source of anarchy, ignorance and wrong influences, and draw us closer together in a better understand- ing of each other, is still to be achieved. Universal training will go far towards leveling caste or class distinction. We naturally feel a sym- pathy with and respect for the man who has enjoyed the same educational advantages, and has been reared in the same environment as ourselves. We can work more congenially and more efficiently with such a man. We understand his motives, we know his habits, we can judge what he will do in certain cir- cumstances, as this is generally the same as we would do ourselves. We trust such a man and give to him a confidence which we withhold from those reared in a different environment, whose motives, methods and ideals, we neither fully understand nor fully trust. If people spend too much of their time in a small circle they tend to become clannish and narrow. They get into ruts and are unable to see the point of view of other people who live in circles with which they do not come into contact. In many cases also people become so accustomed to doing things in a set way [60] and thinking in a stereotyped fashion, that they become mentally and morally ^muscle-bound" or even paralyzed. For such people progress is out of question. It is therefore a good thing for boys of all classes and from all walks of life to rub elbows, to live together, to exchange views, to form friendships. There is nothing more stimulating to breadth of view, to public spirit, to helpfulness to our fellows and hap- piness for ourselves. Thus will every young Ameri- can acquire a many sided view of his fellow man, his character, ideals, way of living and outlook on life. Universal training creates a universal camaraderie. The young man brought up in wealth and luxury will find at the training camp that some of the most sterl- ing characters he has ever encountered have come from the ranks of labor. This will instill into him a hitherto perhaps unknown respect for those whom he may previously have regarded as belonging to a lower class of society than himself. Thereafter he will not entertain a contempt for one of lowly degree, but will look first to see whether he may not possess those sterling qualities of character and intellect which he has learned by experience are not limited to the so- called "upper classes." And the son of the laborer will learn that the son of the millionaire is by no means always a useless snob, but more often than not a modest, democratic chap from contact with whom he will derive both pleasure and profit. From [61] this association of the youth of all classes will spring millions of close personal friendships between those from different walks of life, bonds of sympathy to make the social fabric stronger and more enduring. In these camps every youth will stand on his own merits, and be admired and respected for his own qualities of heart and mind, and not judged by his antecedents alone. All wear the common uniform of their country's service, sleep in the same tents or barracks, eat the same food, receive the same training, engage in the same pursuits and recreations. All erect, square shouldered, alert and attentive, you cannot distinguish the poor boy from the rich. Snobbery, class distinction, all the narrow preju- dices of a false social system, will be dissipated in the clean, pure, democratic atmosphere of the training camp. The meeting for a common and noble purpose of young men from all parts of the country and from all walks of life will eradicate all the prejudices of locality, religion and birth, and will develop a new sense of democracy. We will realize for the first time in our history the Christian ideal of a true brother- hood of man, that great principle on which the Ameri- can Republic was founded. Universal national training is the "melting pot" that will fuse us into one great, homogeneous nation, an all- American team. [62] Better Relations between Capital and Labor. Greater Production of Wealth One of the greatest handicaps to our industrial progress and one of the chief manifestations of social unrest, is the friction constantly arising between cap- ital and labor. So much do we hear of their disputes that the average man has come to regard capital and labor as two great antagonistic forces struggling for the domination of industry. Many thinking men have warned us that these disputes contain the seeds of a violent revolution which threatens the social structure. There can be no question that this is the greatest danger which confronts us to-day. If we are to have national tranquillity and hold our own with other industrial nations in the competitive struggle which will follow the great war, these diffi- culties must be adjusted by means other than strikes and violence which will never accomplish permanent results, except bad ones. Such difficulties and disputes are due in large measure to selfishness and greed on the part of both parties. And selfishness, while unfortunately though perhaps necessarily a natural human instinct, is great- ly aggravated so far as its effects are concerned, by narrowness of vision, by an individualistic instead of a nationalistic point of view. The individual is often, perhaps usually, too much concerned with his own immediate selfish interests to give sufficient considera- [63] tion to the effect of his conduct upon the community and the nation, or to the manner in which it inevit- ably reacts upon himself. And each party to the dis- pute is too much concerned with his own interests and too little with those of the other. But aside from the influences of selfishness, and perhaps in still greater measure, the differences of capital and labor are due to a lack of mutual under- standing and tolerance and narrow - mindedness. The capitalist who has never been in the ranks of labor, or has forgotten the time when he was, does not always see the laboring man's point of view, nor sympathize with his natural desires. And the same is true of the laboring man as regards the capitalist. James H. Foster, a Cleveland manufacturer, who has studied the human side of industry, says : What is back of this industrial unrest? A shortage of wages? Not fundamentally, I believe. Rather it is a shortage of understanding. A wall has been built up between capital and labor, and too few men on one side of that wall realize that the men on the other side were cut from the same bolt of cloth as themselves. What we need in human relations is just this "understanding" of the other fellow. We will have it when all of us are educated in a better school of citizenship, to a better appreciation of the principles of the ' ' square deal, ' ' and of our obligations to others. Mr. Foster thinks that the marshaling of capital and labor into two great hostile armed camps tends [64] [65 to promote class misunderstanding and industrial un- rest. His opinion of these great combinations is interesting. He says: To me they appear about as sensible as it would be for wives, husbands, and children to form separate national unions in an attempt to settle the domestic difficulties in individual households. Perhaps they have served a useful purpose, if only in showing us that some better solution must be found. That better solution is the Golden Eule. It is the most sensible, practical and profitable of all rules. Its observance brings us that which money cannot buy. When all of us have learned to apply it in our daily lives, it will no longer be necessary for some of us to band ourselves together to fight the others. To teach the golden rule in all human relations is the chief aim of universal training. When w r e meet a man from our own community we feel, and rightly, that we have a basis for mutual understanding. This man has been brought up in the same environment, he must have the same point of view as oneself in many matters. If he is a graduate of the same college we feel strongly inclined towards confidence and trust. We understand this man and he understands us. In a sense we are brothers, sons of the same Alma Mater. We will be glad to have social and business relations with him, and are almost sure to find him congenial. [66] In our great university the laboring man will be taught that it is not by strikes, violence and destruc- tion, but by better and more conscientious work that labor may win the sympathy and cooperation of cap- ital, and the respect, friendship and support of the community. And the capitalist will learn that it is not by aloofness, lack of sympathy, and brutal, ar- rogance that the best effort of labor is called forth, but by tact, understanding and friendship, by treat- ing the laborer like a human being and a brother instead of a mere profit-producing machine, by giving him and his children a chance to enjoy the better and brighter things of life, by being as solicitous for the welfare of the worker as for the output of the mine, mill or factory. The human element cannot be lost to sight. We cannot command the best efforts of labor, unless we accord the laborer decent human treatment. And we cannot have industrial prosperity without a contented laboring class which puts con- science and a sense of duty into its work. And after all, what are we here for — merely to produce goods, or to live happily and usefully I AVe must not confuse the means with the end. The employer and the community are fairly en- titled to honest and conscientious work. And the la- borer is entitled to decent human treatment. Strikes and lockouts, which diminish production, increase the cost of living, bring suffering and misery upon thousands of innocent people, and react injuriously [67] on both capital and labor, are an insane method of adjusting disputes. They are a substitution of selfish- ness, enmity, and brute force, for reason, justice, kind- liness, and good-will; and ultimately aggravate the conditions they aim to improve. Wiser, saner and more effective methods must be found. Hate begets hate, strife incites strife, violence arouses violence, force is met by force. Tolerance, forbearance, courtesy, sympathy, kindness and love ultimately (if not immediately) inspire like senti- ments, as surely as beauty inspires admiration, as the magnet draws the steel. This is not fancy, but the most patent of facts and the most general of laws, as any man may prove for himself, any time, any- where. It is not only idealism, but the plainest prac- tical common sense, which all intelligent people should apply to their own advantage, not allowing themselves to be misled by the apparent exceptions to which all rules are subject. Let all thine aims be truth's, thy country's and thy God's. Be noble, be just, be kind, and the nobility that lies in other men, sleeping sometimes, but never dead, will rise in majesty to meet thine own. If all this be true, and we know that it is undoubt- edly true, how great will be the progress towards mutual understanding, mutual tolerance and gen- erally better relations when the capitalist and the laborer are both graduates of the same great school of good citizenship? Here the son of the capitalist [68] and the son of the laborer will rub elbows and mingle in good fellowship — not one capitalist and one labor- ing- man, but all of them. Each will learn the point of view, the hopes, ideals, ambitions of the other. Each will learn that the other has a soul. This can- not fail to secure a better understanding and sym- pathy in their future business relations. A conference of employers recently convened at the national capital to formulate recommendations designed to secure better relations between capital and labor in the interests of industrial peace and na- tional welfare. Their principal recommendations were that what was needed was more conscientious and efficient work on the part of employees, and a higher sense of their obligations to their employer and to the community, and on the part of the em- ployers a greater interest and more sympathy in the personal welfare of the employees. The more specific recommendations of the conference were based upon these fundamentals. Universal education in better citizenship which reaches both employees and employers, alone can ac- complish such results. Universal training will bring the future capitalist and the future worker together, will teach them their common dependence upon their community and their duty to it, as well as their duty to each other. They will form friendships and associations which will en- dure long after they have left the training camp [69] which will unite them in an understanding and sym- pathy now too often lacking. The Industrial Committee of the Merchants' Asso- ciation of New York, after a careful study of condi- tions, concludes that industrial unrest is due to : 1. A short-sighted determination by both capital and labor to obtain the maximum compensation with- out considering the interests of others. 2. Lack of understanding and mutual confidence. 3. The law of supply and demand as the governing factor in the fixing of wages and conditions ; in brief, the policy of giving the worker no more than one is forced to give him. The Committee suggests the following remedies : 1. Recognition by all of the fact that national pros- perity is the fundamental to be achieved, and is in the best interests of all. 2. Eecognition of the fact that the interests of em- ployer and employee are common. Arrangements for more direct contact between employers and em- ployees, particularly through the medium of indus- trial conferences. 3. A more humane treatment of employees than that dictated by the law of supply and demand. And it adds that any plan which depends solely on the volition of the employer will not be generally effective, as it will lack uniformity, force and perm- anence. It must be perfectly apparent that better educa- tion alone can enable us to apply these wise remedies. [70] Labor strikes in this country have been too often engineered by selfish agitators. In many cases they have not actually represented the will of the majority of the workers involved, who have been coerced by selfish and unpatriotic leaders. In such cases, if the strike is successful, the will of a very small minority of unpatriotic men is imposed upon the great mass of patriotic citizens — a great and most obnoxious de- parture from democratic majority rule. Such strikes are plainly unjustifiable and not en- titled to public sympathy and support. They could be greatly reduced in number if not entirely pre- vented by the adoption of certain wise and entirely legal measures as follows : 1st. Elimination of the anarchistic element which foments such disturbances. This is accomplished by greater watchfulness and more drastic treatment not only of foreign anarchists, but of the anarchistic element of our native born citizens. Our laws have not been sufficient to afford us proper security, nor have they been always rigidly enforced. In our jealousy of liberty we have permitted too much license to anarchy. 2nd. Improving the mental and moral condition of our working classes, their intelligence and sense of obligation to the public, in order to render them proof against the poison of anarchistic influences. This is accomplished by universal education. 3rd. Compulsory industrial conference or arbitra- tion as a condition precedent to any strike or lockout. In the case of strikes which would seriously affect [71] the public the latter should be represented at such conferences. 4th. Publicity given in advance of a strike to the grievances of both sides. In too many cases the pub- lic has no sufficient information by which it might judge the merits of the dispute. These disputes are, as a rule, eventually decided by the great force of public opinion. If the public be informed in advance of the details in dispute the weight of public opinion would often be applied to force a reasonable settle- ment without resort to a strike or lockout. 5th. A requirement of law that no strike shall be called except by free vote of a majority of the work- ers involved. The governmental authorities could take the necessary steps to insure a fair and secret ballot. 6th. A requirement of law that due notice be given the public before a strike shall become effective. 7th. Other laws placing labor unions on a legal status — fixing their responsibilities, defining their powers and limitations, and regulating strikes, so far as this is found necessary in the interest of the public, which has an undoubted right to protect its interests as against the acts of any class. Most of these precautions would be the natural result of a better education of all our citizens, since they will appeal to all fair minded men. They would not deprive labor of its great defensive weapon, the strike, but they would prevent an unwarranted, irre- sponsible, reckless or criminal use of a weapon so dangerous to the public. No fair minded laboring man can object to a just, legal regulation of his acts. [72] There appears to be no sound reason why the labor union should not be as fully amenable to law and as fully responsible to the public as other corpora- tions. By giving to the labor union a full legal status its power for good would be greatly increased. It- could not be used by irresponsible or criminal persons as a weapon to injure not only the public, but labor itself. Recognized as a legal instrument and acting in strict accordance with law, the labor union would be assured public sympathy and support in every just cause and would not, as is now often the case, sacrifice public support by illegal acts, even when its cause is just. Profit sharing by employees has been frequently suggested and often tried as a means of promoting industrial efficiency and better relations between capi- tal and labor. A commission which investigated the results o£ profit sharing and a voice in the control of corpora- tions by employees, found that they varied from ex- ceedingly good to exceedingly bad, according to the intelligence of the participants. .The commission re- ported that no scheme of profit-sharing could suc- ceed unless the employees assumed a responsibility for increased output and decreased cost of production in exchange for their increased compensation. In other words, no corporation can afford to share its profits with its employees unless the employees, both individually and collectively loyally put forth their [73] best efforts to increase the efficiency of production. Profit sharing to be a success must be mutually profit- able. "Where the employees have put forth such efforts under intelligent stimulation by employers, both parties to the agreement have profited. Such results are so natural and inevitable and so in accord with reason and common sense, that it would not appear to be necessary to resort to investigation to establish the truth of them. A minimum living wage we must have, certainly, but after that the output and earnings of a corpora- tion are of prime, fundamental importance in fixing upon a proper and possible compensation for em- ployees. If the employees can increase the output or reduce the cost of production, and there is no doubt that in most cases they could do so if they would, they have an irresistible argument in favor of shorter 1 hours or better compensation — an argument far more powerful than any strike, and in. fact the only valid argument. It is the duty and the interest of em- ployers to educate their employees to this point of view, and many wise employers have done so. But it is a difficult, almost a hopeless matter, when em- ployers are arrogant, selfish and uncompromising, when employees are dull, sodden, illiterate, ignorant, unambitious (though not unselfish) and without con- science in their work, and when either party lacks the intelligence, the sympathy and understanding which enables them to appreciate the other's point of view* [74] How easily this much to be desired end can be at- tained when all are educated to a higher moral plane, a higher intelligence and a better understanding of their obligations and their own best interests. Ignor- ance is impervious to reason and is fatal to success in any enterprise. Universal training is the only prac- ticable means of replacing the weakness of ignorance by the power of knowledge in all our people. All other benefits and advantages follow in its train as certainly as night follows day. More loyal and efficient service by us all, resulting in a greater output of goods and production of wealth, is the only sound and enduring basis for higher wages, profit sharing or any other form of increased compensation. Higher wages are justifi- able and possible only when the worker is more in- telligent, more skilful and more conscientious and hard-working in actually producing the wealth from which, alone increased compensation can be paid. More knowledge, correct vocational training and a higher "spirit of service" will increase the efficiency of the worker and insure him a higher compensation than the unskilled and Tin-conscientious man can de- mand. Industrial warfare, which is waste and de- struction, will never accomplish the results desired. It affords only temporary advantages to labor (if any), which are gained, moreover, at the price of great misery and suffering to the innocent members of the community. Strikes, followed by higher wages [75] without higher efficiency of production, impoverish industry and increase the cost of all commodities. Higher wages are soon overtaken by higher costs, and fresh strikes simply make conditions worse than before. By this vicious alternation the unfortunate millions, the great majority, who have received little or no increase of compensation, are steadily reduced to comparative poverty. Mr. W. P. Gr. Harding, President of the Federal Reserve Board, says: If the world would declare an industrial truce for six months it would do more to bring down high prices than workers can ever do by strikes and agitation. The blame for the unhappy conditions in industry which followed the great war are not to be laid at the door of labor alone. The employer who enjoys in- creased profits as a result of the loyal support of his employees must be generous enough and sensible enough to share his prosperity with the employees who have made it, if he expects them to be or to re- main contented and efficient and interested in the success of the business. It is not by industrial warfare but by the creation of more wealth that we shall win prosperity for all. To create more wealth labor and capital must substi- tute cooperation for strife, neither expecting nor de- manding inordinate profits at the expense of the other. Increased prosperity for the worker is, in the long run, based solely upon his ability and his willingness [76] [77] to produce more wealth. Professor Millakan, of the University of Chicago, says: How unimaginable the stupidity, and how pathetic the blundering of that class of labor leaders who are endeavor- ing the improve the conditions of labor by limiting produc- tion. Such efforts can bring only disaster. The Council of National Defense says : Goods and not money are the means of life. Better ma- terial standards of living are impossible without producing more goods. Charles M. Schwab says: I am not in favor of artificial methods of reducing the cost of living. There is but one way to do it, and that is by economy, industry and efficiency. Increased production is dependent on mutual confi- dence and good-will and cooperation between labor and capital. These can never be attained by brute force. Not until our employers and our workers have been educated to a full appreciation of these funda- mental truths can there be any marked improvement in industrial relations, the welfare of labor, and that of the community at large. Recently, at the very time when German labor was voluntarily giving two hours per diem of extra work, in a patriotic effort to build up Germany's shattered industries, a certain class of labor in the United States has demanded a six-hour day, and a five-day week, accompanied by increase of wages. Such de- mands at this time are short sighted. Any demand [78] which handicaps or impoverishes industry, and whose attempted enforcement brings suffering on the com- munity at large, is fundamentally unwise and unjust, especially at this time. Release from any industrial slavery which allows the worker no time for recreation, family associations and the other better things of life, is most earnestly to be desired, in the interests of humanity and as a matter of public policy. And in recognition of this truth we have now generally established the eight- hour day. But we cannot carry the matter too far, especially in this present time of stress. And work is one of "the better things of life," perhaps the best of all. If certain classes of workers demand and ob- tain a six-hour day, others may logically be expected to make similar demands, and the ultimate result would be the ruin of industry. "The forty-hour week," says the National Board of Farm Organiza- tions, "will neither feed nor clothe the world." S. A. Taylor, Director of the American Institute of Mining Engineers, says : Whether this Utopian dream of a six-hour day will ever be realized is hard to foresee, but at- the present time it is certainly impracticable, owing to the shortage of the neces- sities of life. He gives us some further sound advice, as follows : The high cost of living, of which we hear so much, cannot be relieved until production of all commodities is brought up to a point where there is enough to provide everyone [79] with all he needs. When we have reached this point the high cost of living will disappear. When we have gone beyond this point the high cost of living will be replaced by a low cost of living. Consequently anything that leads to an increase in production is to be advocated, and any- thing that limits the prouction of necessities whether by combinations of either capital or labor, or both, should not be permitted. According to all the advice of all those best quali- ecl to judge, it is more production, not curtailed pro- duction, that we need if American industry is to establish and maintain supremacy in competition with the rest of the world. Our industries are pass- ing through a critical period, and our prosperity and happiness as a nation should not be jeopardized by unnecessary disturbance of these industries at this critical time. There is a crying need that every patriotic citizen should render, not the least possible service, but the fullest measure of which he is capable. Let us all work together to repair the ravages of war. Let us march arm in arm along the broad road to prosperity w r hich is wide open before us, and not seek devious by-paths, full of thorns to tear our flesh and delay our progress. The prosperity of labor is dependent upon the prosperity of industry. Impoverished or ruined in- dustries mean ruin for labor as well as capital. A prosperity such as we have never known or dreamed of is before us. But it is not to be won by industrial civil w r ar. It is to be won only if every fellow will [80] put forth the best that is in him, working with the other fellow and not against him, working for a common end and a common benefit in which all may share. This is not only patriotism, it is common sense and good business. Roger W. Babson, the statistician, has issued some interesting figures on the high cost of strikes. He says a conservative estimate of the loss in wages to strikers alone, during the year 1919, is $500,000,000. Mr. Babson points out that a strike in a basic in- dustry, like coal, steel or transportation, results in injury to many other related or dependent industries, and in throwing millions of men, in addition to the strikers themselves, out of employment. Our in- dustrial system is so complex, and its parts so inter- dependent, that trouble in any industry inevit- ably involves others, and reacts unfavorably upon our whole people. These indirect losses are the most serious feature of the industrial warfare through which we are passing. The price of a prolonged coal strike, for example, is almost beyond computation. If persisted in it means the eventual cessation of all industry, and famine in the land. The strike spirit becomes epidemic and permeates the whole country. It affects the man who is not on strike, making him restless, discontented and less efficient. It produces discord when there is need of harmony, and lowers the vitality of industry as a whole. Mr. Babson estimates that the total loss from C 81 ] strikes mounts well into billions of dollars. He points out that as long as this loss continues there is no hope of relief from high prices. He says : Viewed in this light the ease against the strikes is a black one. From the point of view of the whole people they must be considered a very expensive method of ad- justing industrial disputes. If a better way can be found it will put money into the pockets of every one of us. American industry at the present time is unable, because of industrial warfare, to meet the demands upon it or realize the profits that await it. There is a hostility between employers and employees that is hurtful to the interests of both, and still more hurt- ful to the millions of unfortunate citizens who find the cost of living doubled while their incomes remain almost stationary. Is labor perhaps, demanding more than its fair share just at this time when the rest of us are suffering so much? We have endured great losses and destroyed much wealth during the war and these must be repaired and replaced. If capital and labor at this time will settle down to their work in hearty cooperation, with a loyal good will and with the interests of the whole nation at heart, they can double the output of industry, increase the profits in like proportion and reduce the cost of living to the unfortunate millions whose incomes have not been increased. And they will thus usher in an era of prosperity in which all may share. [82] A prosperous employer who realizes that Ms pros- perity is due to the loyal support and conscientious hard work of his employees, is far better able and far more willing to meet the just demands of those em- ployees than one whose profits are curtailed and whose business is threatened with ruin by industrial civil war. This would seem to be the most elemen- tary common sense, which should appeal to any reason- ing mind. It is by building up industry, not by tear- ing it down, by loyal hard work and not by con- tinual strife, that the hopes of labor may be realized. It is in the power of labor and capital, by putting forth at this time their best and most loyal efforts, to realize for us all the greatest prosperity we have ever known, and it is labor and capital in cooperation who alone can do this. In this prosperity labor and capi- tal will share with the rest of us and not at the ex- pense of the rest of us. There will be enough for all. Is labor willing for a time to moderate its demands, and will capital be content with moderate profits in the interest of prosperity for us all? And can both be brought to a realization of the fundamental truths that increased production of wealth is the only sure basis for increased material prosperity and better living conditions, and that mutual helpfulness and cooperation are the only sure means to increase pro- duction ? We hope and believe it will prove to be so. And we know that education in better citizenship will insure the results so greatly to be desired. [83] We have referred to the improvement in the phys- ical conditions of life. It is not alone nor even chiefly this which we seek, but the improvement in spiritual conditions which naturally follows. Mere creature comforts and conveniences do not alone make life worth the living. They are of little value except as they afford us the opportunity to enjoy the higher things. Sympathy, mutual understanding and good will between employers and employees are the funda- mental needs. Without these any method of insur- ing harmony in industry, such as profit sharing, is only a palliative, which does not reach the seat of the disease. The golden rule covers all cases. When we have accepted it as the guide for our conduct all our difficulties will be easily overcome. There is no dif- ficulty in settling a dispute when each party has the interest of the other at heart. We need the "golden rule," not the "iron rule" nor the "wooden rule," in all human relations. Na- tional interest must replace class interest. Universal training will make us one class — American citizens in the best and fullest sense. Discipline and Team Spirit The form of human endeavor which calls for the highest development of concerted action, and which is also man's oldest occupation and that in which he has had the most experience, is war. So important [84] here is concerted action that the military art has de- veloped discipline to a higher degree than any civil vocation. Discipline, a much abused and misunder- stood word, is no more than a method of insuring efficient concerted action. It is the inculcation of that spirit which causes men to put forth the best that is in them in concerted action "with their fellows. It involves intelligence, resource, judgment, adapta- bility, loyalty and steadfastness, obedience to lawful authority, courage and self-sacrifice — in short, every quality that goes to make a man. Training methods which do not teach this sort of discipline are faulty. Military methods of inculcating discipline are not the ideas of military cranks or martinets. They were born of long experience and hard necessity in the tragic struggle of the race for existence. They are the results of all the experiences of all the leaders of men during thousands of years of almost continual warfare. If any particular trainer of men does not secure the desired results in the inculcation of dis- cipline,, it is the man, not the principles that are at fault, for the principles have stood the test of the ages. That the principles of discipline have not been applied in civil vocations to as great an extent as in the military is because the need has been less ap- parent, inasmuch as failure in concerted action is not always promptly followed by disaster, bloodshed and death, as in war. Restraint of any kind is irk- some to those not accustomed to it, especially to [85] Americans, who are probably the most undisciplined race in the world. Many Americans will not subject themselves to discipline unless driven by the hardest necessity, a fact of which employers generally are painfully aware. Nevertheless in every vocation which calls for concerted action, and that means most of them, there is needed and is found a certain dis- cipline, differing from that of the military chiefly in that it is usually less thorough and less effective. In every school, every industrial or commercial establishment, we find discipline of a sort. As con- certed action becomes more and more characteristic of man's activities there is a growing demand for a better discipline and a more uniform standard. The discipline which insures concerted action in warfare, man's most difficult and dangerous occupa- tion, will produce equally good results when applied to industry. "With universal training every man will acquire more or less of the spirit of discipline in his early youth, and the standard aimed at will be uni- form. If the standard is not all that is desired, it is in your power, as an American citizen, to change it and better it, for it is your government and your representatives who will devise and carry out this sys- tem of education. And it is not only your right but your duty to see that your boy and your neighbor's boy receive the best training and discipline that it is possible to give them. Here the boy will learn respect for constituted [86] authority, and the habit of obedience to that author- ity. "We are inclined to smile as we think of the waywardness of our boys, and we say "boys will be boys." But in the lack of amenability to discipline of the average American boy we have the seed of one of the most serious deficiencies of our nation. At the training camp the boy will be taught most thoroughly the lesson of obedience to proper authority, and no nonsense will be tolerated. This does not mean that the spirit of any boy will be broken, but he will be taught that he is entering upon a man's responsibili- ties, and that law and order, and not license and dis- order, are the bases of society in America. Discipline teaches cooperative action and encour- ages initiative. If it does not it is the wrong kind of discipline, not suited to our national temperament, and it can and will be corrected. Military methods have been introduced into the police forces of many American cities. In every case the police have become neater in appearance and more alert and punctual in the performance of their duties, a better police and more creditable public servants as a result of military training. Discipline is a virtue which impels us persistently to employ the most intelligent means of which we are capable in the accomplishment of a well understood. purpose. It implies self control, obedience, dogged- ness, but proscribes foolhardiness and bravado. Dis- cipline is vital in military affairs, but it is vital also [87] in all other affairs of life. The ability and the will power to bring all one's knowledge and energies to bear in the accomplishment of one's ends makes for success in every walk of life. The undisciplined man cannot bring his own powers to bear. Men of mod- erate ability who are zealous and persistent, register more successes than brilliant men who endeavor to substitute cleverness for application and hard work. The thoroughly disciplined man is loyal, dependable and efficient under any stress. To instill such dis- cipline into the youth of America is one of the chief aims of universal training. Discipline includes team spirit. As a member of a team a man learns to play the game always in har- mony with the plan of the team as a whole, and he plays not to win applause for himself but to win the game for his team. Whether we play together or work together, we find that team spirit is necessary. It is easier for the average individual to appreciate the need for team spirit in a baseball team, than it is for him to realize that the same spirit should per- vade the community as a whole, the nation as a whole. But the same kind of team spirit that makes a strong baseball team makes also a strong nation. Our nation is a team, and team spirit is above all what we need to-day. As a nation we need discipline as we need education. They go hand in hand and in fact dis- cipline is a part, the most important part, of edu- cation. [88] £5 g ~ - — 60 > S-J3 = > 2 r- v- >. ~ S3 ED C >» S c «a «g"S = ^ 5r S ^J P4 [89] Discipline, real discipline, the kind that produces real results, is not a rule of fear but a rule of love and loyalty. A real leader must possess the knowledge, ability, experience, force and courage necessary to command the utmost confidence and respect of his followers. But granted these he must also possess the high character, the kindness of heart, the tact and human understanding and sympathy which will en- able him to command their love and loyalty, which means their best efforts. He must be obeyed not because he is feared and therefore hated, but because he is respected, honored and loved. The secret of leadership is to inspire confidence and loyalty, not fear. A real leader is followed through fire and water by men who love him, and whom he has taught to love the cause for which he stands. The personality of such a leader "inspires one to greater efforts," as Charles M. Schwab said of Andrew Carnegie. For such a leader men put forth the best that is in them, willingly lay down their lives if necessary, even though he be far away. Loyalty to such a leader inspires even hitherto weak men, and calls forth a courage and stamina they were never before known to possess. The leadership of fear has but slight hold on the weak and cowardly, and none at all on the strong and courageous. It is a false leadership which stimulates and develops all the low- est and most sordid traits of its unwilling followers, and always fails in the crisis. The leadership of love, [90] on the contrary, ennobles its followers and fills them with a divine enthusiasm which causes them to forget self in their devotion to a beloved leader and a noble cause. The authority of fear is uncertain, unreliable, evanescent ; the authority of love is positive, depend- able, enduring. It is very necessary then that we distinguish be- tween the real leader, and the military martinet- who is no leader at all. It is very necessary that, as a na- tion, we learn what real leadership and real loyalty to a leader mean. For without real leaders and loyal followers no human endeavor can achieve continuous success. The power of leadership and the spirit of service are quite as necessary, and at the same time more difficult to secure, in the most humble and peace- ful occupation, as on the field of battle, where glory beckons. These constitute real discipline, both civil and military, which is not merely "subordination to authority," but "the spirit of service, the will to do." Such discipline is essential to every organized effort of man, whether in war or peace. We have need of more such real leaders and disciplined followers. Can they be developed in our great school of citizenship? There is no question that they can be, for the qualities of potential leadership exist in many and the spirit of loyal service in most men, though they too often lie dormant for lack of opportunity and teaching. That we do not have more real leaders and more loyal soldiers in the battle of life is only because we have [91] never developed them, because we have never taught leadership and service in an intelligent manner on a large scale. "We can do so if we wish. There are many great Americans who fully under- stand and consistently apply the principles of true leadership, who develop loyal followers and teach other men to be leaders. Most of our successful men are of this type — that is why they are successful. But their influence, great though it be, is yet limited usual- ly to those with whom they come in contact. It is not enough that we should have a few such leaders. The great principles of leadership and service, in other words, true discipline, the spirit which impels a man to put forth the best there is in him, should be taught to all our citizens. Universal training is the evident means by which this may be and should be ac- complished. Universal Training and National Health There are many benefits to be derived from a proper system of universal training, several of which alone are sufficient to justify the undertaking. Im- portant amongst these benefits is the improvement in the physical health of the nation. The health and vigor of its citizens is the basis of the wealth, the strength and the happiness of a nation. The general physical tone of the nation has a vast economic influence and, commercially speaking, may be either an asset or a liability. [92] As to the individual it would seem scarcely neces- sary to point to the tremendous part in a man's life that is played by his health, or lack of it, were it not for the fact that most people are not fully aware of the extent to which their efficiency is governed by their health. Many do not realize that their capacity for both work and recreation is far below par. and that they are being robbed of much that they might achieve and enjoy. There are few of our people who can or do seek a doctor when suffering from minor ailments or diseases which often in time become serious. Vast numbers of poor people suffer such ailments without even realizing that anything is wrong. The sickness and physical deficiencies revealed by the draft during the late war have forever dispelled the false idea that the American workingman is so well paid, so well nourished, housed and clothed, and so intelligent, that he needs no further attention to his health. We have prided ourselves on the excellent physique of our young men. we have boasted of our interest in athletics, and have thought ourselves a strong and healthy race. But the physical examinations in con- nection with selective service have proved that we have not so much cause for pride as we supposed. Out of every 100 young men examined 16 were found to be totally unfit for any kind of service, and an additional 16 were unfitted for full, active service. Thus in every 100 young men 32 were physically un- [93 ] fit for field service. In most cases their physical de- fects were either preventable or curable, and were the result of carelessness or neglect on the part of the men themselves, or their parents. At present then, of every 100 boys who pass the threshold into man- hood, 32 are physically unfit to take up the full duties of industrial life or to become husbands and fathers. Many of those remaining, in fact the majority of them, are not as fit as they should be. There is food for thought in these figures. Many a man takes the best of care of his horse or automobile and neglects or abuses that most marvel- ous of all machines, his own body. Few parents do their full duty in developing and perfecting the bodies of their children, or in teaching them to care for and maintain them. Vast numbers of them never even think of the health of their children until they are so ill that it is necessary to call a physician. And when the temporary indisposition has been relieved they promptly again forget all about the matter. Thus not only is the average span of human life far below what it should be, but it fails also to realize the fullest possibilities of usefulness and happiness. A large part of the misery and loss of efficiency and happiness due to ill health is actually preventable if the individual or the family devotes the proper amount of attention to its physical life. Health and strength mean happiness and the power of accomplishment. Lack of them is such a handicap [94] as to practically place the average man "out of the running." This is the day of the strong, virile man. A few persons of unusual will power have achieved success in spite of physical weakness, but such are the rare exception. A headache, a slight derangement of the stomach, will almost totally unfit us for work. The man who awakens fresh and strong, his physique vigorous and healthy and his faculties keen and alert, is certainly far better fitted to face the daily round of duty than one whose vitality is either permanently or tempor- arily at a low ebb, and who has no reserve of strength. Physical fitness is of importance, however, not only in the struggle for daily bread and the achieving of success in life. It is the first, and perhaps the only indispensable requisite to the enjoyment of life. He who is perfectly healthy cannot long remain un- happy, whatever his circumstances. And happiness has a great economic value; it is worth more than anything else in the world, and in the last analysis is what we all strive for and should try to give to others. This is amply proven by the fact that any one of us is willing to economize in the necessaries of life, in order that we may enjoy the luxuries and pleasures. Good health is the greatest luxury, the most priceless treasure God gives to His human creatures. No man may demand more of his Creator and his country than "a sound mind in a sound body." If, blessed with these, he cannot make his way and [95] achieve success and happiness in this land of oppor- tunity, the fault lies within himself. "When we say "a sound mind" we mean a normal mind in which sound ideas have been implanted. The nation has no higher nor more vital duty than to insure that its children shall be born with sound minds and sound bodies, and that their physical health shall be pre- served and their minds developed by right training. Thus are these priceless heritages assured to the na- tion, for these children are the fathers and mothers of the coming generation, and like begets like. Most of the ill-humor, quarrelsomeness, morbidity and pessimism that make life so unpleasant for our- selves and those with whom we come in contact, are due to sickness, disordered nerves, low vitality, or some other form of physical derangement. How often do we say to a friend when we find him in a particularly bad humor, "Your liver is out of order/' or "You have indigestion to-day." We speak in jest, perhaps, but the jest has its foundation in fact and experience. Physical health is the first essential of happiness. While we may occasionally be unhappy even in good health, we certainly cannot long be happy without it. Of course we do not mean to say that a life cannot be useful without being happy, but generally this is true, for one who is unhappy does not often transmit happiness to others. And it is not for himself alone that a man should desire good health, but for his family. His children [96] have a right to be born with a heritage of strength and vitality. And they have a right to be taught how to conserve their health. This priceless gift of good health the nation can make to its young men through universal training, and through these young men to their unborn children. Personal cleanliness is the principal visible evidence of gentility and good breeding, and the first that peo- ple of refinement demand of those who would be their associates. Cleanliness is more a matter of habit than of opportunity. The unwashed remains unwashed even with a private bath at his disposal. The man who is by nature cleanly contrives to continue clean and neat under the most discouraging circumstances. Universal training will inculcate the habit of cleanli- ness. That fact alone is enough to justify it. "Clean- liness is next to Godliness," and is the first step towards Godliness, and the best insurance of health. Healthy and wholesome recreation and amusement are nearly half of life. "Tell me how a man spends his leisure hours, and I will tell you what manner of man he is. ' ? The man who goes in for sane, healthful and clean recreation is always a good citizen, he works the same as he plays — fair, clean and above-board. At the average college athletic training too fre- quently takes the form of intensive and often harm- ful exercise for the few, and utter neglect of the many. At the training camp all will receive thor- [97] ough instruction and ample opportunity for recrea- tion. They are indeed compelled to take recreation. General Gorgas, the world's greatest sanitary ex- pert, the man who made the Panama Canal possible, says that during the late war 13,000 cases of venereal disease were prevented during a period of six months in the training camps in the United States alone. That is to say disease which would have developed had the men been in civil life, was prevented. And this was true in spite' of the fact that the army had no control over the sources of infection. The influence of military training and discipline on venereal disease is plainly shown by the fact that amongst the drafted men in the late war 96 per cent of all venereal disease was contracted before induc- tion into the service, and only 4 per cent subsequently. In the American Expeditionary Forces the number of cases of venereal disease per 10,000 was reduced from 76 in November, 1917, to 9 in September, 1918. The work accomplished in diminishing venereal disease during the war could not have been done in 25 years of peace, except through the agency of uni- versal training. Wholesome association with moral young women, those in charge of camp reading rooms and restau- rants, and visiting relatives and friends; and frank instruction of the young men as to the dangers of venereal diseases, will be the best possible safeguards for the morality of the nation. Boys actually suffer- [98] ing from venereal or any other diseases will be re- turned to the nation clean and cured. Public health authorities have stated that the in- struction of our young men in sex hygiene and the improvement in the public health and morals that would result, would alone justify the system and the cost of establishing and maintaining it. Venereal disease is perhaps the most persistent scourge of society. Few people realize the full extent of the evil, nor the untold misery inflicted upon inno- cent women and helpless children, multitudes of whom are born blind, deformed or imbecile as a result of the sins of their fathers. It is not too much to hope that under the influence of universal training these dread diseases may be almost entirely eradicated. This would be accomplished by the compulsory ex- amination and treatment of all young men, and a continuous campaign of education. The results act- ually obtained in the army plainly indicate that venereal disease is preventable. Malaria, tuberculosis, functional heart derange- ments, chronic stomach and bowel disorders, tooth decay and gum infection, defective nervous organiza- tion, enlarged tonsils, adenoids, appendicitis, hernia, varicocele, "flu," pneumonia, meningitis, are promi- nent in the long list of physical ailments of which universal training would be the implacable foe. The death rate from typhoid fever in the army is almost nil. In civil life it continues to take toll. [99] Tooth decay and gum infection are very prevalent amongst our people, and their effects on the national health are most deleterious. It is now known that many infections start in the roots of the teeth and spread to the entire system, and that many people die from these infections. They are due almost entirely to neglect of the teeth, whose dangers few people appre- ciate. A few months of expert supervision and treat- ment of the teeth and instruction in mouth hygiene would have a most beneficial and lasting effect upon the health of the nation. Many of our leading dentists enthusiastically declare that an opportunity afforded them to examine the teeth and gums of every young man in the nation and to cure defects and bad habits before it is too late, would in itself justify universal training and repay its cost. Specialists in other prevalent diseases hold similar opinions. The assembly of large bodies of men in camp will give to the medical profession not only opportunities to cure millions of cases of physical defects and ail- ments, bringing untold benefits to the young men and to the nation, but also opportunities for ex- perience and study such as they have never before enjoyed, from which the nation 'and humanity gen- erally will reap the benefits in better methods for the wholesale prevention of diseases of many kinds. It is even conceivable, in fact highly probable, that some of our most dreaded scourges will be completely eradicated once we give the doctors a chance to get [ 100 ] [ ioi] at them. It was the American army that discovered the cause of yellow fever in Cuba, and by the appli- cation of military measures of sanitation eradicated the dread disease in that island and also in Panama, making possible the construction of the Panama Canal. These efforts are now being continued by-the Rockefeller Foundation, under the direction of Gen- eral Gorgas, and will unquestionably result in ridding the earth of the scourge of yellow fever. Other plagues will yield to like skillful and systematic cam- paigns. Colonel Ashford, another eminent army surgeon, stationed in Porto Rico, has found that the hook-worm is one of the chief causes of the "laziness" of tropical peoples, and by his persistent efforts to eradicate it he has added greatly to the agricultural and general efficiency of the natives of that island. Some 600,000 people die annually in the United States from preventable disease. Practically all of them could be saved by a systematic campaign for the improvement of the national health. If they are worth only five dollars a day apiece, a moderate esti- mate of the value of human life, the annual economic saving thus effected would be a billion dollars. Uni- versal training would be the most effective means of preventing this great waste. New York City's economic loss from tuberculosis alone has been estimated at 82 millions of dollars per annum. More than half of this is preventable. During the great war 50,000 Americans were killed L 102 ] in battle, or died of wounds, in a year. During- the same year tuberculosis in the United States killed 150.000. Statistics place the capitalized value of an average human life in America at about $5,000. The legal value of human life has in several instances been placed at $10,000. Taking the former figure, the capitalized loss to the nation from 600.000 prevent- able deaths per annum is three billions of dollars. Amongst 30.000,000 wage earners in our country. an average of nine working days each, or a total of 270.000,000 days of labor per year, is lost through sickness, most of it preventable. This means a loss in wages alone of something like a billion dollars a year, not to mention the loss to industry, the cost of medical attendance, and the misery and suffering endured. It is a conservative statement that universal physi- cal and hygienic training would effect a reduction of at least 50 per cent in this sickness, which would be worth, all costs considered, a billion and a half dol- lars annually for this item alone. This is several times the estimated cost of universal training (not including the cost of the regular army). It is plainly evident that the hygienic value of universal training alone justifies it, even demands it, without any con- sideration of its other manifest advantages in making better and happier citizens, and protecting the nation against disorder from within and aggression from without. [ 103] Under the system of universal training every boy in the land will come under the observation of trained medical and surgical specialists, who will cure ail- ments and correct deficiencies in early life, and teach the boys how to take care of themselves. There can be no question, not the slightest doubt, that such pre- cautions would increase the average span of life by many times the length of the period of training, besides which it would increase the industrial efficiency of the boys or the amount of work they could do. Thus instead of the boy and the industry losing time by his giving up several months or even a year of his life, they actually gain time in the work- er 's increased capacity for production and the longer span of his life. If you think that your boy is per- fectly healthy and needs no instruction in right liv- ing (in which you are probably mistaken) then think of "the other 7 ' less fortunate one whose good health is your concern, because it affects your community and your country. The entire nation and generations of posterity are suffering or will suffer from easily preventable disease. The boys will be taught and required to practice the rules of hygiene and right living, so that these rules will become fixed habits in their lives. They will include such vitally important matters as keep- ing the teeth and mouth clean, keeping the skin healthy by frequent bathing, deep breathing and the value of fresh air, care of the feet and all the vital [ 104 ] organs, personal precautions against disease, the value of systematic exercise, proper diet and moderation in eating, etc. Scientific medical and surgical attention to every young man in the land, the elimination of bodily de- fects in early youth, the building up of the physique by scientifically directed exercises and outdoor life, the teaching of personal hygiene, cleanliness and other good habits cannot fail to result in a mighty improvement in the physical tone and stamina of the race. It will be the purpose of this training not only to give the youth a sound body but to teach him to keep it so, and to impress upon him the importance of hygienic rules so that he will be unlikely thereafter to depart from them. Such an impression, to be en- during and beneficial, must be made by actual demon- stration of the physical benefits resulting from right living. The average American pays too little atten- tion to mere admonitions concerning his health. He is apt to regard such advice very lightly, if at all. But he cannot fail to be powerfully impressed when he actually sees and feels the improvement in his own physical condition. And such an impression endures through life. Physical improvement, even if unaccompanied by mental training, fosters also the improvement of the mind. For a sound body affords opportunity for mental development and expansion which is lacking in a body frail and sickly. Universal training would [105 ] accordingly not be limited to those regarded as phys- ically fit for military service in the event of war. Those not physically fit would receive even greater benefits in improved health and preparation for their civil pursuits. Universal training will make these benefits perma- nent, giving to every young man of the nation the advantages of this splendid instruction at the age when he is best fitted to receive it. The schools cannot accomplish such results, although they should do all that is possible in the way of physical improve- ment. The schools are concerned primarily with other matters, and it is asking too much of our teachers, with their wretchedly inadequate salaries, that they should be physical culture experts in addition to their other important qualifications. Also there is need for uniformity and system in this training, which cannot be attained in the schools of 48 separate and independent states. It can be at- tained only by the power of the Federal Government, which will control all the time and all the actions of the students, and command the services of the best physical culture experts in the world. The training should be administered at the age when it will have the most lasting effects on the bodies and also the minds of the boys, and this is beyond the school age. To those who say that the young man can obtain all the physical training he needs in the home and in the school, and that universal training is not neces- [ 106 ] sary for this purpose, we need only reply that he does not obtain such training either in the home or in the school; that is to say, only in comparatively few cases. We need only to point to the marvelous improvement in the physique of millions of young men who have returned from France or from the training camps, an improvement which every father and mother in America have seen for themselves. You may ask any physician, and he will tell you that the benefits to the health of young America from this training are incalculable, and that its effects will be seen for years in the strength and beauty of chil- dren yet unborn. Anyone who has seen the "setting-up exercises " given to a company of soldiers by a snappy, enthusi- astic and expert physical instructor, can understand why our boys came home from France with broaden- ed chests, straightened backs, brighter eyes and red- der cheeks, and an air of confidence and self-reliance. Statistics indicate that the members of the Ameri- can Expeditionary Forces gained an average of about 12 pounds in weight during the course of their mili- tary service. If you wish to have an accurate picture of the physical benefits of military training compare in your mind the shuffling, stoop-shouldered, hollow-chested, pale-faced mob that went to our training camps with the clean, upstanding, alert, ruddy cheeked soldiers who came home from Europe. Or go to West Point [ 107 ] at a time when a new class is entering that institu- tion, and compare these new arrivals with the other cadets. Any one who has compared a group of average young men of the laboring classes who may be seen congregated at an amusement resort on Sunday after- noon, with any body of soldiers of the same age, re- turned from France, cannot have failed to be im- pressed with the immense physical superiority of the latter. They are more erect, walk with a firmer step, have clearer eyes, ruddier skins, and a far better muscular development. And the mental and moral superiority of the trained men which are apparent on closer contact are at least as great as their physical superiority. They are more tolerant of the ideas of others, less bigoted, more thoughtful, more adaptable, more self-respecting. These are assets which remain with men throughout life, and which the struggling poor cannot obtain without government aid. To such, universal training would afford opportunities for healthful living conditions, outdoor life and recrea- tion, such as are now enjoyed only by the sons of the well-to-do in expensive private schools, colleges or summer camps. It is perhaps on " guard duty" that one can see the most striking proof of the effects of training and discipline on physique and general efficiency. The "raw recruit" stands before his officer with his shoulders hunched up, his stomach protruding, his [ 108] feet sprawled apart, his shoe-strings hanging, his hat on the side of his head, one or more buttons of his blouse unfastened. He holds his rifle in a slip-shod fashion, his whole figure is limp and relaxed. His eyes roll about and he answers the questions of the officer with rambling arguments, grinning the while in a sheepish, apologetic way. The picture is not overdrawn. Every officer in the service has seen just such a spectacle, many times. A few months later the same man stands before the officer. He is as straight as an arrow, his chest out, his shoulders square, his heels together, his person and dress are clean and orderly. His keen eyes look straight into those of the officer, wavering not an instant. With a serious, intelligent expression he answers all ques- tions shortly and sharply, in a few r distinct words. It is a "before and after" picture we wish every citi- zen of America could see. It seems to epitomize and concentrate in the person of one man, all that we say in this volume. This improvement in the physique of the nation is one of the compensations of war. But it is not neces- sary that w r e should have war in. order to gain such benefits — that is too much like the people w T ho burned their barns in order to have roast pig. Can you appreciate, fellow citizens, what it will mean to our beloved country when universal training gives us every year nearly a million fine young men whose bodies have been made clean, strong and vigor- [109] ous, and who have been thoroughly taught how to keep them so? And whose minds and sonls within are as clean, pure and strong as the bodies which contain them? We shall be a race of supermen. There will be no others on earth to compare with us. Diffusion of Benefits The influences of right training and the manifold benefits it confers, are not limited to the men who actually receive such training. Their knowledge, their ideals, their patriotism, must inevitably be transmitted in generous measure to all the members of their own immediate and future families, and, in lesser degree only, to all those with whom they come in contact in industrial and social life. By the in- fluences of heredity and association the benefits re- ceived by the young men will of necessity be diffused amongst all in the nation, including children yet to come, who will be better born and better reared be- cause they will have healthier and wiser fathers. As the ripples from a stone dropped in a pool over- spread the entire surface, so in time will these benefits become apparent in every man, woman and child of the race. Universal Training for Women Womankind will thus profit indirectly from this training. But universal training for herself would directly benefit woman in the same manner, and to [no] quite as great an extent as it benefits man. Woman, in fact, lias even less opportunity for right training than man. She is a greater slave to her environment, with less chance to escape from it if it is not con- genial. The physical benefits of proper medical at- tention, hygiene, outdoor life and exercise, would be even more striking in the case of the girls than in that of the boys. The bills now before Congress contemplate train- ing for the male sex only. But when its benefits have become apparent we will certainly extend them to in- clude the girls. In fact, the women themselves, the mothers, will be the first to demand camps for girls when they see the camps for boys in operation and realize the advantages that their sons are enjoying. We want our girls to be strong, healthy, loyal, effi- cient and patriotic, no less than our boys. For we love them just as much, and we want them to enjoy the same opportunities to lead happier and more use- ful lives. Your Boy and the Other One The future of America lies in h^r boys. Upon the youth of the country depend its continued prosperity and safety and its progress. The boys of to-day are the workers, the managers, the capitalists, the states- men, the leaders of to-morrow. Each generation pass- es on to the next the traditions, the policies, the pos- sessions and responsibilities of the nation, [in] The business of being an American citizen is not to-day what it was in the days of our colonial an- cestors. There were then no large cities with their perplexing industrial and social problems, none of the great industries with their myriad factories, which have so completely altered family and community life. There were none of the "classes" we have to- day and neighbors were better acquainted and more closely associated. There were no capitalist nor labor- ing classes, nobody was either very rich or very poor. In those early days nearly everybody led the same life; all were farmers and pioneers. The frontier was the horizon for every man and the task of extend- ing it and overcoming its hardships and dangers brought our forefathers into closer relation and pro- moted democracy and unity of creed. Our people were bound together by common and simple needs and interests, by similar modes of life and close associa- tion. Practically all were of one race and one lan- guage — fundamental essentials to national unity. Life was simple and natural. To-day we have a vast number of complex influ- ences in our national life; cities, factories, railroads, machinery, which confer many benefits, but present at the same time many problems and dangers, such as unhealthful and unnatural modes of living, greater temptations, more opportunities for immorality, dis- honest or criminal enterprises, the segregation and social isolation of entire classes of citizens, greater [ 112 ] [113] possibilities for unobserved and unaided poverty, suffering or disease, and other problems well known to the student of economics and sociology. We are just beginning to realize the dangers to national life inherent in our modern complex mode of living, and to appreciate the problems connected with modern industry. Vast numbers of people are employed in factories in a mode of life that separates them almost completely from their fellow-beings in other vocations, and tends to form them into classes having their own peculiar, special interests and view- points, with little or no conception of the fabric of our national system as a whole. We have changed our laws, our ways of living, our modes of thought and action. Many things ; in fact, most of the things we used to do for ourselves, are now done for us by others. We have a thousand needs and a thousand relations that were unknown in the simple, pastoral lives of our ancestors. The community, the state and the nation now control many things that were formerly the prerogative of the individual. Man is becoming more and more a specialist, and in spite of the influences of news- papers, telegraph and railroads, he is becoming in many ways more and more narrow in his life. He tends to form classes based upon environment and occupation, and to become too much concerned with his own affairs or those of his class. He has special interests, peculiar and selfish ways of thinking, he [ 114 ] tends to lose the national and develop a class or in- dividual point of view. Never before has it been so true that half of us do not know how the other half lives, nor what the other half thinks about. All this tends to break up the solidarity of the an- cestors who made us a nation. We are less homo- geneous than we used to be. Life is more interesting for some of us, perhaps, but more confining and' more narrowing to the mass of our citizens. It is difficult to grasp our relationships, our mutual dependence, our common, national interests. We have received into our midst vast numbers of immigrants, and have paid too little attention to the Americanization of these foreigners. We have tol- erated the formation of centers or colonies of foreign- ers who do not speak or read the English language, who teach their own languages in their own schools (if they have any, and they usually do not), who keep their own ideals and traditions and learn none of ours. There are "little Kussias," "little Italys," "little Germanys," in America. Our educational system has attained no uniform standard. It has done too little to teach citizenship or foster patriotism, and has failed to reach the masses of our population. We have millions of il- literates, most of whom have no conception of the principles upon which our government is based, and ^ho care nothing about them. These people, being deprived of the privileges of learning the thoughts [115] of our best minds through the medium of books and newspapers, are at the mercy of demagogues, false prophets and bad leaders. These masses of foreign people, and native illiter- ates, are centers of infection in our national life, whose menace we are just beginning to appreciate. In directing the affairs of the nation the older gen- eration has a grave responsibility which it cannot evade. It is a double responsibility in that the mem- bers of each generation are not only guardians of the nation's welfare, its traditions and institutions, trus- tees in whose hands rests the sacred legacy passed down from our forefathers, but also the guides and teachers of the younger generation to whom they are to pass on the trust. Upon each generation rests the duty of fitting its sons and daughters for the part they must play in the future, a part which is grow- ing continually more difficult and exacting. It must see that the shoulders which are in their turn to bear the burden, are strong and capable. In the world war when one fighting unit was re- lieved by another it had merely to turn over the sector for which it was responsible, with the orders, supplies and equipment. The incoming organization had already been trained back of the line and came up fully prepared to assume its responsibilities and " carry on." In the life of the nation, however, not only must the " front" be maintained intact and turned over to the newcomers in better order than [ H6 ] that in which it was found, but the ''relief" is cre- ated, organized and trained by the holders of the line. There are those who say: "Let well enough alone. What was good enough for our fathers is good enough for us, and what is good enough for us is good enough for our children." Such a creed is fatal to progress. Things are never "well enough." Our civilization does not and cannot stand still. If Ave cannot carry it forward we must expect to see it go backward. The most casual observer of the times must realize that we are unquestionably advancing into a future so complex in its manifold relationships, and so stu- pendous in its possibilities for good or evil to the race, as to stagger the imagination. We live in an age of wonders. The achievements of science to-day are so marvelous and intricate that the highest in- telligence, technical knowledge and training are de- manded of those who would direct the machinery of civilization. The field of human knowledge and pos- sibilities is now so great that one man, however in- telligent and efficient, can cultivate only one little plot of it. This field contains inestimable potentiali- ties of benefit and profit to man but, in the balance of right and wrong it contains also inestimable poten- tialities of evil and disaster. Never has there been a more vital need for intelli- gent direction of the affairs of the nation, or for patriotic cooperation and team spirit on the part of [117] all our citizens. We recognize the necessity for de- veloping expert service in everything except citizen- ship. "We talk much of efficiency and specialization, but we have done virtually nothing to develop effi- ciency in service to the community and the nation. We have been advancing so fast that we have not been able to see clearly where we are going, we have steered a haphazard course. We are a brilliant, acute, and withal a well meaning, altruistic generation, but we are not properly organized nor properly trained. Our chief characteristic seems to be a hit-or-miss type of brilliancy that depends too much ujjon chance and too little upon well reasoned and well established policy. We have indeed worried along or stumbled along, but the going is every day becoming more diffi- cult and we are doing little to provide sound train- ing for the generations who must administer an in- creasingly complex social and industrial system. Is it right that we should pass on to our children a haphazard educational policy, a mass of unsettled social, industrial and economic problems, and a marv- elous assortment of scientific inventions and dis- coveries, all pregnant with incredible potentialities for the comfort or for the misery of mankind, with- out setting these children to a careful study of the real purpose of living, and a comprehensive, well conceived system of preparation for the duties of citizenship now presented and still to be presented by the new conditions of progress? [ 118 ] Neither ourselves nor our children will be permit- ted to worry along. The world war and the conditions of to-day strongly emphasize that fact. The dangers of the future lie both without and within our bound- aries. They cannot be met and overcome by an un- trained or a half-trained generation. Russia to-day is a tragic example of a nation that is a victim of its own lack of training and education. The frightful internal disorders of that unhappy country are due to the general ignorance and lack of training of the mass of the people. They were not prepared for the emergency which has overtaken them. Freemen must be trained. Democracy and liberty depend upon knowledge. The average thinking man of to-day cannot fail to realize that the foundations of democracy in America are not as firm as they should be. There is too much unrest and discontent, too many outbreaks against law and good order, too much callous disre- gard by certain classes of the rights of the community. Our national life presents the appearance of mael- strom of economic and physical disturbance. The structure of liberty totters on an insecure foundation. There is a lack of unity, of cooperation, of community spirit; there is a need for more patriotism and a deeper love of country, for men trained in the busi- ness of being an American citizen. It is true that lack of vision in the past has largely brought about the present situation. Had we exercised [119] a little more forethought in teaching good citizenship to our children we would be to-day a closer knit and stronger people, free from many of the evils and dangers that now menace us. Lack of vision at the present time will merely aggravate these conditions and make life unendurable for our descendants. The fathers of to-day, taking note of present con- ditions and the past neglect which is largely re- sponsible for them, should be deeply concerned with the training of the youth of our nation — the men of the future. If conditions are bad to-day, can they be better to-morrow if we do not cut out the canker at the heart of the fruit ? The average man is loath to admit that anything is wrong with him or his. He dislikes to have his faults or those of his son pointed out to him. He will not object, however, to an impersonal generalization. To the man who can find no mote in his own eye and no possible mote in the eye of his son, let us say that the American boy of to-day, that "other" boy, needs better training in citizenship. As one of the fathers of America and as a man who loves his country and wishes to see it better and happier, a country that will be safe for his chilclrens' children, he should be able to see that there must be a radical change in our educational system, and the training of our boys. If not for his own boy, then for that other boy — the poor ignorant boy who has never had a chance, the boy of foreign parentage who knows nothing of our [120] traditions and outlook on life; for the reckless, un- disciplined or unprincipled boy, whose environment has never taught him morals or good citizenship. Boys of this kind form a very large part of the coming generation, a very large and important part of the citizens of to-morrow. Is it not well then that we should consider, calmly and coolly, the possibilities of a system of universal training that will be harmful to no boy, but bene- cial in every way to every one? There is no more im- portant, no more vital question before the American people to-day than that of Universal Training for cit- izenship in its fullest sense. The Civilization Yet to Come The civilization in which we live to-day is in small part, only, of our own making. It is a heritage handed down to us by all our forefathers since the beginning of creation. It is not true that there is nothing new under the sun, but it is true that the new is founded upon the old. Each generation in its turn, starting where the last one left off, adds its share to the sum of human knowledge, now so vast, and passes the accumulated whole on to posterity. If we should destroy the painfully assembled monu- ments of civilization, and place our children untaught and unequipped in the primeval woods, human prog- ress would have to start again from the beginning. [ 121 ] As the sum of man's knowledge and his control over the forces and agencies of nature increase, the life of the individual becomes more and more com- plex. Heavier and heavier are the responsibilities laid upon him, and as these increase from year to year and from generation to generation better and better education is demanded as a preparation to meet them. As the man of to-day requires more education than the one of a hundred years ago, so the man of the future will require more than is need- ed to-day, and the foundations for this higher edu- cation must now be laid. Progress is absolutely de- pendent upon education. It is those with knowledge who alone carry civilization to a higher plane. The ignorant not only add nothing themselves but are stumbling blocks in the pathway of progress. They are not only useless but actually harmful. "They toil not, neither do they spin." There is a higher, a nobler, a more magnificent civilization which is yet to come. It is the civiliza- tion which our children shall create in a rosy future. Shall these children of ours not progress at least as much in the century which is to come as we have done in that which has passed? Civilization does not stand still. It is growing constantly better, but also more exacting. The edu- cation and training of yesterday do not fit us for the civilization of to-morrow. ; [ 122 ] The world wants men, better trained men, broader men, with better ideals and less selfishness. It is the destiny of America to be the greatest, the wealthiest, the most powerful nation the world has ever seen. Shall we be also the best and noblest of nations, an example to the world? There is a greater civilization before uj^ must be achieved by greater preparation than we have yet made and greater efforts thanwe have yet put forth. It will not come as a matter of course. Abraham Lincoln said : The struggle of to-day is not altogether for to-day ; it is for a vast future also. With a reliance on Providence all the more firm and earnest, let us proceed in the great task events have devolved upon us. It is vitally necessary that the rising generation be trained for the more exacting duties and responsibili- ties that will rest upon them. It is a matter of national concern that proper habits of thought and action be inculcated in our young men, upon whom will devolve the future responsibility for our govern- ment, our industries, our agriculture. National training alone will meet the urgent need. It makes for better citizenship, higher ideals, better physique and character, greater industrial efficiency. It will be the most powerful instrument in history for the development on a gigantic scale of a race of bet- [ 123 J ter men and women, supermen who alone can create and maintain that greater civilization. What constitutes a state? Not high raised battlement nor labored mound, Not cities proud, with spires and turrets crowned, No ! Men, high minded men, Men who their duties know, but know their rights as well, And knowing, dare maintain. We are not content that our children should mere- ly fill our places, follow in our footsteps, maintain the institutions which their fathers have erected. Deep in our hearts is the eternal hope that our chil- dren, whom we so love, shall be better and nobler than our poor selves. Deep in the heart of the humblest amongst us is the unvoiced prayer that his children may live fuller lives, rise to greater heights and en- joy the happiness that has been denied to him. Every father and mother cherish this sweetest and most un- selfish of human desires. How can we realize this hope; what is the answer to our prayer? It is education. By giving to our children the best possible education we give them the best chance for success and happiness. They are not to maintain our civilization only. They are to build upon the foundations we now lay a higher and nobler civilization, something better than we know or can imagine. Let us iioav lay the foundations of the civilization that is yet to come by giving to our children the strong bodies, the alert minds, the brave hearts and pure souls which will enable them to [ 124 ] achieve more than our poor efforts have achieved. No ; they are not to fill our poor places, these dear children. They are to go higher and farther. In their beauty, their strength, their wisdom, their pur- ity, they are to stride onwards and upwards into realms of glory and happiness that we have seen but dimly, as in a prophecy or a dream. [126] PART II WHAT UNIVERSAL TRAINING MEANS Origin and History COMPULSORY military service in time of war, or even compulsory training in time of peace, are indeed nothing new, either in theory or practice. In prehistoric days every able-bodied man of a tribe was a warrior as a matter of course, skilled in the use of the weapons then in vogue, and subject at all times to the orders of the chieftain or military leader. The same system is found in some of the un- civilized tribes of our day. In early colonial times outdoor life was the rule. All able-bodied men carried arms and were skilled in their use. In each community a considerable portion of the male population was organized and trained for military service. All of the ancient empires of western Asia and southeastern Europe were military states, whose sub- jects were under the obligation of service. Indeed, without an efficient military system these empires would not have been built up and could not long have continued to exist. It was the Greek army, or- ganized and trained by Philip of Macedon, with which his son, Alexander the Great, extended Greek influ- [127] ence and civilization to the whole of what was then regarded as the civilized world. Mention of universal military training is found in the Bible, where it is related that Moses, who was re- sponsible for the security and independence of the Jewish nation, caused all young men to be trained to bear arms and to hold themselves available for mili- tary service. The most highly developed systems of universal service in war, made effective by universal training in peace, are those of the two leading military nations of our day, France and Germany. The methods of the two nations are practically identical, and as a military measure by far the most effective in history, as the late war in which they were the principal com- batants, plainly demonstrated. The German system had its origin in the restric- tions imposed upon Prussia by Napoleon, following the downfall of that state at the battle of Jena- Auerstadt, in 1806. The standing army of Prussia was limited by the terms of the peace to 40,000 men. General Scharnhorst conceived the idea of using the standing army as a school in which men would receive training for one year, after which they would be re- turned to civil life, a new class taking their places. Thus the standing army would never exceed 40,000 men, but the trained reserve would be increased by about 15,000 annually. By this system Scharnhorst created the trained and disciplined army which, un- [ 128 ] der Marshal Bliicher, turned the tables on Napoleon, and encompassed his defeat and downfall at the battle of Waterloo, only nine years after Jena-Auerstadt. In the military system of Seharnhorst the German Empire had its birth. Bismarck, the statesman, plan- ned the greater Germany, but Yon Moltke, the soldier, created it when he destroyed in two short campaigns the military power of Austria and of France (1866- 1870). With the removal of the restrictions on the size of the standing army, the length of the period of train- ing (in Germany) and the number of men drafted annually, were increased, until the system became thoroughly effective and practically universal. That is to say, every man in Germany (and in France), un- less exempted for physical deficiencies or certain other stated reasons, received military training. Following the great war the standing army of Ger- many, that army which has so often disturbed the peace of Europe, is again limited, this time to 100,000 ; but, profiting by the experience of Xapoleon, the allies have prescribed that this force shall be recruit- ed by voluntary enlistment only, which restrictions, if enforced, render universal military training in time of peace impossible. They do not, however, prevent Germany from using her standing army for the training of a large corps of officers, the first essential of an effective fighting force. Many other countries besides France, Germany [ 129] and Japan (which has the German system), had prior to the war, adopted some form of military training in time of peace. Many of these countries are republics. Their systems are patterned in a gen- eral way after that of Germany, but are in every case less effective as a military measure, chiefly because of insufficient periods of training. The length of the period of training in the standing army in Germany was two years and in France three years. The Swiss system, which has been frequently recommended as a model for the United States, combines efficiency with very low cost, both in time and money. The Swiss period of training is very short. It has been several times increased in length, but is still regarded by the Swiss military authorities as insufficient. The Constitution of the United States confers on the Federal Government the power to enforce uni- versal service in war and universal training in peace. In the only two wars of any magnitude in which we have been engaged (the Civil "War and the World War), we have been compelled to resort to obligatory service in order to secure sufficient force to carry them on. At no time in our history, however, have we resorted to universal training in time of peace. The world war has awakened for the first time a general interest in the subject on the part of the American people. We perceive therefore that universal training was born of military necessity. But the events of the [130] late war plainly indicate that in these days, when en- tire nations take part in armed conflict, the military necessity is even greater than in the past, when the fate of nations was decided by relatively small forces, while the great mass of the people on both sides stood helplessly by, awaiting the issue of the conflict. "We have also seen the possibility of combining with this vitally necessary military training a much broader training which will create not only better soldiers but better citizens. This broader training will insure greater vocational efficiency in peace, it will elimi- nate illiteracy, and will be a school of citizenship which will knit into a closer union all the men and women of our land. The system proposed for America is quite different from any that has ever been em- ployed by another nation. It is not designed solely, nor even primarily, as a military measure. Dis- cipline, character building and vocational training are of special usefulness in the pursuits of peace. The systems of France and Germany are frankly military. Although they undoubtedly confer inci- dental benefits in the way of improved national health, greater industrial efficiency and better citi- zenship, their avowed purpose is national security guaranteed by military strength. Our own system will have a broader motive. In addition to affording military training it will aim to make our young men better citizens and more successful and useful in their civil pursuits. [131] "We must therefore divorce ourselves from the false idea that this system of training is merely a military measure designed solely to create a military machine. It is to be a school for citizenship, and affords also mil- itary protection because the good citizen makes always a good soldier. Discipline has been defined as "that virtue which impels us to employ all the intellectual, moral and physical energy of which we are capable in the accomplishment of a purpose or the perform- ance of a duty.' 7 That is the discipline which will be instilled into our youth, and it is a discipline of which we are much in need, and which makes for success in civil no less than military life. The systems of other nations may serve as exr amples, but not as patterns. Our system must be truly our own, suited to our conditions and the genius of our own people. Its aim will be the preservation of America, and the progress of our civilization along the lines laid down by the founders of this land of liberty. How the System Operates The following summary will give a general idea of the operation and details of the system of universal training. Every boy, except those who are exempted for stated reasons, will be required to take the pre- scribed course of training during the regular period cf the year in which he reaches a specified age. Thus [132] there will be yearly classes, each class being made up of all the young men who reach the specified age during a given calendar year. The country will be divided into a number of dis- tricts, some twenty or more, with a camp located at a favorable site in each district. The camps will thus be reasonably close to the boys' homes, reducing the amount of travel and affording parents and' friends an opportunity to visit them during the course of their training. The camps, generally, will probably be organized on a divisional basis; that is, each camp would train a complete division each year. The division is the combat unit, a complete small army in itself. Larger units, such as corps and armies, are composed of a number of complete divisions, with certain special troops attached. In our service a division includes 4 regiments of infantry, 3 regiments of field artillery, 1 regiment of cavalry and 1 regiment of engineers, with the necessary trains, and special troops, medical, signal, etc. Its strength is approximately 30,000 men. Divisional camps would make for uniformity and simplicity in administration, training, and subsequent mobilization for war (if necessary). In case of war the men who would fight together in the division would be those who had been trained together in the same camp at the same time, and the men in each company would generally be from the same town or locality, and acquainted one with another. [133] Certain special camps for special training may, of course, be provided, and there will be Naval camps where training for the navy or merchant marine will be given. So far as practicable attendance at naval camps will be optional. That is, a boy will be given his choice of attendance at a naval or at a military camp. While these training centers are referred to herein as " camps/ 7 they are more properly cantonments or colleges, as permanent buildings will eventually be provided. Water supply, sewerage, lights, good roads, and all other necessary conveniences and facili- ties will be installed. The camps will be in fact mili- tary colleges. In colder weather the boys will live in barracks, and receive instruction in class rooms and shops. In summer they will spend most of their time in camp in the country. The ' ' summer camp ' ' for boys is a luxury now limited to people of means. Under universal training every boy will enjoy its advantages, without cost to himself or his parents. At the camps the students will be organized into military units corresponding to the more important branches of the service (Infantry, Cavalry, Artillery, Engineers, Signal Corps, etc.). They will sleep in barracks and eat with their fellows in the regular messes. All their hours of training and recreation will be carefully controlled and regulated, but ample freedom for wholesome pastime will be allowed. [134] The curriculum, or course of training at these mili- tary colleges, will be determined by the best and wisest educators, civilian and military, whom the Federal government can obtain. The details of train- ing -will all be carefully worked out. To some extent they will be developed by experience. Perhaps in the beginning they will exhibit some errors, but that has been true of every human institution. "We have had enough experience during the late war to indicate quite plainly the kind of training that our young men require, and to prove beyond a doubt that the results herein outlined can, and w 7 ill, be obtained. The important thing is the decision of the nation to un- dertake such training and make a start. Its details may safely be left to the educational experts and to experience. In a general way it may be stated that each student will be given the training necessary to make him a use- ful citizen and a good soldier. The instruction will be intelligently adapted to the needs and capabilities of each student; that is to say, the curriculum will not be absolutely rigid. All will receive the fundamental military instruction, training in discipline and citi- zenship, and character building. The illiterate will be taught to speak, read and write understandingly. Illiterates should properly be required to spend an additional period at the camp, prior to the regular course, to cover the additional instruction which [135] they will need. Such a provision of law would have a powerful influence in compelling those of foreign birth or parentage to learn the English lan- guage before going to the camps, and would help greatly to eliminate illiteracy and its attendant evils. Unless the period prescribed for training should be too short for the purpose, all students will take vocational training. This will include the arts and commercial training as well as agriculture, the trades and sciences, and each boy will be allowed, under prop- er guidance, to select the vocation he desires, or for which he appears to be best fitted. For the non-mil- itary and vocational features of the training, expert civilian instructors, specially selected and trained for their work, will be employed, and the natural apti- tudes of each student will be cultivated. A highly intensive course of training, accomplishing the maximum results in the minimum time, would be possible at these camps: first, because the things to be taught are so varied and interesting, and include so much practical and outdoor work as to preclude the possibility of monotony; second, because the course is short as compared to that of a college, mak- ing it possible to sustain the interest of the students ; third, because the authorities will have absolute con- trol of all the students' time; fourth, because the boys are at the best age to receive intensive training, and; fifth, because the methods followed will be uni- form and standard throughout the country. I 136 ] [137] The habits of the young men would be carefully regulated, and every moment of their time accounted for. The processes of training and discipline are ap- plied with system and intelligence, gently but firmly. The discipline is not harsh, nor arbitrary, nor blind nor brutal. It does not break the spirit of youth nor render him an automaton. This will not be a reform school, but a university of citizenship. Brutal and harsh methods cannot live in the free air of America. They are not the rule at West Point, nor in our regu- lar army, whose officers and men are free citizens of a free country, like the rest of us. The system of dis- cipline which will be enforced at the camps is the result of thousands of years of experience in the train- . ing of men to call forth their greatest and noblest efforts. The young man will never be irritated, nor browbeaten, nor subjected to any petty annoyances. His self respect will never be wantonly affronted. He will be treated with the courtesy and consideration that is due self-respecting men. He will be taught that all that is demanded of him is attention to his duties and loyal, honorable and gentlemanly conduct at all times and under all circumstances. The life of the young man at the camp will not be one continuous round of dull duty. The duty is not dull, but intensely stimulating and interesting, and close association with worthy comrades, pursuing the same high ideals, is perhaps the most wholesome and [138] refreshing of life's experiences. The young man will be afforded every opportunity to enjoy many forms of wholesome recreation, which is indeed a necessary part of his training, since "all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy." The close application to a variety of interesting duties, wholesome exercise, the simple but impressive ceremonies, the inculcation of regular habits, respect for his mates and intelligent obedience to his super- iors, the observance of an inflexible standard of honor and truthfulness — all constitute a most wholesome training which cannot fail to be of benefit to young America, and to bring to the surface all that is best and brightest within him. The camps will be subject to constant inspection by military and civilian educational experts in order to keep them up to the standard and to insure uniformity of methods at all camps. As a result of close supervision on the part of the government, by continued experience, and because of the great public interest therein, the system of train- ing will rapidly develop to a high degree of excellence. There has never been any other 'institution in which the nation at large has taken so keen an interest. Inefficiency and outrageous conditions are occasion- ally found, and more frequently exist in peniten- tiaries, jails, poor-houses, insane asylums, and the like. This is possible only because the people gen- [139] erally have no immediate, personal, heart interest in such institutions, and the complaints of their inmates seldom reach the ears of the nation, and excite little personal sympathy when they do. But every citizen of the United States will have, sooner or later, a son, a brother, a near relative or a dear friend in this university of good citizenship, and will hence be vitally interested in everything connected with it, and constantly eager for information. The boys will write home to their families and friends, and the latter will visit them at the camps. Thus will the public be fully informed as to conditions, and the powerful force of public opinion will be exerted to correct mistakes and remedy deficiencies, should such exist. At every camp facilities will be provided for the accommodation of visiting relatives and friends, both men and women, who may come to see their boys during their training. It is not sought to exclude the public from observation of the workings of the system. On the contrary, public interest and public knowledge, insuring public support, will be the best guarantee of success, the greatest stimulus, and the most effective safeguard against any possible abuse. Every boy will be required to write, at stated inter- vals, to his parents or guardians. And every parent should, if at all possible, visit his boy at the camp during the period of training and see with his own eyes the methods employed and the results obtained. It will be a liberal education for the public as well as [140] the boys. Not only is it the right of parents to visit the camps, but also their duty. Thus will universal training become the most popular of popular institu- tions, for without popular interest and support it cannot attain its fullest measure of usefulness. The system as outlined herein is independent of any military or disciplinary training that may be given at schools or colleges. Such training cannot en- tirely take the place of that herein contemplated, because the conditions under which it is adminis- tered would not be as favorable for obtaining the desired results. But if a proper system of instruction under government control is introduced in our public and private schools it might operate to reduce the period of regular training for boys who had attended such schools. That excellent preliminary training is possible at well conducted schools, has been demon- strated in a number of cases. Boys who attended such schools might be able to complete the prescribed course at the training camps in less time than those who had not. Thus if the period of camp training were six months, training at an approved school might be regarded as equivalent to the first six weeks or two months of the camp training, but could not entirely replace it. The boys would be furnished with their uniforms and equipment, and all their living expenses would be paid by the government. In addition to this they might be given an allowance of spending money, and [ 141 ] allotments could be made by the government, when necessary, to families actually dependent on the boys for support, as was done during the late war. A most essential requirement of any policy for mili- tary training is that it must furnish a sufficient num- ber of trained officers to be available in case of war. The training which we have thus far described would not alone be sufficient to produce such officers, and additional instruction would be necessary. Candi- dates for a reserve corps of officers could be selected from the students at the camps who exhibited suf- ficient aptitude and capacity, and who desired to qualify themselves to become officers. These candi- dates would be given additional instruction at officers' training camps. They might subsequently serve for a short period in the regular army, following which they would be utilized as junior instructors at the universal training camps. Colleges and universities having approved systems of military instruction could also produce large numbers of men qualified, with a little additional training perhaps, to become officers of the reserve corps. These would be men who had passed through the regular training camps and who had been recommended by the camp authorities as possessing the capacity to become officers. These are only two of a number of possible schemes by which this vitally necessary reserve of officers could be created. Reserve officers and probably also the higher non- [142] commissioned officers, would be assembled from time to time for short periods of instruction or "refresher courses," either at the regular camps, or at special camps for reserve officers. They would receive pay during such periods, and might also, if it were found to be good public policy, be granted a small annual subsidy for a number of years, in order that the necessity for taking military training, in excess of that given to the male population generally, might not operate as a hardship in, their civil careers. Having completed their course at the training camps the young men would be returned at once to civil life, except such as might desire to take the ad- ditional training as officers. During the first four or five years after leaving the training camps they would constitute the "first line" reserves, which would accordingly have a strength of from 2y 2 to 3y 2 millions of men, or more than we sent overseas in the late war. They would not, how- ever, be disturbed in their civil pursuits, nor required to render any military service whatever, except in the event of a great war. Universal training does not mean compulsory military service. At the end of this period of 4 to 5 years in the "first line," the men would pass automatically to the "second line" reserves, in which they would remain until about 45 years of age. This second reserve would be a great reservoir of trained men, some ten to twelve millions strong, available for the defense of the country in case of need. [143] In order to provide for rapid mobilization in case of a great war, men who had completed the prescribed training wonld be organized into reserve tactical units on a geographical basis. Reserve officers would be assigned to such units. The foregoing is a very general outline of the man- ner in which universal training may be administered, and its more difficult problems solved. The details, of course, will be regulated by law, and modified and improved from .time to time in the light of experience. The purpose in view would be to insure adequate training in the least possible time and with the least possible interference with civil pursuits. Benefits of the Military Phase of Training Aside from the purely military results gained from the military phase of universal training, innumerable benefits will accrue to the youths who participate therein. As we have pointed out, a most striking change for the better will be apparent in the physical condition of our young men. Every one who has seen a parade of some of our organizations on their return from France, or after a few months in our training camps, can testify as to the fine appearance of phys- ical manhood of the boys, as a result of their mili- tary training. The press of the country has been filled with articles by medical men and educators who [144] Lave observed these striking changes, both physical and mental, which they have described as little short of marvelous. But in addition to a good physique, which is the foundation of success and happiness, many valuable characteristics and habits which will be of incalcul- able benefit all through life are developed by the military training given to the young men. -Among these are the control and coordination of mind and body, a direct result of the military drills and exer- cises ; the habits of accuracy and precision in the per- formance of mental or physical acts, for which there is no better school than military training; the virtues of initiative and resourcefulness, which are matters of special consideration in military training; the habits of clear and quick thinking and concise methods of expression, which proper military training develops in the highest degree. All these and many other val- uable traits are cultivated and improved in the school of the soldier, and all of them will be of the greatest value to the young men in civil life, and to the nation of which they are the citizens. Cost of Universal Training It is not the first cost of a project so much as the dividends it pays that interests us. As a nation we do business on a large scale, and realize the economic advantages of big machines and big projects which, when properly conducted, are always more economical [145] than operations on a small scale. A big project for universal training is in keeping with our national genius. Efficiently administered it will pay the larg- est dividends of any expenditure ever made by the Federal government. On the other hand, a makeshift system conducted on a penny-wise basis would be a waste. It would fail to accomplish the results desired and the money spent on it, however little, would therefore be wasted. The cost of the system will of course vary according to the length of the period, the nature of the instruc- tion given, and the number of exemptions from train- ing which would be allowed. It has been variously estimated at from 130 to 400 millions of dollars per annum (not including the cost of other items of the military establishment, the regular army, national guard, etc.). The latter figure contemplated a very thorough instruction, extending over a relatively long period, with few exemptions. It may be regarded as the superior limit of cost, which we may ultimately expend if experience indicates that the expenditure is desirable in view of the results attained by a shorter period of training. The most reliable figures on the cost of an effective military policy for the United States, are those re- cently issued by Senator James W. Wadsworth, Jr., Chairman of the Senate Committee on Military Af- fairs. In the appendix to this volume appears a synopsis of the features relating to universal training [ 146 ] in a bill providing a thorough and effective military policy for the United States, recently submitted to the Senate after long study and investigation by the Committee on Military Affairs. The bill, though not perfect, embodies much of the best expert advice and the lessons of experience as to a proper military policy for the United States. In brief, it contemplates a small regular army, a federalized national guard, and universal military training. Senator Wadsworth states that his committee, with the aid of the War Department, has estimated the cost of our entire military establishment, under the provisions of this bill, as follows (figures to nearest million of dollars) : 1921— $610,000,000 1922— 623,000,000 1923— 631,000,000 1924— 633,000,000 1925— 612,000,000 1926— 591,000,000 These estimates cover the cost of the entire program of preparedness, including the regular army, the national guard, and all expenses of whatever nature in connection with the system of military training for the youth of the country, as provided in the bill. Senator Wadsworth further states that, according to the estimates of the War Department as revised by his Committee, the average cost of producing a [147] trained soldier under the proposed system of uni- versal training would be $509 in 1921, progressively decreasing to $170 in 1926. The average cost of main- taining a trained soldier in the regular army is, he states, at present about $1,800 per annum, which plainly indicates the economy of the system of uni- versal training as a measure of national security. Mr. Julius Kahn, Chairman of the House of Repre- sentatives Committee on Military Affairs, who like Senator Wadsworth, is one of the best informed men in the world on military matters, states that the cost of Universal Training under the Senate Bill would be approximately $130,000,000 per annum. He says further: All told the cost of the military establishment, including universal training and the maintenance of the regular army, will be about $500,000,000 per annum. We were in the war about 19 months at a cost to the United States of 33 bil- lions. This country paid for its utter unpreparedness at the approximate rate of $1,700,000,000 a month during the continuation of the war. It would take over 200 years to expend for the universal training of our youth the total amount this 19 months of war cost us. Surely it would be criminal folly to disregard the lessons of the war. While these figures of the best informed of our national legislators may be subject to some revision, they may properly be regarded as certainly the most accurate that have yet been presented by either the advocates or opponents of universal training. How- [148] A class in radio-telegraphy. Wireless telegraphy is now employed commercially on a huge scale, and there is a constant demand for thoroughly trained operators. [149] ever, some of the latter regard these figures as too low. Senator Wadsworth gives the eventual cost of train- ing one man as $170. Let us assume, however, that $300 or practically double Mr. Wadsworth 's estimate would be required, and that an average of 600,000 men would be trained each year. Then the additional cost of universal training, over and above the cost of other items of our military establishment (which cannot in any case be avoided) would be 180 million dollars per annum, certainly a very moderate price to pay for the many advantages this training would confer on the nation. The cost of common school education in the United States in recent years has been estimated at about $700,000,000 per annum. And this, be it remarked, was with starvation wages for our teachers. The latter are now leaving the service by thousands, and it is evident that the expenditures for education must be considerably increased in the very near future, or the entire system will collapse. Yet even should it be necessary to expend 2 billions of dollars per annum the American people will never consent to the aban- donment of our system of public education, as they well know this would mean the ruin of our country. As throwing some light on the estimated costs of universal training the following cost data of public school education for the year 1915 are of interest. The average number of days of school was 160 per annum, which is approximately the length of the [ 150 ] period of universal training according to pending legislation. The average cost per pupil per year was $42 or about one-quarter the lowest estimate for universal training (by Senator Wadsworth) . This figure does not, of course, include board and lodging of students, but it does include many overhead ex- penses which, in the case of universal training, would be borne by our regular military establishment; and would not be directly chargeable to the training, nor evaded should there be no such training. The cost of an army ration (one day) served to each man is at present about 60 cents. During a four months' period this would amount to about $75, for each man in training. Board and lodging, two of the largest items of expense, would not be much if any in excess of $100 per man for the entire period of training. If public school education is worth one billion dollars a year to the nation, and there is no question that it is, is universal training with its manifold and manifest advantages, worth an additional 150 millions or even 300 millions ? Would it be a good investment then, to add 15 to 30 per cent to the cost of public education if that would double the advantages thereof? And what of the additional value of na- tional security against aggression? Universal training would effect many economies, any one of which alone would justify its cost. Amongst these the more important are : 1. National insurance against war. The interest [ 151 ] on the expenditures of the United States in the late war would far more than pay for universal training. 2. Industrial value of better national health. Pre- ventable sickness costs us a billion dollars a year. 3. Longer average span of life. A single year added to the life of the individual would far more than pay the cost of his training. 4. More honest and efficient work. A business man of Chicago says that indifferent and inaccurate work costs that city alone a million dollars a day, more than the total cost of universal training. 5. Great saving in the outlay for police force, courts, jails, penitentiaries, poor-houses, hospitals, insane asylums, and the like. The value of these may be directly measured in dollars and cents. But there are other and perhaps still greater benefits not so easily measured in this way. They include: 6. A higher standard of citizenship. 7. Affording congenial occupation and opportunity for growth and expansion to the individual. 8. The blessings of good health and longer life, for the individual. 9. Insurance against anarchy and internal dis- orders. The estimated pre-war wealth of the United States was 220 billions of dollars, equal to the combined wealth of Great Britain, Germany, and France. Truly are we the colossus amongst nations so far as wealth is concerned. We may be also, if we wish, the colossus of strength, and secure in the enjoyment of [152] our wealth and the happiness that it affords, or should afford us. During the war we expended for war purposes over 22 billions of dollars, or ten per cent of our total wealth, not to mention 10 billions in loans to our Allies, which may never be repaid. Had we been defeated Germany would have exacted tribute from this enormous wealth to the limit of her de- sires — which are almost unlimited. Assuming that, as stated by Senator Wadsworth, the total cost of an adequate military policy, which would insure our continued inviolability (even without command of the sea), would be $600,000,000 per annum, this amounts to a little over a quarter of one per cent per annum on our pre-war wealth. Assuming the addi- tional cost of universal training at $180,000,000 (in- cluded, however, in the $600,000,000) this amounts to less than one-twelfth of one per cent per annum on the pre-war wealth. Is this a large insurance premium to pay for the protection of this vast, un- exampled wealth? Is it a heavy tax on the comfort, happiness, peace of mind and national security of 115,000,000 of people, which an adequate military policy would insure ? The direct cost of the late war to the United States was, as stated by Mr. Kahn, nearly 3^ billions of dol- lars. This sum would pay for the maintenance of such a military policy as proposed by the Senate Committee on Military Affairs for over 50 years, or for Universal Training alone for about 200 years. [153] The interest on this vast expenditure at a rate of a little more than one-half per cent per annum would pay for universal training. Thus in the recent Avar, although we did not enter until late in the conflict, and were engaged in only two exclusively American operations covering a period of but two months, we expended a sum equal to 15 per cent of all the ac- cumulated wealth of the nation. In the world at large close to one-half the accumulated wealth was consumed or destroyed in the catastrophe. In the next great war in which we may be involved, defeat and indemnity, following a long and expensive con- flict, would probably mean the loss of fully half our wealth, including in all likelihood a large part of our territory. Is it worth while to insure ourselves against such a disaster? An effective military policy is the only known form of insurance that can be ab- solutely relied upon. The most serious objection now urged against uni- versal training is its cost. The authors have endeav- ored to point out the many ways in which such train- ing would repay and more than repay its cost. The American people are to-day fully alive to the need of a better educational system for our youth, a better Americanism, and a rational military policy as an in- surance of our national independence. And they can certainly afford to pay for that which they so vitally need. There is grave danger, amounting to a practical certainty, that if the enactment of the [ 154] necessary measures be now postponed on the ground of cost they will never subsequently be enacted until another great and probably disastrous war repeats the lessons of the late conflict in more convincing lan- guage. Should Congress regard the postponement of this essential legislation as necessary on the ground of cost, the chance will be lost and the American peo- ple would be most unfortunate. Therefore let us at least recognize the need and establish our policy by law. The actual inauguration of any portion of the policy might be delayed until the national treasury had recovered from its present temporary depression. With reference to the desirability of avoiding war it is well that we should remember that war costs the United States more than it costs any other nation. In less than two years of the World War we expended almost as much as did France in more than four years. In the last year of our participation our rate of expenditure was equal to that of France and Great Britain, or of Germany and Austria combined. And during our short participation in this w T ar our govern- ment spent more than it had spent in all the previous years of its existence. It is accordingly a greater financial economy for us than for any other nation to provide adequate insurance against war, especially as we may be certain that the next great war will be much more expensive than was the last. But after all is it money, wealth, alone that we think of or care for? What about the honor of the [155] nation which a ruthless foreign foe would trample in the mud? What about the lives of hundred of thous- ands, perhaps millions of our boys, our strongest, bravest and best, which would be sacrificed to the Moloch of indifference and neglect, just as they have been sacrificed in every previous war in which we have engaged? Says the Chicago Tribune: Every dollar Congress pretends to save by the sacrifice of the National Defense will be paid for in the blood of Americans, innocent victims of the blind folly of their representatives. . . . Congress talks economy when the honor and safety of the nation are at stake, when the lives of the boys who in the next war go forth to defend the country, are at stake. . . . Says General Emory Upton: Battles are not lost in the field alone. They may be lost beneath the dome of the Capitol. The Urgent Need of Prompt Action in Establishing a Military Policy The bill hereinbefore referred to, and which is now before Congress (at date of this writing), is the result of long study and deep research, by our best qualified national legislators. They have considered all proposals and have sought and obtained the best advice of all the best informed and most broad- minded men, both civilian and military, in the land. The result of their study, embodied in this bill, has been characterized as: "the most statesmanlike piece of military legislation that has ever been presented to [156] Congress. " It is indeed such. It ' is thoroughly democratic, perfectly in harmony with our national ideals and traditions. It is the most effective, and at the same time the most economical scheme of national defense that has been devised. And in addition to in- suring our national inviolability and the preservation of our wealth and civilization for our own benefit, as well as that of the world at large, it would confer upon us all the many blessings that result from better education, better health, higher industrial efficiency, higher personal and national character, better citi- zenship, better AMERICANISM. The question before the nation, embodied in this bill, is one of paramount, vital importance, one which should be entirely divorced from partisan politics. It is a simple question of whether we shall now estab- lish a continuous state of preparedness against any national emergency, guaranteed by a trained and organized citizen army, or whether we shall continue indefinitely in the state of unprepareclness in which we found ourselves at the outbreak of the late war, the problem unsolved, the defense of the country left to chance. This is the fundamental question, inde- pendent of all minor details of policy or organization. It is the most important issue ever presented to the American people. Shall we meet the issue fairly, squarely and promptly, or shall we evade it? One of the favorite arguments of those who oppose universal training is that no such training is needed, [157] because the men who fought in the late war will be again available for the defense of the country in case of need. Concerning this a veteran of the "World War remarks: I can find no words to express my contempt for this selfish and cowardly argument. Is it fair that the veterans of this war, who shed their blood and risked their lives in defense of the country, should be again called upon to bear the burden in a future war years hence? But whether or not it be fair, it is certain that the veterans of the late war will not be the ones who will fill the ranks of the armed forces in a future war a decade or two decades hence. Statistics prove that wars are fought by the very young men of a nation. In our own Civil War the great majority of the rank and file in both armies were not over 26 years of age. The argument is a futile one, and if it serves at this time to prevent the nation from adopting a rational policy of national defense, our historic apathy may be counted upon to defeat such measures in the future, when the lessons of the late war are less vivid before our eyes. The enactment of any legislation as to a military policy which does not include universal training, the most vitally essential feature of such a policy, will mean an indefinite postponement of preparedness, a falling back into our historic apathy and indifference, the fool's paradise of the pacifist. The passage of such a bill as this ten years ago [158] would have made the United States so powerful a force in the affairs of the world that the mere prob- ability of our entrance into the World War would have served to avert that war. The passage now of this bill will render the prestige, the security, the independence of our country inviolate for all time. Should this bill become law the American flag and every citizen under that flag will be respected throughout the world. Those who might wish to trample upon the rights of our citizens in foreign lands will hear the solemn voice of warning, hear and stay their hands: "Take heed what thou doest, for this man is an AMERICAN! " Functions of the Regular Army In the rapid march of modern progress in transpor- tation and communication, time and space in a mili- tary sense have been all but annihilated. Scant op- portunity remains for the creation of a nation's de- fenses after diplomatic processes have failed to achieve results. More than ever before in history national preparedness is an issue and it cannot be ignored. The question now is not one of principle but one of means and methods. The great conflict has brought home to all the fact that a professional army, how- ever well trained, however well equipped and however numerous, short of the total national resources, can- not meet the ultimate demands of modern warfare. [159] Nations at war must be in fact nations in arms and their war power can be nothing less than their total strength in men, in material and in an invincible will to win — "men, munitions and morale." Obviously, however, no nation can afford to keep its total man- power under arms at all times, nor, on the other hand, can any nation afford to dispense entirely with some force which shall serve to hold the outer lines in the first assault and to cover the mobilization of its re- serves. Some organization must be maintained through which the nation may generate its full fight- ing resources. Universal training, by providing a large number of men able and willing to defend the country in case of need, relieves the nation of the burden of the main- tenance of a large standing army in time of peace. There are, however, certain duties and contingencies which require the constant maintenance of an armed force, a regular army, whose strength in time of peace should be held to the minimum necessary for the per- formance of these duties. Such duties are : 1. Garrisoning our seacoast defenses and our out- lying possessions. 2. Providing a small regular force to cope with wars or other emergencies, not of sufficient import- ance to justify calling out the reserves. 3. Providing a small organized force to be always ready to meet the first shock of an invasion. 4. Providing a nucleus and rallying point for the armed forces of the nation in case of a great war. [ 160 ] 161 ] 5. Furnishing competent instructors for the uni- versal training camps and conducting the training 1 at such camps, at colleges and officers' training camps. 6. Providing a corps of highly trained officers for higher command and staff duty. 7. Furnishing officers and men for the highly tech- nical arms and services, for which extended special training is necessary. 8. Keeping alive the military spirit, keeping up-to- date in the study and development of the art of war and abreast of progress in military affairs. Every man who understands anything of the na- ture of the gigantic and highly complex struggle from which we have just emerged, realizes that modern war is a very intricate and technical affair. It is the game of the expert and the professional. . As the numbers engaged increase and the engines of war become more numerous as well as more complicated and various, expert manipulation and direction are s more and more required. To entrust the direction of the vast machinery of war to the novice or amateur is to invite destruction. In peace the mistakes of the leader are paid for in lost profits, in war they are paid for in the blood of patriots and the humiliation and downfall of nations. We cannot afford mistakes that entail such consequences. We cannot entrust the direction of the war machine except to those who have been thoroughly trained for this gravest and heaviest of human responsibilities. War to-day utilizes all the most complex, delicate [ 162 ] scientific devices and methods known to man, and these agencies must be applied in the most effective manner known to the solutions of the problems of tactics and strategy. Military commanders must not only be thoroughly familiar with military princi- ples and examples, and the best methods of apply- ing them to the situations that arise, but they must be also familiar with the complex mechanisms and agencies of science which are at their disposal, and the methods in which they may be utilized to best advantage in the furtherance of military aims. They must understand, moreover, how to marshal back of the army, all the moral, physical and material re- sources of the nation. If our commanders are not thus equipped our armies meet defeat and disaster. The knowledge required of the commander in mod- ern war is stupendous. It can be acquired and main- tained only by continual study and effort. To keep abreast of the developments of modern war and the advances in science which affect its conduct, require constant application. We cannot be prepared to meet the emergencies of war unless we have trained minds constantly study- ing its problems and possibilities. If we lag behind the world in these things we invite national disaster and humiliation. A far-sighted French general, addressing the stu- dents at the French War College in 1895 said: There will be a greater difference between the next war [ 163 ] and the war of 1870 than there was between the war of 1870 and the wars of the First Empire. Universal train- ing, smokeless powder, rapid-firing weapons and efficient transportation will bring about changes which we little suspect. The beginning of that war will bring surprises for every one. The victors will be those who can most quickly comprehend. This was a man of clear vision, and like clarity of vision should enable us to perceive, at least in out- line, the changes that will be ushered in by the next great war. The possibilities of aviation in warfare were hardly more than dimly perceived in the late conflict. Since the war an aeroplane has flown across the Atlantic Ocean in less than 24 hours. An authority on avia- tion has said that in a few years transatlantic travel by aeroplane will be as common as automobile travel between New York and Albany is to-day. In one great battle we now expend more ammunition than was formerly employed in the entire course of a war. Aeroplanes, poison gas and smoke, quick-firing weap- ons of all kinds,* expending undreamed of quantities of ammunition, tanks, submarine and subterranean warfare, transportation by water, rail and road, per- mitting vast and rapid concentrations of men and material, rapid methods of construction, espionage and propaganda, intensive methods of training, taxes, loans and other financial operations, mobilization of material resources, the control of civil populations — all of these and many other things were employed in [ 164 ] the late war on a scale never before conceived or even guessed at. Yet we by no means attained the ulti- mate. The next great war will see still greater de- velopments of these things, and witness the introduc- tion and development of new machines and methods now unknown. We must have experts constantly studying the game of war and the methods of defense against possible invaders whose experts are likewise studying it, just as in our great laboratories for medi- cal research we have experts constantly studying and developing ways and means of protecting us against the diseases which threaten health and life. This research, study and development can be car- ried on only by experts who devote their entire at- tention to such matters; that is, only by a regular army. It is the function of this army to keep us up-to-date in military matters, to form the nucleus of thoroughly trained men around which the forces of the nation can rally in time of national emergency. It is the duty of the regular army to keep the powder dry, the musket clean and oiled, against the time when the savages swoop down upon us. In addition to these essentials the regular army performs in time of peace a large number of useful duties of a miscellaneous nature, and is by no means maintained in constant idleness, as some people have supposed. The army was the principal instrumental- ity in the creation and maintenance of the lines of communication which made possible the development [165] of the great west. To this day it has a strong hold upon the affections of the citizens in that portion of the country. Amongst the other civil achievements of the army and navy in the past may be mentioned : maintaining order and security in many American cities during times of fire or flood or other emergen- cies with which the civil authorities were unable to cope, relieving distress of the citizens on such occa- sions, inauguration of civil government in new pos- sessions, such as Cuba and the Philippine Islands, construction of the Panama Canal, construction of transcontinental railways, and railways in outlying possessions, construction of all harbors and improve- ment of all rivers and construction of canals in the interests of navigation, maintenance and construction of lighthouses and all other aids to navigation, regu- lation of navigation on the seas, lakes and rivers, con- struction of many public buildings and monuments, abatement of floods on the Mississippi and other rivers and relief of flood sufferers, inauguration of the Geo- logical, Geodetic, Hydrographic and Public Land Surveys of the United States, valuable contributions to medical and sanitary science, including discovery of the causes and methods of abating such diseases as yellow fever, typhoid fever, dysentery, etc., similar valuable contributions to the sciences of engineering, chemistry, bacteriology, astronomy, etc., discovery of the north pole. Our regular army and navy are not alone a quar- [ 166 ] antine against the pestilence of war. They are a highly trained and devoted force, ready and able to perform any kind of public service or meet any emergency of peace. Many times and oft in our his- tory the nation and the communities thereof in the throes of internal disasters, have sought the succor of our trained army as the only power able to save their lives and possessions, and never has the army been found unprepared or unable to afford the relief asked for. The army and navy are our chief guarantee for the maintenance of law, order and public safety in the emergencies of peace as well as those of war. Length of the Period of Training There has been much discussion as to the proper length of the period of training. Naturally, it is de- sirable that this period should be as short as pos- sible, but it must be sufficient to accomplish the pur- poses in view and justify the expenditure and the in- terference with civil life. These purposes should be clearly understood. The rudiments of military train- ing must be given and the spirit of discipline thor- oughly inculcated. In addition to this there must be sufficient physical training to give all the students a good sound physique and good "set-up." Schol- astic instruction will be required in many cases and vocational training in all. The different courses will, of course, be carried on [ 167] simultaneously, but to accomplish such ambitious re- sults as these (and we are content with no less) will require time. Discipline in particular requires time, because it must be gradually absorbed by the student from the atmosphere in which he finds himself, and is less susceptible of "intensive application" than any other form of training. Discipline is not a knowl- edge of how to do certain things, but a spirit of loy- alty and dependability that is a result of the student's whole training and environment/ The military train- ing must be sufficient to insure discipline and establish a feeling of self-reliance, to teach the students how to care for themselves in the field, and to enable them to efficiently handle the weapons of modern combat. The vocational training should be sufficient to enable the students to fill positions as skilled artisans in civil life. It is the spirit of discipline, however, which the average American will be longest in acquiring; at least until the system of universal training shall have been in operation long enough to influence the entire nation and affect the rearing of children. The necessity for inculcating the spirit of discipline, loy- alty and patriotism, which is the most important item of the training, is accordingly the proper meas- ure of the length of the period of instruction. The other items can be taught within the same period. In Germany, prior to the late war, the period of training was two years. In France it was three [168] [ 169 ] years, but this was due chiefly to a desire to maintain as large a standing army as Germany with a smaller population. In Switzerland the period of training varies from two to four months (for different arms of the service) with an additional period of two weeks in each .of several following years. In the Swiss system vocational training is not included, nor indeed anything not strictly necessary from a purely military point of view. For the Swiss system, like the German and French, is frankly military in its aim, and its other advantages, though great, are only incidental. Nevertheless, the length of the period has been several times increased, and is still regarded as too short to inculcate a proper spirit of discipline. The Swiss, therefore, as a result of their experience, regard four months as too short a period, even when vocational training is not included. Our own belief, as a result of our experiences in the late war, is that a period of three or even two years of continuous training is more than is neces- sary to obtain the results desired, both from the military and civil points of view. If vocational train- ing is to be included in the curriculum a very short period will of course not suffice. And it is certainly most desirable that it be included, as it would not greatly increase the cost and would be of immense value to the individual and to the nation. During the late war we sent into action troops who had re- ceived less than six months' training, and because [KOI these troops in many instances acquitted themselves with credit it may have been believed that their train- ing was all that it should have been. But it must be remembered that they were opposed to an army wear- ied with four years of continuous war, insufficiently supplied, and with defeat and ruin staring it in the face. Certainly these men were not properly trained, either to perform their full duties or to survive the ordeals of campaign and battle. This is a point that should not be overlooked. The untrained man has not a. fair chance to survive, either on the field of battle when pitted against a trained foe, or in camp, bivouac or on the march, where he meets other enemies not less dangerous (as experience proves) in the form of exposure and disease. We must give our boys a " fighting chance" by teaching them how to meet their enemies on equal terms and how to conserve their health and vigor amidst the exposure and dangers incident to life in the field. It is not fair to the nation to entrust the defense of its liberties to imperfectly trained men, and it is not fair to the men themselves. Under the stress of actual war both the men and the officers over them took the training more seriously than could ordinarily be expected in time of peace. On the other hand, peace will enable us eventually to provide better facilities for training than we had at the outbreak of this war. The length of the period of training, according to several proposals, varies from 3 to 18 months. Dur- [171] ing a three months period there would be little op- portunity for anything more than physical and mili- tary training. The students would have to be carried so rapidly through a purely military course that we would miss the opportunity to realize to the fullest the vast possibilities of universal training as a school of good citizenship. And a thorough discipline, which is of vital importance from both a civil and military point of view, could not be inculcated. Whatever period is adopted it must be continuous. Continuity of training is even more important than the length of the period. Disciplinary instruction ab- solutely demands continuous control of the students. If they are constantly escaping from the atmosphere of discipline they can never become impregnated with it. A month a year for six successive years would not produce results comparable with four months con- tinuously in one year. The benefits derived during one isolated period would largely disappear before the next period. Not only the disciplinary instruc- tion, but all items of training would suffer. No edu- cational plan follows such a scheme of interrupted instruction except as a matter of sheer necessity. Lack of continuity of training has been one of the greatest handicaps under which the National Guard has labored. Moreover, lack of continuity would cause much waste of time and confusion, would be a most unwar- ranted interference with the civil careers of the [172] young men, and would greatly increase the cost of training. Considerable expense in time and money is involved in assembling the students from their homes and returning them thereto. If there be two periods of instruction instead of one, this cost is almost doubled. At the beginning of each period it would be necessary to re-equip the students to a great ex- tent. If all students were assembled at the same time each year for a short course, the large and expensive plant at the camps and all the instructors would be idle most of the time. If they were assembled at different periods this would be most embarrassing to their civil pursuits, and the variation in season would greatly interfere with instruction, especially the all- important outdoor instruction. In the winter in the north outdoor work must be greatly curtailed, but if the winter is part of a longer season it may advan- tageously be used for indoor and vocational instruc- tion. At the beginning of each period it would be neces- sary to give the students a "review" of their previous training, which would not be fresh in their minds after a year's absence. This would consume valuable time. But probably the greatest objection to non- continuous instruction would be the repeated inter- ruptions at various seasons of the civil careers of the students, which would be most trying to them and to their employers. Undoubtedly, they will all prefer to take the necessary training in one "dose" and I 173 ] have it over with, being thereafter free to follow their civil pursuits without interruption. Discon- tinuous training would appear to be disadvantageous in every way. • There is probably no American army or navy officer who believes that three months is a sufficient period, even if continuous, in which to accomplish the results desired. Some have recommended such a period in the belief that the American people would not consent to a longer one, and on the principle that "half a loaf is better than no bread. " Six months is probably the minimum that will produce even fairly satisfactory results, and many believe that more time is necessary. Six months is, of course, a very convenient period, as it would always begin and end at the same time, and could utilize the most favorable season of the year, which would be ad- vantageous from every point of view. There would be the minimum of lost time from cold or inclement weather, and opportunity for a recess between periods for leaves of absence to instructors, preparation for the next course, etc. The proper length of the period probably remains to be determined by experience. It will undoubtedly be wise to start with a period of moderate length. After a short demonstration of the benefits of the system it will unquestionably become a popular institution, and the nation as a whole will be in a position to judge whether it will be advan- tageous to extend the period and increase the amount [174] of vocational training. Such judgment will be sound. It would of course be quite possible to turn out well-drilled infantry in a period of three months, or even less, if time were devoted exclusively to infantry drill. But there are many important things to be taught besides drill. A well drilled organization is not necessarily well disciplined or thoroughly in- structed in other respects. This is a school for the production of good citizens and thorough soldiers, not theatrical troupes, trained only to perform certain steps with precision. The habit of doing things right is the foundation of success in civil life and of victory in war. This habit is formed by repeatedly doing things right, which in the chief reason for the insistence on accu- rate and snappy drill in the army. This is discipline, and it cannot be acquired in a day or a month. It is the most important item of the training, and if it be not acquired our time is largely wasted. The time necessary to acquire this discipline is accordingly the measure of the proper length of the period of universal training. Many a man has made a success in life without educational advantages, without good health, without high intelligence. But no man ever yet succeeded who had not formed the habit of doing things right. These considerations indicate that, to begin with, the period should be six months of continuous train- ing. [175] The Best Age for Training The consensus of opinion of educators and psy- chologists is that the best time for training is in the nineteenth year of age, or within one year of that age. It might be supposed that the principles and lessons it is desired co impress could be taught at an earlier age and through the medium of the public schools. There are undoubtedly many things that we grasp more easily in childhood or early youth than later. But there are other things that require a certain de- gree of maturity of mind and thought. "A boy's will is as the wind's will" — fitful and changing. The more serious impressions of patriotism, democracy, fairness to fellow-man, the "square deal," conscience in our work, etc., are more likely to endure if formed, or at least confirmed, at the period of budding man- hood when youth stands upon the threshold of life, laying its course and forming its creed. It is desirable, of course, that the period should come as early as practicable in life, in order to early form right habits, and also to interfere as little as possible with adult life. Children are far more im- pressionable than those of mature age, but on the other hand impressions acquired too early are not en- during. Also the training to be administered is admittedly strenuous, and a fair degree of physical maturity is desirable. There is a golden mean be- tween extreme youth, when the child is physically insufficiently developed and does not register perma- [ 176] [177] nent impressions, and full manhood when he has be- come less impressionable and less pliable and learns less readily. This golden mean is found at the threshold between childhood and manhood, or at from 18 to 20 years of age. The Need for Federal Control So far-reaching a system of education as universal training is possible only under Federal control. The federal or national government is the most powerful agency at our command and only through its instru- mentality can a uniformly high standard of instruc- tion be attained. One of the greatest obstacles we have encountered in our efforts to improve our sys- tem of education for children is the fact that each state in the Union must be dealt with independently. Each is a law unto itself in these matters, the federal government having never undertaken the control of primary education. We have forty-eight separate sovereignties to deal with, and however much we may improve the educational system of Massachusetts, for instance, this is of small benefit to Texas, for the force of example is little felt in such matters. Under fed- eral control any improvement that was found de- sirable could be made at once effective and uniform throughout the system. The proper training of youth is the natural function of the federal government. The need for federal con- [ 178 ] _ trol will be painfully apparent to any one who will take the trouble, to examine the educational laws of the various states, with their lack of any common basis or ideal. Educational laws in some states are very good; in others they are exceedingly bad. In none of the states are these laws all that they should be, and in only a very few are the existing laws, such as they are, thoroughly enforced. There would be also financial difficulties in any system under local control. The wealth of the nation as a whole is ample to support the proposed program, especially as a single system with one head would be far less ex- pensive than forty-eight separate systems. But the wealth of many communities would not be sufficient, and always would these be the communities most in need of education. Thus those most needing these benefits would be the ones to receive the least. To induce forty-eight separate states to voluntarily and independently adopt a single uniform system would be an impossible task, or one at least that it would take years to accomplish. And even if the forty-eight states were all induced to undertake the project, each would enact its own laws and enforce, or generally fail to enforce them in its own way. In some states the results would be fairh good, in others almost nil. In no case would they be such as the federal government could obtain. The Swiss system of training was originally admin- istered by each canton, but it was found that federal [ 179] control was absolutely necessary for adequate results. The average educational institution develops and improves chiefly by its own narrow experiences. In a system of universal training under government con- trol the combined experiences of the teachers of mil- lions would be of far more value for improvement than the experiences of any one institution or even any group of institutions. Universal training would create a common stand- ard for all pupils from all states, thus avoiding the unsatisfactory effects of the many vague and poorly enforced state laws from which our educational system now suffers. Furthermore, it would have a direct and powerful influence upon the state institutions, tend- ing to standardize their methods and raise them to a higher plane of efficiency. Uniform public education is much to be desired, both in the schools and in the training camps. It would be a powerful agency in giving our citizens a common point of view. Amongst the features in which universal training would be more effective than state training are: 1. The uniformity of its application. There would be no evasions, and no exemptions except for good and cogent reasons. 2. The actual amount of training given. Almost all the students would take the full course and the minimum would be the average. This is one of the chief weaknesses of the state system, where children frequently manage to evade the full course prescribed by law. £180] 3. The uniform and high standard of excellence. Every student would receive the best instruction by the best of well paid and thoroughly competent teach- ers. The federal government can provide facilities for training beyond the power of any of the states. Who Favor Universal Training In considering the advisability of engaging in a business enterprise we usually ask counsel of those among our friends in whose judgment we have confi- dence, because of their experience or study, their in- telligence or general information. To give a list of all the prominent men and civic bodies who have declared in favor of universal train- ing in some form, would greatly increase the size of this volume. Suffice it to say that the great ma- jority of all our public men and educational au- thorities who have expressed themselves on the sub- ject have heartily endorsed such training. And this includes a number who are, or have been, classed as "anti-militarists," even as "pacifists." The news- papers of every section of the country favor it, and many civic bodies have endorsed, the proposal. Many of the leading thinkers of our country have for several years been considering the question of uni- versal training, and many prominent men in all walks of life have become convinced that it is essential to the future welfare and safety of the country. In- deed, many of these public spirited men are devoting [181] a large part of their time to working in its behalf. Before the committees of Congress which are now considering the question of a permanent military pol- icy for the United States a great many prominent men, both civil and military, have declared in favor of such a training. The foremost educators of the land, presidents and professors of prominent colleges and universities, have strongly recommended universal training. The group of educators selected to operate the University of the American Expeditionary Forces at Beaune, France, were much impressed with the crying need for better education of "our young men. They have pre- pared a comprehensive plan for improving the edu : cational system of America, which plan includes a year's military and vocational training. That sterling and uncompromising American, the late Theodore Roosevelt, said: I advocate universal military training as much because of what it will do for this nation in peace as because of what it will mean to this nation in war. The man who is not willing to fight for his country, and not willing to fit himself to fight for it, and the woman who has not raised her boy to be a soldier for the right, neither one of them is entitled to citizenship in this Republic. Recently Bishop Samuel Fallows, of Chicago, stated before the Congressional committee that the churches of the country had gone on record in favoT of uni- versal training, and that the sentiment of the country generally was for it. [ 182 ] Cardinal Gibbons says: I am convinced that some military training is essential to the welfare and security of the nation. In the recent war we had the trained armies of our allies to lean upon until our soldiers were prepared for the battlefield. We cannot always depend upon such a favorable circum- stance. ... It cannot be said that such preparation will make for war. I believe that it will make for peace, since other nations, knowing our preparedness, will be reluctant to draw us into war. And finally, considering the condition of unrest in our country to-day, we should be prepared to meet any emergency. Among all intelligent men who have given their at- tention to the subject we find the conviction that uni- versal training not only offers the most important benefits to our young men, and through them to the race, but that it is in fact a necessity to our future welfare and safety. A large group of representative physicians from all sections of the country have recently petitioned Con- gress to enact a law providing for Universal Training, in the interests of the national health. The following will be of special interest to the mothers of America. AYhen universal training was proposed in Australia the women were in violent op- position to it, and all but defeated the measure. Within two years after its inauguration they became its most ardent supporters, having observed its bene- ficial effects upon their sons. Australia, it may be remarked, has compulsory universal training, but no [ 183 ] compulsory universal service. The two are not in- separably connected. We may, according to our judg- ment, have either without the other, but the success- ful prosecution of a great war demands both. Samuel Gompers, President of the American Feder- ation of Labor, says : While unalterably opposed to anything that even smacks of militarism, I favor some disciplinary measures for the youth of the land. I believe this is essential for the pro- motion of true national feeling, for the counteraction of destructive propaganda, for the provision of that alertness, intelligence and amenability to law which the youth of every nation sorely needs. The War Department recently conducted a canvass amongst several thousand officers discharged from the temporary commissions held during the war. Ninety- two per cent of these men went on record as favoring universal training. These were men of superior in- telligence and patriotism, as proven by the fact that they had gained commissioned rank. They were tem- porary officers having no connection with the army prior to the war. They represented no particular class of society, locality, religion or calling, but came from all walks of life and all professions. They were accordingly truly representative of the best class of intelligent American citizens, fully qualified by ex- perience to judge the benefits of military training. [184] There could be no stronger endorsement than this. Sergeant Alvin C. York, of Tennessee, the greatest individual hero of the world war, according to Marshal Foch, and who, it will be remembered, was at one time a "conscientious objector" to warfare in any form, has declared himself in favor of universal training. In a recent interview Sergeant York says : From my experience in the cantonment and in overseas service, I am -convinced that universal training and dis- cipline would greatly improve the health of the young men of the country. It would make them stronger and better men, with a higher respect for law and order, instill patriot- ism and Americanize the youth of the land. This is ex- ceedingly important. I hope such training will be adopted by our country. The American Legion, those representative citizens of all classes who saw service overseas in the late con- flict, who know what war is and who most keenly ap- preciate the blessings of peace, are as a body in favor of Universal Training, not for war alone, but to in- sure a better citizenship, a truer Americanism, and the rule of law and order in our land. The following is quoted from the resolutions con- cerning a military policy, adopted by the Legion. 1. That a large standing army is uneconomic and un-American. National safety and freedom from militarism is best assured by a national citizen army [185] based on the American principle of equality of obli- gation and opportunity for all. 2. We favor a policy of universal military training and that the administration of such a policy shall be removed from the exclusive control of any exclusively military organization or caste. We are strongly op- posed to compulsory military service in time of peace. 4. We have had a bitter experience in the cost of unpreparedness for national defense and the lack of proper training on the part of officers and men, and we realize the necessity of an immediate revision of our military system and a thorough house-cleaning of the inefficient officers and methods of our entire military establishment. We favor a national military system based on uni- versal military obligation, to include a relatively small regular army and a citizen army capable of rapid expansion to meet any national emergency, on a plan which will provide competitive and progressive training for all officers, both of the regular army and of the citizen forces. We believe that such a military system should be subject to civil authority. National Commander Franklin d'Olier, of the American Legion, says : I think we will be able to agree on some form of legis- lation that will be truly democratic, truly American and make this country safe for us, our children, and our children's children. Every Post in the country will be asked to get behind this legislation and get behind it strong. We feel that there should be Universal Training for the youth of the country. It will serve to make better citizens. [186] PART III UNIVERSAL TRAINING AND NATIONAL DEFENSE The Need of Preparedness IX the preceding 1 pages we have endeavored to point out the advantages of and the necessity for uni- versal training from a civil point of view, as affecting the daily life of the nation and the character of our citizenship. The pages which follow bear upon the vital relation of universal training to national defense and national independence. The authors ex- press the hope that their arguments, which are based upon the lessons of history and human and interna- tional relations, may help to dispel some of the misun- derstandings of a project so vitally important to the welfare and security of America as to be entitled to the hearty support of all patriotic citizens. Every attempt on the part of the United States to establish a more effective policy of national defense and provide for greater national -security, has been met by violent opposition on the part of certain classes of our people. It is an opposition based upon a misunderstanding of the lessons of experience and upon a fancied sense of national security due to a geographical isolation which has ceased to be a politi- cal, industrial, or military isolation. We are the most [ 1ST I pacifistic nation on earth except China. But China's pacifists are passive, whereas ours have been aggres- sive to a marked degree. In the late war they made strong efforts to block the passage of, the selective service act, or draft law, whose failure would have meant victory for Germany and the downfall of civ- ilization in Europe. And some even w^ent so far as to obstruct the operation of the law after its passage. Much of this pacifist outcry and activity was, of course, German propaganda. But much of it repre- sented the honest opinion of earnest, but misguided, American citizens. These honest opinions, because based on a misunderstanding of fact, are entitled to a fair answer. Opposition to universal service and to universal training on the part of the American people in the past has been diie to a number of popular misconcep- tions. Some of these are fundamentally wrong and always have been. Others were valid once but have ceased to be so. These misconceptions are many and varied. Some of the most important are : 1. That there will never be another great war. 2. That international differences can invariably be settled by arbitration, without resort to arms, and that the results of arbitration are dependent on com- mon sense, justice and mutual good-will, without reference to the armaments behind the arbitrators. 3. That our desire to remain at peace with all the world is the only thing necessary to insure that peace. That because we do not covet the possessions of any [ 188 ] Good fellowship of all classes is the essence of democracy. There is nothing more refreshing and inspiring than outdoor association with congenial mates. Snobbery and unwholesome class distinctions melt away in the air of the training camp. other nation no other will covet ours. That the Mon- roe Doctrine will always be respected out of friend- ship to the United States, and needs no armament to support it. 4. That our geographical and commercial isolation are such that we cannot possibly have any interest at stake in a war between European or Asiatic nations, and that we are not concerned in the preservation of a world balance of power. 5. That to justify adequate preparation for defense the menace of war must be imminent and definite; that the mere possibility of war in the future with [189] some now unknown enemy does not justify such preparation; and that when such war is actually upon us is time enough to prepare. 6. That a defensive war means solely the actual repelling of invaders of our own soil and cannot pos- sibly involve a sending of American troops overseas to fight in foreign lands. That "defensive warfare" is essentially different in its nature from "offensive warfare" and requires less training and preparation. 7. That population, wealth and resources, though unorganized for defense, are synonymous with mili- tary strength, and that patriotism and a willingness to defend our rights are a sufficient guarantee of national security without the necessity of any prepa- ration in time of peace. 8. That recognition of the duty of every citizen to serve the country in case of need does not include the necessity of the citizen being prepared to perform that duty. That the "compulsory" feature of uni- versal training is repugnant to the spirit of a free people. 9. That voluntary service can always be relied upon to furnish sufficient force for the prosecution of any war. 10. That preparedness for national defense means militarism in the United States and would serve to bring on rather than to prevent war. 11. That any system of universal training w r ould be hurtful in withdrawing men from civil pursuits, and that such training could not be of any benefit to them in their future civil careers. 12. That "discipline" is a purely military virtue which converts men into automatons and destroys their initiative, and is therefore useless and even harmful as a preparation for any civil pursuit. [ 190 ] The World War has, fortunately for us, dispelled for a time at least some of the fogs of misunderstand- ing. Diplomacy was not able to prevent the catas- trophe which involved the entire civilized world, most of the nations against their wishes. In spite of our isolation we found that we could not look with in- difference upon what was going on in Europe, nor even escape the effects thereof. The war for us was a defensive war. We sought no territory nor in- demnity. Yet we were obliged to send millions of our men across the Atlantic to fight for our rights. In spite of our great resources and population our state of unpreparedness was such that it was a year after our entry into the war before American troops took any decisive part in the conflict, and 17 months before an American army, commanded by American officers, actually engaged in battle. And it should be added that this was in spite of the fact that for months before we entered the war it was apparent to all thinking people that our intervention was highly probable, if not certain, and that our industries were in an advanced state of preparedness, due to the fact that we had for a long timei^een furnishing muni- tions to the entente allies. Yet the equipment of our own forces was furnished in large measure by our allies, including nearly all of our artillery. Had we depended upon ourselves alone it would have been much longer before we were ready to take part. Had we been opposed alone to the full strength of the [191] Veteran German army, our comparatively small num- ber of insufficiently trained troops would have been quite unequal to the situation a full year, or even two years after "we entered the war, and Germany would not have waited on us, she would have struck all the quicker and harder. And she would have gone through us as easily as she went through Serbia and Roumania. These statements are not flattering to our national vanity, but they are true. As it was, how- ever, we arrived in the nick of time to turn the tide of battle and insure a decisive victory for the forces of right. But it was not our strength that did it, only our strength added to the greater strength of our allies. Immediately after our entry into the war it became again painfully apparent that voluntary service would never furnish us with the force we needed to take any decisive part in the conflict. A million men did not spring to arms over night, and even a million would not have been nearly enough. And so, w r isely profiting by the experience of our allies and the les- sons of all history, we promptly enacted the compul- sory service law, or " selective service' ' law, as we termed it. The enactment of this law, so bitterly op- posed by the Germans and by our short-sighted pacifists, saved civilization from being crushed by German militarism. War is a calamity which all righteous nations should do everything in their power to avoid or pre- [192] vent. Anything that holds out a reasonable promise of reducing the frequency of unnecessary wars is worth trying, whether it be alliances to preserve the balance of power, including a league of nations, pre- paredness for defense, or the development by any means of a world-wide sentiment in favor of peace. But we know that in our present imperfect state wars still take place in spite of all our precautions, because all nations are not righteous, or at least not invariably so. And war is not always unrighteous. War in defense of our liberties and ideals, war to uphold justice and freedom and overthrow tyranny and op- pression, is righteous war and ennobles the nation that engages in it. Our own glorious republic had its birth in war, and in several subsequent wars we have fought to preserve our independence and liberties, and not for conquest nor gain. We do not desire a peace that involves the sacrifice of our ideals of justice, freedom and democracy. A nation is justified in making war in defense of its rights, and it is even justified in making war in defense of the rights of others. The misguided pacifist who would prevent the nation from defend- ing its liberties against foreign aggression by depriv- ing it of the power to do so, is as wicked and even more dangerous than the jingo who would force the nation into an unwarranted and unrighteous conflict. We punish crimes against society, and society could not continue to exist were such punishment to be [193] abolished. Neither can we refuse to take up arms in defense of our rights and liberties if we desire to continue in the possession of them. Progress in all ages has been the result of protest and struggle against wrong and cruelty. Our own freedom was achieved by war and preserved by war. Resistance to tyranny and oppression is the mark of a virile nation. Freedom and democracy cannot mate with weakness and cowardice. Any careful observer of human and earthly affairs cannot have failed to observe the delicate balance be- tween good and evil that exists in the world. All evil is tempered by good and all good by evil. Evil results from good deeds at times even as good comes from evil. There is evil in the best of us and good in the worst of us. The struggle against evil is what chiefly develops our characters and makes us men in- stead of invertebrates. We are constantly struggling against evil influences. He who has never met and resisted temptation has missed the greatest influence for character development. Evil seems to be a neces- sary part of the Creator's scheme of things. He has put it here in order that we may, if we wish, become strong and loyal and steadfast by constantly strug- gling against and overcoming it. Strife is the law of life. So fond are we of strife, and so necessary is it to our development that even our pleasures and recre- ations frequently, perhaps usually, take the form of strife, friendly strife if you will, but still a pitting of [ 194 ] muscle against muscle and mind against mind. What is true of individuals is even more true of those col- lections of individuals we call nations. Compe- tition, conflict of interests and strife between nations is as natural as strife between individuals. Strife will continue as long as the world because it is natural law. We cannot legislate war out of existence any more than we can legislate individual strife out of exist- ence. Before every great war the prediction is made that there -will never be another. And after each the cry goes up that it will be the last. The hope is father to the thought. Xot while man retains his virility will strife between men cease. Xot while pa- triotism and pride of blood and race are living pas- sions and not obsolete words in musty lexicons, will nations cease to war in defense of their liberties. Before the late war some of the bankers told us that no conflict could take place without their con- sent. The great war was bearing down upon us even as they made this futile declaration. Dr. David Starr Jordan, said in 1914: What shall we say of the great war in Europe, always threatening, alwa} 6 impending, but which never comes? We shall say that it never will come. Humanly speaking, it is impossible. The German Kaiser must have smiled as he read this remarkable preachment. [ 195 ] With reference to the question as to whether or not wars are becoming less frequent, less general in their scope, less expensive and less deadly as the world grows older, the following will be of interest : The Historical Register of the United States Army lists no less than 105 wars, insurrections, rebellions, punitive expeditions, etc., in which the United States have engaged. Of these one-third occurred during the first half of our history and two-thirds during the last half. The magnitude of the conflicts also greatly increased, for whereas in the first half we had the "Wars of the Revolution and 1812, in the last half we have had the Civil War and the World War (the Mexican War occurred exactly in the middle of the period). The entire expenditures of the United States government, from the foundation of the Republic to the opening of the World War (1917) were approxi- mately 27 billions of dollars. During two years of the war alone, we expended (including loans) con- siderably more than this vast sum. The rate of ex- penditure during the war was over twenty times the pre-war rate. And it is not the expenditure during the period of actual hostilities that is alone to be reck- oned with. Expenses did not cease with the armistice. Experience shows that after a great war from one to eight years is required to restore equilibrium. For example, after the Civil War the expenses of the Fed- eral government were, for several years, more than three times what they had been prior to the war, I 196 ] We are now enjoying a similar experience. And the rext great war will be more expensive than that which has just been concluded, since the cost of war is constantly increasing. The wisdom of insuring ourselves against such frightful losses must be appar- ent to every patriotic and far-sighted citizen. In 19 months of the World War we expended near- ly 33 billions of dollars (including loans) or about $1,700,000 a month. In a war of defense on our own soil against a powerful adversary we would incur at least equal expense and would suffer in addi- tion the destruction of much of our property, which even in the event that we were victorious would be only partly indemnified, to say nothing of the slaughter and starvation of our citizens. Unprepar- edness for the Civil War has cost the American na- tion, all told, close to eight billions of dollars. The cost of all the Avars of the world from 1793 (French Revolution) to 1860 (67 years) is estimated at 9 billions of dollars. The cost from 1861 to 1920 (60 years) was 200 billions, or more than 20 times as much in a less period. The World War, as the term implies, involved more nations than any previous conflict in history, and was participated in by the inhabitants of every continent except South America. The number of men (soldiers) killed in the World War was about 7% millions, or more by far than in all previous wars for a hundred years. In addition [197] to soldiers killed it is estimated that over 9 millions of civilians lost their lives as a result of the war, by murder, massacre, exposure, starvation and pestilence. This alarming increase in the cost, destructiveness and epidemic nature of war, is of course chiefly due to increase of population and wealth, transportation facilities and intercourse between nations. It is ap- parently an inevitable result of a rapid growth of material civilization, without a corresponding growth in moral and spiritual civilization, or fundamental change for the better in human nature. In the past, wars were much more limited in their territorial scope, and much less expensive and deadly than in these days. Formerly, because of the isolation, of nations from each other, a country Avas not apt to be drawn against its will into a conflict between other countries. To-day the interests of the nations are so interwoven and mutually dependent that any war, however small in its beginning, threatens the peace of the whole world, and no nation can be sure of avoid- ing its effects, or even direct participation. In olden days the victor often recouped the costs of the Avar at the expense of the vanquished. To-day Avar is expensive for both opponents. Although the United States Avere victorious in the Avar Avith Ger- many Ave will never be directly reimbursed for one penny spent in the conflict. If it was in the past desirable to avoid war, it is [198] How much better than loafing on the street corners! It's always fair weather when good fellows get together. Music is the most pleasant and refining of influences, and a vocation which may be taught at the camps. far more desirable to do so to-day, when war is so much more serious a matter than formerly. Mr. Lloyd George recently said: What would happen if we had another war baffles imagi- nation. Discoveries made almost at the end of the war had the}^ been used, would have produced horrors inde- scribable. If we are to have a repetition of this, civiliza- tion might well be wrecked. Lord Robert Cecil says: The next war, if it takes place, would be as much more [ 199 ] horrible than this war, as this has been more horrible than any preceding war. Shall we utterly disregard such warnings from such men ? Shall we continue to run the risk of being overwhelmed by the horrors of w r hieh they speak? Is it worth while to take the precautions which will insure that it shall be the enemy's civilization and not ours that shall be wrecked if a conflict is forced upon us; or better, to make ourselves so strong that none wall dare to join conflict with us? The discov- eries to which Mr. Lloyd George refers, the imple- ments and engines of w 7 ar, greatly increase man 's power of destruction. But after all it is man himself who is the destroyer. The engines of w 7 ar threaten the destruction of civilization only when they are em- ployed on a huge scale by vast numbers of trained men. No new engine of war wall ever take the place of the fighting soldier, with, his rifle, machine gun and rapid-fire cannon. New engines can only add to his destructive power. They will be of no avail for our protection except in the hands of a great army train- ed in their use. Our enemy will have both men and machines and we must be equally prepared if our safety is to be insured. In the presence of these facts can we continue to believe that w 7 e have seen our last war, and that the peace of the United States w T ill never again be threatened? [ 200 ] To-day is the day of insurance and "safety first." We insure our loved ones against want in the event of our death, we insure our property against fire and theft, Ave insure the trinkets we send by mail or ex- press. We have every conceivable precaution to in- sure life and property against death, injury or loss. We maintain police and fire departments, hospitals, asylums and jails, a public health service. We have all kinds of laws and regulations to this end. We purify our water supply, we supervise the production of our food, we inoculate our persons against disease. We have block systems on our railroads, life boats on our vessels, fire escapes on our buildings. We have adequately insured and safeguarded everything ex- cept the life of the nation. How can we best insure ourselves against the frightful disaster of modern war? The answer is simple: we must be just, we must be strong, we must be ready, and all the world must know that we are so. The universal training of our young men is our best national insurance against foreign aggression. But it is more effective than ordinary insurance, which does not prevent disaster, but only repairs its consequences to a certain extent. To use a favorite commercial term, it is life assurance. It is not the fact that we would be able to emerge victorious from a defensive war that is alone the measure of the mili- tary value of universal training. The fact that we are known to be thus prepared to defend ourselves [201] renders us in great measure secure from aggression. Like many other misfortunes, perhaps more than any other, Avar brings its compensations. With armed strife we have conquered the wilderness and built up great nations. With blood and suffering we have pur- chased democracy and human freedom. War is tragedy and suffering. Yet it is apparent that the Creator has used it as an instrument in the progress of the race, just as he has made human suffering an instrument for the uplift of the individual. War has been man's mightiest and most effective weapon in his struggle against injustice, tyranny and oppres- sion. With Avar he has successively overthrown indi- vidual, religious and political slavery. The following paragraph is quoted from a French author. Some may say that it expresses a "militar- istic" attitude of mind. Yet there is much of dignity and grandeur in its sentiment. The author Avas con- templating a scene where his ancestors had many times defended their liberties in armed strife, and he ruminates in characteristically French fashion: As we contemplate the ruin and tragedy of war a feeling of sadness comes over us and we say to ourselves, "What is the use?" "What is the use?" a voice from the depths of our soul replies; "What is the use of our country? What is the use of freedom and independence? What is the use of steadfastness, devotion and self-sacrifice ? What is the use of patriotism, which alone of human passions is worthy to be called holy?" War gave birth to all nations, and it is righteous war in defense of freedom that lifts [ 202 ] them up, re-vivifies and re-glorifies them when they have sunk into the degradation of sordid and selfish material in- terests. War is struggle against evil. But struggle against evil is the law of nature which insures the survival of the races, the institutions, the ideals, which are the strongest, the best, the noblest, the most worthy to survive. On this site, where so many of our ancestors yielded up their blood in the defense of their liberties and their homes against rapacious foreign aggression, it is not vain regrets that are called for, but pride, gratitude and homage to our sainted dead, whose bones lie here. They ask not our tears, but that we shall prove worthy of the glorious heritage their sacrifices have bequeathed us. Diplomacy in international relations is not solely, nor even chiefly a matter of law, common sense, good- will and brotherly love. Its success is largely depend- ent upon the strength of the armaments behind it, just as the success of a business man is dependent upon his credit with his bankers. We accede to de- mands when Ave know that those making the demands have the power to enforce them, quite as often as from pure considerations of right and equity. A powerful army and a great fleet are far more potent arguments in diplomatic relations than the most sub- tle and intelligent discourses of the ablest statesmen. It is not our own peace alone, but in great measure the peace of the world, which our strength insures. For it is the powerful nations that exercise the great- est influence, whether for good or for evil. Peace will not be furthered by an injudicious and premature disarmament of the nations wdiose voices [ 203 ] are most potent for peace. Let us at least begin by disarming those who have proved themselves unfit to wield power. When America raises her voicfc in protest far more attention will be paid to her when it is known she has the power to enforce her just de- mands. We can no more do away with war by dis- arming the just nations than we can stop crime by abolishing the police force. Such ill advised actions would be merely invitations to more war and more crime. A desire to remain at peace with the world is not sufficient to insure such peace. We have but lately seen ruthless and powerful nations seize the territory and murder the inhabitants of unoffending neighbor- ing nations without justification or even pretext. Human nature does not change over night, nor grow sweet and gentle in a clay. Envy and greed are as rampant at this instant as they have ever been, if not more so. The security of a nation, especially one so wealthy as to be the envy of all others, must rest on something more solid and dependable than a " scrap of paper." There still exist in the world powerful nations whom no considerations of a moral nature would deter from seizing our wealth and de- stroying our liberty and institutions if they were able to do so. Being already the possessors of the largest share of the world's wealth and resources we covet the possessions of no other nation. But we will do well to remember that there are others less for- [204] tunateiy placed than ourselves to whom our great wealth and material prosperity are a source of con- stant eiwy. We do not condemn treaties. They have a moral value in proportion to the morality of the states which sign them. But they are alone an insufficient guar- antee of peace. A treaty is only a promise, and a good business man does not rely on promises,. but de- mands material security. How much better to have the cash rather than the promissory note of one who may fall into moral bankruptcy. The greatest invitation to aggression is given by a nation at once weak and wealthy, as the United States busily engaged in accumulating dollars while utterly neglecting their defenses, have been in the past and will again become if some sound defensive policy be not now adopted. ' ' God help us ! ' ' exclaims one patriot, "if we should prove as weak as we are wealthy. ' ' The policy of a nation should determine the ex- tent of its armament, by which is meant its state of preparation for war. If we do not provide an arma- ment sufficient to maintain our national policies whatever they may be, we must either abandon or curtail our policies or, in the long run, come to grief. Our policies include the protection of our citizens in all lands, freedom of our commerce on all seas, t\±e maintenance of our national independence, and the absolute exclusion of all the nations of the world [ 205 ] ■\ *i Srt wM . • ? j Vlf^BBW - * ^ -til -&% E 1 1211 lift; *ff ; vlHI fl:. 15 4 11 •" w \ I . A J I /I \1 fil * jH I [ 206] from all territory in the western hemisphere except such as they already possess. This latter policy, com- monly known as the Monroe Doctrine, is a responsi- bility so vast, and so fraught with danger, that none but the most powerful nation can dare assert or pre- tend to maintain it. No American is willing to recede one step from any of these policies. The necessity of being prepared to maintain them against * all the world must therefore be apparent to everybody. We must either bring our armament abreast of our policy, abandon our policy, or invite disaster. Other nations have ambitious policies, and when in the natural course of events these come in conflict with our rigid Monroe Doctrine, either they must yield to diplomatic suggestion or else we have war, for the Monroe Doc- trine admits of no yielding. China has the least aggressive of all national poli- cies. Her policy consists solely in a desire to be left peacefully in possession of what belongs to her. Yet because her armament is not adequate to even this modest policy, she has been compelled to sit helplessly while other nations have robbed her of her territory and exploited her resources. The mutual distrust and jealousy of her despoilers has been the sole re- straint upon the spoliation that is constantly directed against her. If one nation wishes to seize a portion of China's territory, there is no question of any protest on the part of China, the owner, the question is only whether some other nation will object. China, there- [207 ] fore, has long ceased to be an independent nation, and her voice has no weight whatever in the world's diplomatic councils. This is because she is utterly lacking the spirit of patriotism which impels her citi- zens to defend their national rights. And this lack of patriotism is due chiefly, probably solely, to lack of national education in citizenship, because the Chinese are not in other respects an inferior people. In many ways they are the equals of any on earth. But a people who are not ready and willing to defend their rights are not a nation, only an agglomeration of individuals. The example of China has this lesson for us. A desire merely to retain one's possessions, without ag- . gression on others, does not justify or permit utter lack of armament for defense. A nation possessing valuable territory and resources will not be left in undisturbed possession thereof unless willing and able to defend itself against aggression. In fact the more valuable its possessions the more likely it is to suffer aggression. Our own policy includes, as we have pointed out, far more than the undisturbed possession of our own territory. The possession of vast wealth without adequate defense is a deliberate invitation to aggression. The United States has assumed a conspicuous and dominant place in the affairs of the world. No nation has ever attained or maintained a dominant position without the display and frequently the exercise of [208 ] force. Those who doubt this should consult the his- tories of the dominant nations. We deplore the resort to force, but we cannot fail to see the necessity there- for. That force is still, as always in the world's history, the final argument of states as it is of in- dividuals, has been all too plainly demonstrated in the late war. The race is as warlike to-day as ever in its history. The just man may and should be armed. And the nation which is not willing and able to defend its rights will soon find that it has none which others are bound to respect. We have only to contemplate the pitiful example of our too peaceful neighbor, China. And we must resist the efforts of those who, to use the words of the late Theodore Roosevelt, "would like to Chinafy America." The best guarantees of national independence are a well trained and well commanded army and navy, and a brave and intelligent people resolved to make any sacrifice rather than submit to the humiliation of a hostile occupation of their soil. We do not mean a "standing army," but a nation trained to arms and ready to defend its rights. As to the protection afforded by "our splendid iso- lation," we have seen ourselves drawn across the sea to give battle on the fields of Europe in a defensive war. We have seen Great Britain, so blissfully se- cure in an isolation under the protection of her [ 209 ] powerful navy, compelled to abandon her isolation and put forth all her strength in a struggle on a foreign soil in which her very existence as an empire was at stake. If our own coasts were secure (which they are not) what is to prevent Mexico being used as an avenue of advance against us, either w r ith or without her consent (which would make little differ- ence to a powerful invader) even as Belgium was used? Powerful nations on one's land frontiers may be a source of danger even as Germany is a danger to France, and as France in the past has been to Ger- many, Austria, Italy and Spain. But weak nations on one's frontiers, like Belgium and Mexico, may also be a menace for a different reason. Switzerland with her non-militaristic policy, is a protection to all her neighbors because she is prepared to maintain the in- violability of her soil and prevent its use as an avenue of attack on her neighbors. The sea which was once regarded as a source of security, is now the most favorable avenue of ap- proach for the nation or alliance which controls it. The only great powers that did not have universal training prior to the World War were Great Britain and America. Both nations fancied themselves secure because of their isolation, and England also felt se- cure because of her powerful navy. Yet both nations were drawn into the great war against their will, for both it was a defensive war, and both were forced to adopt "conscription," or "selective service," as [210] We euphemistically termed it. We make a distinction between "universal service" and "conscription." One is the perpetual guarantee of the freedom of a nation, the other is a disagreeable expedient forced upon an unwilling and short-sighted people. The league of nations is designed to reduce the fre- quency of war by preventing unnecessary war as far as possible. Perhaps it will have a great influence for peace, and we pray that it may. But its most ar- dent advocates do not claim that it will stop all wars. Meantime, should we join the league, it places great obligations upon the United States as the wealthiest and most powerful member thereof. These obliga- tions might draw us into a European or Asiatic war which, under our former policy of isolation, we might have been able to avoid. If we enter the league it is our duty to ourselves, and to other na- tions which rely on us, to humanity and civilization, to prepare ourselves worthily to discharge our obli- gations. Neither an individual nor a nation may rightfully assume grave obligations without making adequate preparation to meet them. So far has our once splendid isolation ceased to exist then, that we are interested even in the preser- vation of the "balance of power" in the world. The principle of the "balance of power" may be briefly described as follows. It is to the interest of every nation to prevent any possible opponent (and all nations are possible opponents) from acquiring so [211] much influence and power as to menace its security and the prosecution of its " policies. " The power which threatens our security might not be the mili- tary strength of a single nation, but would include all nations which might be induced to enter an of- fensive alliance against us as a result of the influence of one or more dominant hostile powers. One state, however powerful, can hardly expect to make head against the entire world. But it may hope to reach a position of such power and prestige that it can form an offensive alliance with certain nations, and insure the neutrality of others in such fashion as to be more powerful than any opposing alliance. When a nation having admittedly aggressive policies has reached, such a dominant position it is said to threaten the balance of power. This was the position of Germany just before the great war. A nation having only peaceable intentions will yet provide itself with such an armament that, with the assistance of dependable allies, it can count upon successfully defending itself against any probable enemies. Or it will provide such an armament that, in case of war between al- liances of other nations, it can intervene to insure the defeat of any alliance whose success would be a men- ace. Such was the position in which Great Britain believed herself to be, prior to the great war. Her margin of safety proved to be much narrower than she had supposed. The United States considered that they had no concern in this question of the bal- [2123 ance of power. They found themselves mistaken, and were compelled to intervene in their own interests. Security by isolation has ceased to be and no state in these days can be indifferent to the maintenance of the balance of power, not a European balance alone, but a world balance. Accordingly a war between any two nations, even small ones may, and usually will, involve others, who are interested either in maintain- ing or destroying the balance of power. Because of the close relations and interdependence of nations in these days of the railroad, steamship and telegraph, the possibilities of any war in any part of the world are almost limitless. The play of world politics is far more intricate than a game of chess. We have seen a war between Austria and Serbia involve the entire world, including ourselves. A like result would be not only possible, but even probable in any future war between European states. We cannot tell when we may be obliged to intervene for our own safety, or to fulfill our obligations to the league of nations. In the face of such conditions can we afford to remain defenseless, trusting " to a political and geographical isolation which we know exists no longer ! We cannot foresee the future course of world poli- tics, the disturbance of present alliances or the forma- tion of others, the rise to power and prestige of some now negligible state, the formation of new ones, or [213] the date of and circumstances attendant upon the next great war. We do not know when the allies of to-day may become the enemies of to-morrow. The arguments for adequate preparedness for de- fense are constantly met by the question, "Against whom do we prepare? " General Wood once replied to this question by asking his interlocutor, "Against what storm does the builder of the ship prepare when he makes his vessel staunch and true?" We do not know what the next storm will be nor from which quarter it will blow. We only know, or should know, that the ship of state must be strong enough to weather any storm. Nothing is more unthinkable (at the present time of course) than a conflict with our cousins, the British. We mention it only as a possibility. In case of a disagreement with Britain, provided we are not prepared, Canada at once becomes a menace. What, in such a case, is to prevent Britain, or Canada, from seizing the very heart of our industrial life, the iron mines of Lake Superior, whence comes the bulk of the iron ore of which we use over fifty million tons annually? And even if the British could not hold these mines they could easily wreck the artery through which our life-blood is fed, the canal at the "Soo." Mexico is wide open as a base of operations against us by any enemy who controls the sea. An advance across our undefended Mexican border would be a very easy matter, leaving the inhabitants of the [214] states adjacent thereto at the mercy, not only of the invader, but of the lawless elements of Mexico who would flock into a country so rich with spoil. We refrain from any mention of many possible difficulties with our Pacific neighbor, Japan, because we do not wish to be accused of jingoism or of trying to stir up trouble. Nor will we discuss in detail possi- ble obligations arising out of our membership in the league of nations, should we join it. These are only a few of many possibilities, Ave have said nothing oi South America nor of the Philippines. They are possibilities and nothing more at the present time. But it is well to remember the saying that it is the unexpected that always happens. Just before the outbreak of the European War, in 1914, officers of the American army studied tactical problems on maps of the vicinity of Metz, in Lorraine, the scene of the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. Many well in- formed officers said at that time that we should use other maps because the wildest flight of the imagina- tion could not conceive any circumstances in which an American army would find itself fighting in this locality. Yet the very next battle in which an Ameri- can army did engage was fought in this very locality, within gun range of the town of Metz. This mistaken opinion was delivered by men better informed as to the possibilities of war than any other citizens of America. There is nothing more common than a " casus £215 J [216 ] belli/' an occasion or pretext for war between na- tions. Diplomats tell us that they arise and are dis- posed of constantly. Most of them never reach the ears of the public. Every outlying possession, every international relation, every private interest in for- eign lands or foreign trade, every ship on the ocean, every citizen traveling abroad, contain the germs of conflict between nations. Of course preparedness costs money. "We cannot get "something for nothing" in this matter-of-fact world. And yet this very hope of something for nothing is dear to the heart of the American, and has led him to pin his faith to a defensive policy, or lack of policy, whose inadequacy has been proved time and again, all in the hope of being able to evade the cost of something really worth while. We insure our own poor lives and our pitiful possessions, yet we have in the past persistently refused to insure the life of the nation. We continue to "take chances" in the face of the gravest danger that can confront a people. Preparedness is far less expensive than defeat. Parsimony in national defense is a poor form of economy, which invites ruin. There should be no waste, but that which is necessary to purchase the real article should be spent without stint. Cheap substitutes will prove dear in the long run as every military man well knows. When the lives of our loved ones are in danger we obtain the best profes- sional service and count not the cost if they be saved. [217] We should take the same attitude towards the life of the nation. None of us would feel inclined to place much con- fidence in an untrained amateur lawyer or surgeon. We demand skilled professional service. War is a profession no less than law or surgery, and the conse- quences of unskilled service are far more widespread and tragic. There is no field of human endeavor where the novice is so useless and so dangerous. The interest on our expenditures in the late war would far more than pay the cost of universal train- ing. Had we been prepared, Germany would not have forced us into the war, though we need have no re- grets as to that, in spite of our burden of debt. But we know that the Civil War, whose cost we are still paying in pensions, would have been avoided had we possessed a proper military policy; also, that im- mediately thereafter we avoided war with France, growing out of her occupation of Mexico, because we were prepared at that time. The voice of diplomacy was not loud, but clear across the Atlantic could be heard the harsh, firm tread of the millions of veteran soldiers of a re-united America, and France hastened to vacate Mexico. Had the United States possessed at the outbreak of the Civil War a trained army of 50,000 regulars, in- stead of 16,000, the Confederacy would have been crushed at Bull Run; or, rather, there would have been no war. That frightful struggle which for four [218] long years drenched our land in blood, was the price the nation paid for its unpreparedness. How great the value of an adequate military pol- icy as a national insurance is shown by the example of tiny Switzerland who, with a total population of less than four millions, was still so manifestly able to defend herself that mighty Germany considered it "inadvisable" to use her territory as an avenue of attack on France, but preferred Belgium, whose se- curity rested in "a scrap of paper" instead of the strong arms and brave hearts of loyal citizens trained and ready to defend their rights. We wish to cast no slurs upon the patriotism and devotion of the Bel- gians. But their example proves that patriotism can- not take the place of training to perform the duties of citizenship. Being, through no fault of her own, however, unprepared to resist, Belgium suffered the more because she was too proud to submit to the humiliation of invasion. But had Germany attempted to advance through Switzerland she would have reached the French border, if at all, only after a long and costly struggle, a fact which her military experts thoroughly appreciated. ' Switzerland must congratulate herself often in these days on her wis- dom in providing an adequate defense which so amply justified itself. Belgium was prevented by treaty from providing herself with an adequate de- fense, the powers having entrusted her security to "a scrap of paper," which was effective so far as Bel- [219 ] gium was concerned, but was disregarded by Ger- many. The existence of this iniquitous treaty (as it proved to be) was undoubtedly one of the incen- tives to Germany's schemes for world conquest. The treaty was not only ineffective to accomplish the purpose for which it was made, but it was positively dangerous in affording Germany a favorable opening for her attempted assassination of France. Germany's plan for the war was to overwhelm France, her most dangerous enemy, by a sudden at- tack, before Eussia and England could effectively intervene. The Franco-German frontier was strongly fortified by France, and an advance through Switzer- land would have been too slow and costly for Ger- many's purposes, because of Switzerland's great mili- tary strength. But the route through Belgium was wide open, protected only by a "sacred" treaty, which to Germany was "a scrap of paper" and no obstacle to her scheme of conquest. Hhd Belgium possessed a well trained and well equipped army, comparable to that of Switzerland, which, consider- ing her total population, would have been some 700,000 men, the route through her territory would have been at least as difficult and dangerous as that through Switzerland. In such event Germany would not have started the war, because the chances of speedy success would have been too small and too uncertain. An army of 700,000 men, therefore, while greatly inferior to that of Germany, would have been [ 220 ] adequate to Belgium's national policies. The most cruel and destructive war of all time was the price that civilization paid for the unwise restrictions im- posed upon Belgium with reference to her national defense. It affords the most striking proof in history of the truth that unpreparedncss invites disaster. And in this case the disaster was not limited to un- fortunate Belgium, but overtook the entire civilized world. Let us profit by the lesson without again paying the terrible price exacted in this instance. Late reports indicate that Belgium is about to pro- vide herself with a force of 1,000,000 trained men as a security for the future. Civilization has much cause to rejoice at this eminently wise decision, but regrets that conditions did not permit that it be taken some years earlier. We can only shudder when we think of what de- feat due to lack of preparedness would have cost France. Germany's peace terms, had she been vic- torious, would have been dictated by her own inter- ests alone, according to the doctrine that "to the victor belong the spoils." There is a strong popular impression in the United States that defensive warfare is something distinct from offensive war, requiring much less preparation and training. There can be no greater mistake. The purpose of war, whether offensive or defensive, is to win, to gain the victory, and active measures alone can accomplish this result. The boxer who limits [221] himself to blocking the blows of his opponent can never win, and will certainly be beaten by any adver- sary approaching him in strength. So the army which remains always on the defensive surrenders the initiative to the enemy, and is doomed to defeat. "The best defense," says one noted military writer, "is an active offensive." Accordingly, whoever may have been the original aggressor in the war, both sides resort to offensive tactics at every opportunity. If one of the combatants is not strong enough to do this his defeat is only a question of time. In the late war the Allies were on the defensive, in that they had not brought on the war and sought only to de- fend themselves against the aggressions of Germany. Yet they constantly launched great offensive cam- paigns, and as far as the American 1st Army was concerned, it was never attacked by the Germans — all the attacks were made by America, and Germany was forced into a defensive attitude which resulted in her speedy downfall. So it will be evident that there is no tactical difference between the operations of the aggressor and those of the defender. The same operations are performed in each case, and the same high state of training is demanded. Of course, a state having an aggressive policy requires more power and a larger army than one having only a de- fensive policy, but whatever the size of the army it must be able to fight offensively as well as defensively, if it is to win victory or even avoid defeat. Had [ 222 ] Washington contented himself with meeting the attacks of the British, when he could not evade them, as a less resolute commander would have done with the scanty forces at his disposal, we should not have gained our independence. Washington knew that freedom for America could not he won by a supine attitude. The army which is always on the defensive eventually loses its morale and fighting spirit. As long as Germany was able to launch offensives against the Allies she kept up the spirit of her troops. As soon as the troops found that they were condemned to a perpetual defensive by reason of the superior strength of their enemies, their morale or will to con- quer, rapidly dwindled away. The great military machine which lived on victory had not the stamina to sustain defeat or even maintain a defensive atti- tude. The Confederacy was on the defensive during the Civil AVar, yet during the early part of the war nearly all the attacks were made by the Confederates because their leaders knew that only so could they hope to gain even a draw, which was all that they desired. The South had not sought to impose its will on the North, but only to be. allowed to do as it saw fit. It is the blows we strike and not those we fend which win victory. It was not by defensive tactics that France turned back the tide of German invasion at the Marne. The losses of a successful offensive in lives and [ 223 ] [ 224 J treasure, are far less than the losses of an unsuccess- ful defense. Nothing is so expensive as defeat. Many people still cling to the idea that a defensive war means only the repelling of an actual invasion of our territory. But the late war proves, if it needed any proof, that an actual invasion is not the only circumstance that may draw a nation into a purely defensive war. In defending ourselves we must strike our enemy where the blow will be most telling. In the last war in which we have engaged this was, quite unexpected- ly, in the north of France. TTho will say where it may be next time? It is always preferable, even in a de- fensive war, to fight in the enemy's territory rather than our own. For then our own soil remains in- violate. This is more important to-day than at any time in the past because of the frightful destruction and suffering wrought by modern war. At the out- break of the late conflict Germany's state of pre- paredness enabled her to carry the Avar at once into the enemy's territory and, in spite of her ultimate defeat, to keep it there. Thus was Germany spared the ravages of war on her own soil. It takes time to build up and organize any great business, and war is by far the greatest business in which man engages, as well as the most intricate, the most difficult and the most dangerous. The state of preparedness of our most formidable enemies does not allow us leisure to organize the business after [225 ] the outbreak of war, if we are to face them alone (as we did not in the late conflict). The organization must be perfected in time of peace, for when the blow falls it falls with the swiftness of a thunderbolt, often without previous declaration or warning. No matter how great the resources of a nation, it is not prepared for war unless it can bring those resources rapidly to bear on the field of battle. It is the strength, training and equipment of the army alone that count. Undeveloped resources of men and material, however great, have no influence on the fate of battle. War in ancient times was the strife of kings. To- day it is a conflict of nations. In olden times war was fought by a handful of trained professionals. To- day the whole nation goes forth. In olden times kings maintained standing armies strong enough to work their will. To-day no nation can do that, it , would bankrupt any who attempted it. The entire people must stand ready to answer the call, we must be "a nation in arms." The defense of the country cannot be left to a handful of trained professional soldiers. One might as well say, "We will keep a glass of water on the mantel in case of fire." China, to whom we must again refer as an example to be avoided, is the most populous nation on earth, and possessed of vast undeveloped resources. Yet she is utterly unable to defend herself. At the time of the Chinese-Japanese War China had ten times [ 226] the population and twenty times the resources of Japan. Yet Japan with a few lightning swift and heavy blows brought her huge but unwieldy antag- onist helpless to her knees. The reason for this was that Japan, unlike China, had converted her poten- tial resources, slender as they were, into actual mili- tary strength. She was "prepared" and China was not. The result of an armed conflict between the two nations could never for an instant have been in doubt. Japan dominates the Orient and works her will upon China because she has an armament in keeping with her policies. The defense of the state is the highest duty of the citizen. But if we acknowledge a duty we must ac- knowledge the necessity of preparing ourselves to perform that duty. Otherwise, we are plainly evad- ing it. General Wood says: "It is better to be ready for war and not to have it, than to have it and not be ready for it." The best way to avoid an unpleasant situation is to be prepared to meet it. The untrained soldier is a pitiable object in a modern battle against a trained foe. To send such soldiers to battle means doubling or trebling our losses. It is not fair to the men who lose their lives, nor to the country which loses the battle. It is like sending a man with a reed to oppose one with a rapier. It is too late to train when w r ar is upon us, especially too late to discipline raw forces. The modern mili- [ 227 ] tary powers effect their mobilizations and strike with their full strength in periods measured by hours. "Within forty-eight hours after the call went forth, at the opening of the late war, the Swiss army of over 400,000 trained men was mobilized, equipped, and ready for battle. "We could not accomplish a pro- portionate result in as many weeks. What chance has the unprepared nation against a foe such as this? Compulsory universal training is merely an ex- tension of the system of compulsory education. Ed- ucation develops personality; universal training in citizenship will develop also nationality. We compel obedience to a vast number of diversi- fied laws. Shall we not also compel the citizen to be a true citizen in all respects, and to prepare himself to shoulder Kis responsibilities, including that of do fending his country in case of need? It is most inconsistent to condemn the compulsory feature of universal training on the ground that com- pulsion is repugnant to a free people. We must dis- criminate between liberty and license. The liberty of the individual cannot be placed above the welfare of the community and of the nation. We compel obed- ience to all our laws. We compel our people to do many things that are necessary to the common weal, but which often many of them would not do otherwise. In every form of industrial or social activity and in every human relation governmental compulsion of some kind or other is applied. Even the home life [ 228 ] of the family is not exempt. Government indeed con- sists largely of compulsions and restraints. Without compulsion there would be no government, and with- out government we should be a race of savages in- stead of a nation of civilized people. If compulsion applied were a valid ground for objection, this ob- jection could properly be urged against every law of the land. When the voice of the people has pro- claimed a certain law as wise and necessary, all must obey and those who will not do so from a proper sense of duty are subjected to compulsion. Such is the very essence of democratic government. And in universal training, as in every other democratic in- stitution, the compulsion is the will of the people, and not the whim of a despot or military caste. More- over, we should not associate the idea of an odious compulsion with an honorable obligation to perform the highest of all duties, service to the state. When you see everybody using a certain article, that is the best possible proof that the article has merit. From this rule we may obtain the proof of the value of universal training from a purely mili- tary point of view, or as a national insurance against war or defeat in case of war. Germany adopted uni- versal training because she knew it would give her the most efficient military machine with which to further her schemes of conquest. France adopted universal training because she knew it afforded her the only sure guarantee against the aggressions of [ 229 ] Germany. Most of the continental European nations and some of the republics of South America have universal training, and had it even before the great war, because all of them have enemies, or possible enemies, on their land frontiers against whom they must be prepared to defend themselves. Most of them certainly adopted it as a purely defensive measure; for example, Switzerland, Denmark and Norway, who certainly have no dreams of conquest and desire noth- ing except to be allowed to live in peace. Is it right that any considerable number of our citizens should be left totally unfit to perform effi- ciently a task which any citizen may be called upon at any time to perform? To ask the government to conduct a great war with- out a sufficient reserve of trained men and trained officers, is like asking a manufacturer to operate his factory and produce his product with a new force of perfectly ignorant and untrained foremen and workers. The manufacturer would probably say it meant the ruin of his business, yet without a sound military policy established in time of peace this is the situation that confronts the government at the outbreak of every war. We have always been least prepared for the greatest emergency a government and a people can be called to face. We should not and cannot establish or maintain in time of peace a volunteer standing army sufficient for the prosecution of a great war. Yet we must have [ 230 ] a system, a democratic and efficient system, which in- sures an adequate defense when needed. Many other nations have faced the same momentous question and all have found the same answer : obligatory service in war, made effective by obligatory training in peace. It will be apparent without argument that the more nearly universal the double obligation the more dem- ocratic and the more efficient the system. Only a small part of the manhood of the nation actually bears arms in the face of the enemy. The obligation of the citizen to serve the country covers a thousand things besides bearing arms. There is not an art or a science known to mankind, from astron- omy to bacteriology, but has its place in modern war. Even the minister of the gospel and the musician, the exponents of peace on earth the gentlest of the arts, are called upon to do their share. Modern war is a conflict not of armies alone, but of entire peoples. Every man, woman and child of the nation must do their part, whether by service of sacrifice. All the resources of the nation, moral, intellectual, and phys- ical, must be pledged to the prosecution of the conflict. It is not a love of militarism but hard necessity that has compelled other free peoples to adopt uni- versal service. We are in no different situation. Voluntary service is more conducive to militarism than universal service, because those who volunteer to serve the state while others hold back, not unnatu- rally feel that they should have a voice in the gov- [231] ernment of the state greater than that of "the shirk- ers." Where all are equally liable to service there can be no such tendency. Some of those who favor universal training admit a loss to industry by the withdrawal of many young men from civil pursuits, which they say is compen- sated by the advantages conferred. There is no occa- sion for such apologies, and universal training needs them not, it stands on its own merits without apology or excuse. Far from suffering, industry will be enor- mously benefited by universal training. It is, in fact, the benefits conferred upon industry that constitute one of the chief arguments in its favor. A vast num- ber of employers of labor have borne witness as to the increased industrial efficiency and reliability of employees who have received military training and discipline. Certainly we have never regarded the usual forms of education as a burden to industry. On the contrary, industry is dependent on them for success. Universal training will instill into our young men habits of obedience, submission to authority, de- pendability and thoroughness. And it will give them the physique which will increase the amount of work they can do in a given time, as well as reduce the time lost from sickness and increase the span of their useful industrial lives. It is wrong to say that such training would constitute a loss to industry or agri- culture. We may profit by the example of our late enemy, Germany, who prior to the war was the most [ 232 ] efficient industrial nation in Europe. Germany at- tributed her industrial success largely to her system of training, which was universal. Universal training will be for America a great industrial training school for the youth of the nation. In the conflict just concluded the peculiar cir- cumstances were such that we had opportunity to make preparations behind a wall of defense erected by our allies. We practically took our own time and joined conflict with our enemy when we felt at least partially prepared to do so. We did not face him alone in his full strength and vigor, but only assisted others to put the finishing touches, as it were, to an enemy already well nigh exhausted with four years of continuous warfare. "We should not blind ourselves to these truths nor to the fact that such circumstances probably will not be repeated in the next war. Had we been obliged from the beginning to face alone the fury of a powerful foe we should have faced him un- prepared, and have suffered grievously in conse- quence, even as France and civilization would have suffered, had that gallant nation not been fully pre- pared at the outset to hold the brutal enemy of man- kind in check. But even supposing that the conditions were to exist again. Are we, now that our eyes have been opened, to play the selfish, the ignoble part ? Is free and mighty America to seek shelter behind the brave army of France or the devoted navy of England? [ 233 ] [234] Are we to depend for our safety on those who are smaller and poorer than ourselves? Let us not put noble America, ' ' the land of the free and the home of the brave/' in such a humiliating position of depend- ence on others. Let us take our stand, not crouching behind our allies, but erect on our feet beside them, or alone if need be. Let us depend for our safety in this world of strife not on "scraps of paper," not on the changeable friendship of others, but on the stout hearts and strong arms of our own brave and loyal citizens. Let us make America a mighty champion of liberty and right, behind whose broad back the weak and oppressed of earth may find shelter from cruelty and oppression. Let us realize in very truth the words of that old patriotic song which we have so long required our children to sing with their lips, but have not always enabled them to feel in their hearts : Columbia, the gem of the ocean, The land of the brave and the free, The shrine of each patriot's devotion — A world offers homage to thee. Thy mandates make heroes assemble When liberty's form stands in view. Thy banners make tyranny 'tremble, When borne by the red, white and blue. Every word of the brave old song should be graven on the heart of every citizen of the great Republic. Every one of them should highly resolve to make every brave word true. Let us be respected in the world because it is known [235] we are a righteous nation, and that we have a strong right arm with a mailed fist at the end of it and are prepared to land a knockout blow on any who dare trample on our rights. And there will be none to affront this mightiest of nations, able to put fifteen million fighting men in the field and a hundred super - dreadnaughts on the sea. The security of the lion is more in keeping with the dignity of America than that of the guinea pig. Do you remember that old flag showing a coiled serpent, and the motto, " Don't tread on me"! Let us have all the world know that we are not to be trodden on. Weakness of the Voluntary System Painful experience in our own and many other countries has repeatedly proved that the voluntary or volunteer system of military service is utterly in- adequate to the prosecution of a great war. All the great military nations have long since abandoned it. In four wars the United States have risked national humiliation and disaster by fatuous adherence to this outworn system. We refer to the Revolution, the War of 1812, the Civil and Mexican Wars. In the world war we very wisely adopted Universal Serv- ice from the outset. Had we done otherwise Germany would to-day be victorious, and European civiliza- tion under the heel of Prussian militarism. Voluntary service does not produce men in suffi- cient numbers, nor at a sufficient rate for the prosecu- [236] [ 237 ] tion of a great war. The number that will respond is variable and uncertain and always inadequate, and it is impossible to make satisfactory arrangements for mobilization and training. Washington said : Regular troops alone are equal to the exigencies of modern war, as well for defense as offense, and when a substitute is attempted it must prove illusory and ruinous. By regular troops he meant, of course, troops that were properly trained. Volunteer troops are neces- sarily always untrained, the words are synonymous. What was true in Washington's day is even more true in the present time, when war is far more com- plex and demands greater training and preparation. Even if all able-bodied men should volunteer for service at the outbreak of war, their patriotism would not compensate for lack of training. To successfully oppose a nation of veteran soldiers we must be such ourselves. General Wood says that to send men untrained into battle doubles the number of deaths. He is conserva- tive in the statement. Another serious objection that has been urged, and rightly, against the voluntary system of military service in time of war is this: It kills those who are most fit physically, most courageous and self-sacri- ficing, most enterprising and most devoted to their country, while it spares the weak, the cowardly and [ 238 ] the selfish. Universal obligation distributes the burd- en in proper proportion amongst all classes. As to placing individuals where they can best serve the country, the voluntary system is utterly hap- hazard. The skilled mechanic who is needed in in- dustry, the man having heavy business and family responsibilities, and whose death brings great hard- ship on others, may go to the front and be sacrificed. The unskilled laborer and the man without responsi- bilities, who would have made as good soldiers, re- main at home. The volunteer system is thus highly undemocratic in its failure to recognize the equal rights and obligations of citizens, and highly ineffi- cient in not placing each where he can perform the most useful service. Voluntary service is thus certain to seriously dis- turb the industries and obligations which are essen- tial to the prosecution of the war and the welfare of the nation. Selective service, as employed during the late conflict, permits the intelligent assignment and distribution of men to the essential industries as well as to the army and. navy. It drives men out of the non-productive or harmful pursuits into the nec- essary and productive. The "work or fight " prin- ciple, intelligently applied, will secure any desired adjustment of the labor supply. In a word, selective service permits the intelligent regulation of industry at home as well as service at the front. Universal service is truly democratic in that it [ 239 ] equally distributes the burden and leaves to no man the often trying decision as to whether he shall serve in this capacity or that. Only the government is quali- fied to decide who shall bear arms and who shall re- main in industry or for the care of dependents. Uni- versal service equitably distributes the burden and places each citizen where he can render the most useful service. Those who remain at home are relieved by the government's decision from any criticism that might otherwise have been directtd against them for failure to volunteer. All are relieved of the burden- some necessity of having to make the fateful decision for themselves or of having it made for them by their families, who naturally are not qualified to do so. Men with heavy business and family responsibilities will not be subjected to the embarrassment of having to weigh such considerations against their duty to * their country and their patriotic instincts. The voluntary system of training is useless as a military measure in time of peace, because few will volunteer to subject themselves to the training. Bit- ter experience in our own and many other countries has proved that voluntary service is inadequate as a defensive measure in time of war, because few men respond, and not always are those who volunteeer for service in time of war the same as those who vol- unteer for training in time of peace, as a result of which much of the volunteer training is wasted. Compulsory universal service is the only efficient, [240] equitable, democratic and economical system of nat- ional defense. And its necessary accompaniment is universal training in peace, for if the citizen recog- nizes his duty to defend his country in case of war he must recognize the included obligation and necessity of preparing himself efficiently to perform that duty. There has been in our country in the past a stigma attached to the words "conscript," and "drafted men." This is unfair, because most of these men have served their country quite as patriotically and efficiently as volunteers. That an improper and very odious distinction has been created is another crime chargeable to the old voluntary system, which, we hope, is now gone for all time. Under universal service, when all are liable for duty, the words "vol- unteer" and "conscript" cease to have any meaning. There are no volunteers and no conscripts, only pa- triots answering the country's call to duty. America's reliance on the voluntary system in the past is merely one of the manifestations of the nation- al tendency to "take chances." It has been said of us that as- a nation we worship success rather than skill. And so we have been con- tent, and even proud, that success has attended all our armed conflicts. We have not as yet experienced the chastening discipline of defeat. Our histories record our successes, but they do not record the enormous and unnecessary expenditures of blood and treasure with which those successes have been pur- [241] chased. We have triumphed not because of our effi- ciency, but in spite of our inefficiency, and have been lulled into that false sense of security which is the natural concomitant of unearned success. This in- dulgence of fate may not be wholly a kindness. Sooner or later we will face the inevitable reckoning if we continue to misread the lessons spread before our eyes and persist in our traditional negligence and indifference. As to the wastefulness and inefficiency of volunteer military service and the folly and danger of relying upon it, we may cull plenty of examples from our own military history. These are examples which should be familiar to every citizen, but there are very few who have ever heard ot them. They have been carefully excluded from our school histories. In the Revolution, England did not turn her full strength against us, and to that fact we owe our existence as a nation. The greatest number of British troops in America at any time during the war was 42,000 men. To oppose this small force, making war overseas in a foreign land, we employed no less than 400,000 men (volunteers all) and incurred a debt of 370 millions. Yet the greatest army Washington ever had at his disposal was 17,000 hungry, ragged men. Mutiny was of frequent occurrence, and time and again our green troops, when opposed to the trained invaders, laid down their arms and disgrace- fully fled from the field. For seven years a handful [242] of British regulars held by the throat a nation of 3,000,000 people who did not know how to bring their strength to bear. In all the long seven years we gain- ed but one decisive victory (Saratoga) and we would have been defeated in the end except for the assist- ance of our ally, France. At the outbreak of the War of 1812 the states of Massachusetts and Connecticut defied the Federal Government and refused to furnish their quotas of troops. General Hopkins led a force of 4,000 militia against the Indians. On the fourth day they saw a prairie fire, became panic stricken, threw down their arms, deserted their general and fled to their homes. At Bladensburg, a little town just outside of Wash- ington, the "continental army," 7,000 strong, was assembled for the defense of the national capital against a force of 3,500 British regulars. As the first British regiment deployed and opened fire the American "army" threw down its arms and, in the outraged presence of the President of the United States and his cabinet, fled from the field, having suf- fered a loss of 8 killed and 31 wounded. The British advanced without opposition, sacked our capi- tal and burned our public buildings. These Ameri- cans were no cowards. They were the brothers and cousins of the splendid regulars who, at the battle of Lundy's Lane, in the same war, scorned to leave the field and achieved ultimate victory after suffering a [243] loss of nearly 30 per cent of their number. The dif- ference in the two armies was in training alone. In the prosecution of this war (1812) we employed 528,000 volunteers. The mistakes of the Revolution were repeated in an aggravated form. The greatest number of British troops in America at any time was 16,000, and the greatest number in any battle 5,000. For two years the invaders ravaged our country and defied the efforts of a nation of seven millions to expel them. Imagine the fate of an invading army of 16,000 in Switzerland to-day! Yet Switzerland is to-day a less populous country than were the United States in 1812. In the Mexican War our volunteer soldiers claimed their discharge in the middle of the campaign, and left General Scott with his little force of 6,000 regu- lars alone in the enemy's country, facing annihilation. These are the solemn facts of history, and they prove without any further argument the utter in- adequacy of the volunteer system. The Bogey of Militarism Does universal training tend towards militarism? Militarism does not consist in the existence of an army. It is a national policy and consists in a doc- trine of aggression and the control of the government of the state by the exponents of that doctrine. Ger- many, the worst example of ' ' militarism, ' ' frankly [ 244] pursued a policy of aggression in building up the empire. The German "junkers'' controlled the gov- ernment, and educated the people to a policy of con- quest. Germany's policy of aggression was so frank that her public men wrote volumes freely admitting and attempting to justify, even to glorify, the policy. Nothing of the sort can be found in the writings or utterances of any of our soldiers or public men. There have been no incidents in this country such as the sabering of a lame shoemaker by a Prussian officer on the street of Zabern. The possession of military strength does not mean militarism, as France, Great Britain and America have proven, any more than the possession of physical strength and courage mean that a man must be a bully, a menace to society. It is only when he misuses his strength that he becomes a menace. The difference between militarism and adequate national defense is the difference between imperial- istic aims of conquest and the legitimate aspirations of a free and righteous people, able to defend their free institutions. The fear of governmental tyranny is an inheritance from medieval times. Ours is a government for and by the people. It can never become an instrument of tyranny. Democracy is the very antithesis of militarism. General Wood says : [245 ] I advocate universal training, not as an approach to militarism, but as an escape from it. It is democracy in its essence, for it is without inequalities and discrimina- tions. The downfall of the government of a state, due to lack of preparedness to maintain itself, brings on military dictatorship. When democratic government is forced to give rip the reins militarism steps in and seizes them. History affords many examples of the truth of this statement. The downfall of the Russian and of the German governments during the late war was in each case followed by a military dictatorship. Universal training does not mean compulsory mili- tary service in time of peace. The working man who is earning $10 a day will not be snatched from his position and forced into the army on a pittance while his family is left to starve. The training wdll be given in early youth, before the individual has taken up his life work or contracted business or fam- ily obligations. Every young man will know 7 that it is coming, and when, and can adjust his affairs to meet it. In case of a great war we will have compulsory service, as we had in the late war. As a result of universal training, the youth who would in any case be compelled to serve will be prepared to render use- ful service. The argument that we should remain defenseless because the possession of an adequate system of de- [246] [247] fense might lead us to aggressions upon our harmless neighbors has as much logic as the argument that we should cease using machinery in industry, because hundreds of workers are annually killed or maimed by these machines. Is it wise to deliberately invite aggression on our own soil because of an ill-founded apprehension for the safety of others? If two nations have irreconcilable differences they will go to war, whether they be prepared or not. Neither the North nor the South was prepared for the Civil War, but that fact did not prevent the con- flict. Even admitting that preparedness leads to war, it will still be observed that war usually takes the form of aggression by the prepared upon the unpre- pared, and always results in disaster to the latter. The dangers of aggression from without and anarchy from w T ithin are far greater than those of militarism. Altruism, like charity, begins at home. History proves that a democracy is, of all govern- ments, the least likely to wage a war of aggression. Accordingly, by substituting popular government for absolutism, which the world war will ultimately ac- complish in several of the great military states of Europe, we are providing one of the best, probably the very best possible safeguard against aggressive wars in the future. President Wilson says: Self governed nations clo not fill their neighbor states with spies or set the course of intrigue to bring about some [248] critical posture of affairs which will give them an oppor- tunity to strike and make conquest. Such designs can be successfully worked out only under cover and where no one has the right to ask questions. . . . They are happily impossible where public opinion commands and insists upon full information concerning all the nation's affairs. A steadfast concert for peace can never be main- tained except by a partnership of democratic nations. . . . The bogey of militarism looms so large in the minds of some of our well meaning but sadly misguided citizens that they would rather have seen Germany crush civilization than allow this country to enter the struggle on the side of hard-pressed democracy. At least we must judge them by their own utterances and actions. But which is sweeter. The peace of honor and righteousness we now enjoy, or the peace of selfishness in which the pacifists would have kept us ! Men have died for their ideals, and the world has been the better for their sacrifices. When we have reached the great "milleniiim" in which men will no longer die for their ideals, nor nations war in defense of their rights, then indeed will we be a race not fit to inhabit God's beautiful earth. - But that time will never come. Men are to-day as ready to die for their ideals or fight for their national rights as the heroes of ancient Greece. The pacifist who would shear the nation of its power to defend itself against aggression, is a maker of war. Untrained and unprepared, if we resist vre [ 249 ] suffer death and desolation ; if we submit we lose our liberty and birthrights. Fears of militarism are based very largely on the supposed idleness of the army in times of peace, and its lack of daily contact with the people. And ob- jections to the regular army, admittedly necessary as a provision against war, are based on the alleged use- less expense of maintaining an army in times of peace. The fears and objections of those who honestly en- tertain such views will be quieted by universal train- ing. In assuming the responsibility for the training of our young men the army will perform in times of peace the highest and noblest duty to which a public servant may be called, and the resulting intimate con- tact between the army and the people will further democratize the army, establish it firmly in the esteem and confidence of the public, and allay all fears of "militarism." A regular army which, in the administration of universal training, was brought into intimate con- tact with the people, could never become the tool of a militaristic policy. The small size of the army alone prevents this. If we do not have universal training we must necessarily provide a larger standing army, as it would be the sole force on which we could de- pend for safety in case of war. When all the male citizens are trained for military duty a large stand- ing army becomes unnecessary. There has never been an occurrence in this country [ 250 ] which could give any real grounds for a fear of mili- tarism. Such fears are based on supposition and have no real foundation in actual fact. The fear of militarism in this country is the fear of a bogey. But the dangers of anarchy are real, as any citizen can to-day easily see for himself. Those who believe that military power means "mil- itarism" in its obnoxious sense, merely confuse strength with the abuse of strength. Liberty holds a torch in one hand, a sword in the other. They represent knowledge and independence, the two guar- antees of freedom. Universal training provides the one no less than the other. "Preparedness means war," says the pacifist. It does indeed. It means war, continuous war on ig- norance, poverty and disease ; unrelenting war on dis- order, anarchy and crime ; victorious war on every evil influence that threatens the free institutions of America and the flag that we hold sacred. Labor and Universal Training A number of labor leaders have in the past rather consistently opposed policies designed to secure a better national defense. And in particular they have opposed any increase in the standing army in time of peace. We have pointed out that universal training makes a large standing army unnecessary. For this reason, if for no other, labor from its point of view should favor universal training. [251] Labor, of course, is not opposed to adequate nation- al defense as such. We mean patriotic American labor, and not the lawless, anarchistic element which recognizes no obligations to America, has no interest in our national welfare, and is actuated by no motives except greed and a lust for power. No honest citizen is opposed to national defense, it is only that we have great differences of opinion as to what constitutes adequate defense. No class of our citizens has a greater interest than has labor in the preservation of tranquillity and peace. In case of a foreign invasion labor must fur- nish the greatest proportion of fighting men for the defense of the country, it is upon that class that the burden rests most heavily. It is the internal peace and tranquillity of our land that enable labor to pursue its calling undisturbed. To maintain law and order we must have .an adequate police force. Ex- perience shows that whenever such protection is even temporarily withdrawn the lawless element gains the upper hand. It is thus also in international affairs. A national force, including a standing army and a trained and organized citizenry, is necessary to se- cure the peace of the land against organized aggres- sion, whether from without or from within. The opposition of certain labor leaders to some of our proposed defensive policies is based on a rather fixed belief that, to use their own words, "any in- crease in our military establishment would be a [ 252 ] [ 253 ] menace to the liberties of the laboiing man." Which of his liberties? Undoubtedly they have in mind his liberty to strike for his rights and privileges. But it is one thing to strike for honest rights and privi- leges, and quite another to stop industry and over- throw law and order from motives of greed and self- ishness or in a lust for power which labor cannot and should not ask to wield. It is one thing to quietly stop work ourselves as a protest against conditions, and quite another to prevent those who have no griev- ance from continuing to work if they so desire. Although we have always had a standing army, it has never in all our history been employed to oppose or break a strike of labor. The occasions when the regular army has been used at all during strikes are exceedingly rare, and on these rare occasions it was employed solely to preserve law and order and not to prevent or break up a strike. The country has learned from sad experience that strikes are some- times accompanied by riot, destruction of property, assault, bloodshed and murder. And it has the right to protect itself against these crimes. Intelligent and patriotic labor condemns such practices, which are indeed inimical to its own interests. But there are alien and lawless elements in the ranks of labor and outside of them which often go beyond control during times of stress, such as a great strike. Labor does not, and cannot, deny the right of the community to preserve law and order, and to employ the military if [254 j necessary for this purpose. Public sentiment sup- ports the legitimate aspirations of labor. But it does not support greed and "profiteering" on the part of labor any more than on the part of capital. Labor and capital are fundamental elements of society and are mutually dependent. Neither can exist without the other, and both are necessary to organized society. They are, however, merely ele- ments of the community, like lawyers, doctors and other classes, and they have the same obligations to society. While each class has its rights, the rights of the community as a whole are superior to those of any of its component classes, and no class should wish to assert itself in disregard of the rights of so- ciety. The public has a right to protect itself against uprisings of anarchy in which, under the guise of protest against conditions of labor, a lawless foreign element recognizing no obligations to America, at- tempts for purely selfish reasons to seize power and profit to which it is in no sense entitled. It is the right and duty of the rulers of the Renublic to pro- tect America against anarchy even to the extent of stopping immigration and deporting lawless aliens, if such drastic measures are forced upon them. Labor has a legal right to strike. It even has a legal right to carry out a strike which may tie up the transportation of the country, shut off the coal and iron supplies and bring ruin, misery, starvation and even death to any number of innocent persons who [ 255 3 are in no way concerned in the controversy between capital and labor. There is no legal limit to the misery and suffering which a strike may produce. All that we deny to organized labor is the right to prevent others from working if they so desire, the right to riot and murder. But while there are no other legal limitations as to strikes, whosoever inter- rupts our tranquillity should take notice that there is a limit to the patience of the long-suffering American people. There is a limit to what we will endure for the benefit of those who seek selfish ends. The honest and patriotic element of the laboring classes has no wish to inflict hardship upon the inno- cent community, and would deny the right of either capital or labor, or any other class, to sacrifice the community in an effort to force its own interests into prominence. When capital and labor engage in an industry which is necessary to the comfort, health and life of the nation, they become the servants of the com- munity, just as the army, the navy, police, school teachers, etc., are servants of tlie community. The tranquillity of the community depends on the orderly performance of their duties by all classes. If there are differences to be adjusted, this must be accomp- lished by some method other than an attempt to dis- rupt the community. If capital and labor cannot arrive at an amicable settlement of their disputes the government, acting in the interests of the nation as [ 256] a whole, has the right to step in, examine all the evidence in the case, and render a fair decision by which both sides should abide. This is merely an application of the fundamental principle that the rights of the public are superior to these of any in- dividual or class. It is only through favorable public sentiment that labor can gain any permanent advantage. Accord- ingly, any policy that injures and antagonizes the public, is a short-sighted policy from labor's own X>oint of view. There is danger to the hopes and as- pirations of honest labor in the wave of public in- dignation against labor radicalism at the present time. In recent years there has developed a wide-spread sympathy with the aims of labor, on the part of the general public. It would be a great misfortune to labor if the excesses of the radical element in its own ranks should turn this sympathy into opposition and hatred. In his message to Congress in December, 1919, President "Wilson said: In America there is but one way by which great reforms can be accomplished and the relief sought by classes ob- tained, and that is through the orderly processes of repre- sentative government. Those who would propose any other method are enemies of this country. . . . Let those beware who would take the shorter road of disorder and revolution. There is something more important than a privi- [257] lege, something higher than a right, and that is a moral obligation. The true patriot is more solicitous to do his duty by others than to insist upon his own rights. We will be a worthier people when we are more anxious to fulfill our obligations and duties, and less jealous and uncompromising in demanding "rights" at the expense of our fellow citizens. Labor owes allegiance to the community, as do all citizens. Soldiers who would strike for higher wages in the face of the enemy would be regarded as highly unpatriotic, not to say traitorous. Yet hitherto it has been con- ceded that labor may legally take advantage of a coal shortage and the prospects of a hard winter and much suffering for the poor, to gain its ends by stop- ping industry, the output of mines cOid factories, tieing up transportation, giving rein to the lawless elements of society, and threatening the country with s anarchy and revolution such as we so narrowly es- caped in the great steel strike. We have not hitherto denied labor's legal right to do these things. Yet there must be, of course, a limit to the amount of suffering which the community at large can justly be asked to endure in the interests of any class. And if any class, whether capital or labor, persistently exceeds this reasonable limit, it must ultimately lose the public's support and sym- pathy on which its welfare depends. The justice of this must be admitted by all. Accordingly, honest labor will join the rest of us in deploring the use, in [ 258 ] The effects of proper training. The sentinel is a "plebe" on guard for the first time. Note the trimmer appearance of the cadet officer as a. result of right training. [ 259 ] its fight for its rights, of this cruel two-edged sword, whose nether edge so grievously wounds the innocent community to which all classes owe the same duty that a soldier owes to his country. And labor will join us in wishing God-speed to the day when this dangerous weapon shall no longer be employed. We look confidently forward to that great day when a higher appreciation of our moral obligations and patriotic duties will be felt by all citizens, when a broader education and an all-pervading spirit of democracy, sympathetic understanding and brotherly love will draw us closer together and end forever the intolerance, injustice and selfishness which now un- happily characterizes so many of our human relations. In that great day sympathy, mutual understanding and mutual helpfulness will take the place of the strike and the lock-out. We know of nothing else^ that will hasten that day so much as universal edu- cation in the duties of citizenship and obligation to our fellow-man, universal training in loyalty and loving-kindness, universal association in good fellow- ship and brotherly love. These, fellow citizens, are the glorious prospects universal training holds out to us. They are within our grasp, we may seize them if we will. And the time is now. The Obligation of Service Democracy will not stand solely on its own merits. Unless the citizens realize their obligation to the [ 260 ] state, and are prepared to defend it in case of need, it must perish. Democracy lives not in the halls of state, but in the hearts of its patriotic citizens. A nation which would rise as one man in defense of its rights would apparently need no laws concerning the obligations of the citizens to the state. But this spirit does not grow spontaneously. It must be cul- tivated, like an apple tree which would otherwise pro- duce dwarfed or bitter apples. The decision cannot be left to each individual as concerns his own actions. If the nation does not regard the obligation as suf- ficiently important to base laws upon it the citizen cannot be expected to entertain a higher regard. If the law is enacted it becomes, in a representative government, the will of all the people which all ac- cept as a matter of course, and the idea of "compul- sion" in connection with it disappears. It is simply legalizing a moral obligation which all recognize. We do not "compel" our children to go to their schools in the sense of actually applying force. They under- stand that schooling is right and necessary, and when the time comes we send them to school and they go without rebelling against our authority. Yet we know well that they would not go to school of their own entirely free will. If they did we should perhaps be inclined to regard them with a suspicion that they were not perfectly normal children. And it is not military service alone that the state should command, but service of every kind. And the [261] obligation does not rest alone upon the physically fit male citizens between the ages of 21 and 45, or what- ever they may be, but upon every man, woman and child of the nation. It is not armies alone that need training and discipline, but entire peoples. Disci- pline at home and in industry is important, as well as discipline on the field of battle. While the obligation of the citizen to serve the state is, as Washington said, the main pillar of a free gov- ernment, yet in America the citizen has never been called upon to recognize such obligation in time of peace, and seldom in war. As a result many of us have come to look upon this obligation to our country as a gift, which we may bestow or withhold at our pleasure or whim, and without reproach. Insecure is the state whose citizens have such a narrow and individualistic view of the most sacred duty of citi- zenship. "Were such a spirit to become general amongst our people it would mean the end of America as a free and independent state. We do not depend for the financial support of representative government upon voluntary contribu- tions, such a dependence would be futile. It is equal- ly futile to depend on voluntary service for the safety and maintenance of our independence. Service to one's country should be regarded as an obligation, not a compulsion. We have obligations to our friends, things which we do from a sense of duty and usually with pleasure, or at least without [ 262 ] regret, and not because we are forced to do them. Compulsion of some kind is applied only to those who will not recognize their obligations and cheerfully fulfill them. We should take the same view of the sacred obligations to our country. There is no higher or nobler duty than the defense of our country. We take a pride in fitting ourselves to fill honorable positions in life, to render high and loyal service. Should we not have at least equal pride in preparing ourselves to defend our liberties, to keep Old Glory up in the free air where it belongs ? We should look upon universal training not as a dose of bitter medicine which we are compelled to take, but as an honor and distinction. And it will be so regarded when every youth of the land receives the training, except those who are exempted for their deficiencies or for other good reasons. These will be the rare exception. The average man will be educated to recognize, and trained to fulfill the obligations that are inseparable from patriotic citizenship in a free country. How noble will be the patriotic spirit of our people when every man feels a pride and satis- faction in the fact that he is one of the trained de- fenders of our liberties and our flag ! The following are the words of George Washington, and they appear to be as applicable or more applica- to present day conditions than to those of AVashing- ton's time. He was speaking of military training for all citizens. [263 ] Every intelligent mind would rejoice in the establish- ment of an institution, under whose auspices the youth and vigor of the constitution would be renewed with each successive generation, and which would secure the great principles of freedom and happiness against the injuries of time and events. Patriotism We have great confidence and pride in the benefi- cence and efficiency of our democratic form of govern- ment. We congratulate ourselves on the "opportu- nity" afforded to every man of the nation, and the better material conditions in which we live, as com- pared with those of less fortunate nations. But it is worth while to pause and reflect on the nature of this "opportunity" which all may have in this land of the free. What do we mean by opportunity ? Is the opportunity to acquire wealth and material comfort what a man most needs to make him most truly and fully a man? Does the average American think of more than this when he speaks of "opportunity"? We must admit, of course, that wealth and material comfort do not alone make any life worth living. They are, in fact, of little value except insofar as they en- able us to acquire and enjoy higher and better things. Wealth without virility invariably leads to national degeneration, as the history of mankind plainly shows. The self indulgence and love of ease and luxury which made her citizens unwilling to bear the burden [ 264 ] of military service, in other words, the decay of pa- triotism, was the cause of the downfall of ancient Eome. A government which affords to its citizens only wealth and comfort cannot continue to exist, for the citizens are unable to defend the country against ag- gression. Virility, and not wealth, is the quality es- sential to the continued existence of a people. Switz- erland is not a wealthy country, yet she continued to exist serene through the throes of the European War, because her citizens are virile. The best and highest expression of virility in all nations has been the love of the citizens for their country, their willing- ness to give all, if need be, to its service — in a word, patriotism. Patriotism in its better sense (real, not spurious patriotism) does not develop spontaneously. It must be intelligently cultivated by the government. The nation must be "morally organized'' to be virile and enduring. This moral organization is the func- tion of the Federal government, which alone is able effectively to secure it. Universal training is in- tended to be the instrument for the moral organiza- tion of the people. If it is not apparent that the sys- tem is producing the desired result it will be modified and improved until it does. But no power in the land short of that of the Federal government is capable of establishing this system and making it effective in the accomplishment of its purpose. It may be said that the vigor with which America [ 265 ] entered and prosecuted the late war is sufficient proof of our virility as a nation. Certainly we are a virile nation. But the German " propaganda, " the antics of the " peace at any price" pacifists, the open criti- cism of and opposition to the efforts of the govern- ment, the necessity for the resort to conscription, labor strikes and anarchistic disturbances, ' ' profiteer- ing" and other unpatriotic acts which have attended our conduct of the war, prove that the nation did not rise as one mail in defense of its rights and its honor. Thus we are not as patriotic as we might be. We are an educated nation, yet we have many illiterates. As a nation we are as patriotic as we are educated, for patriotism and education go hand in hand, but there is room, yes, and demand for improvement in both. Vast numbers of immigrants who arrive in this country have no intention of becoming real citizens. Their only object in seeking America is to accumulate American gold with which to return and live in com- fort in their own land. They feel no obligations of citizenship, no devotion to America, its institutions or ideals. Their aims are purely selfish, they are simply exploiting us for their own aggrandizement. Aliens such as these should not be permitted to en- joy the freedom, privilege and protection of America without assuming the obligations of citizenship. Otherwise their presence is a menace to our liberties, as we have but too plainly seen in this time of unrest. [ 266 ] We must either exclude such people or educate them to full citizenship. During the late war nearly 800,000 aliens of draft age (between 21 and 31 years) refused to serve the United States, claiming exemption on the ground that they were not citizens of America. These were not enemy aliens, but citizens of allied or neutral countries who had no reason for refusing to serve ex- cept selfishness and a lack of appreciation of their obligations. Many of them had for years enjoyed the benefits of citizenship in America, yet were selfish- ly unwilling to render any service in return for these benefits. It is the same class of selfish aliens who are largely if not chiefly responsible for the industrial disturbances which are to-day such a grave menace to our prosperity and our freedom. We need laws which will compel these aliens to as- sume the duties of citizenship, including the ability to speak, read and write our language. We should compel this foreign element to become citizens in a legal sense, or else suffer deportation. But this alone is not sufficient. It is not the outward visible form alone, but also the inward spiritual grace of citizen- ship which we demand. In addition to requiring these aliens to become citizens in a legal sense we must educate them to a sympathetic understanding of what American citizenship means. We must make them American to their heart's core, patriots who love the country of their adoption. It needs some- [ 267] L 268 1 thing more than citizenship papers to make a patri- otic, loyal and worthy American citizen. Universal training will fill this urgent need. But it is not of aliens alone that we would speak. We need a higher sense of patriotism in all our citi- zens, or better perhaps a livelier realization of what patriotism really means. To many of our people patriotism is something they have read about in their school histories, but have never felt in their hearts. To such universal training will bring a more definite and a nobler conception. Those who have served and saluted the flag, who have stood at "attention" when Old Glory rose on its staff each morning, and descend- ed therefrom each night, will have a conception of patriotism more real and enduring than that derived from the school histories, newspapers and 4th of July speeches. What we need is less emotional and more practical patriotism. The resources of a nation, for peace as well as war, are not physical alone, but also and chiefly moral. To effectively marshal our industrial and physical re- sources for the prosecution of -a great war we must organize industry and train our people during peace. But the foundation of a successful defense, on which everything else rests, is the moral organization and training of the people. We have the word of the greatest of soldiers (Napoleon) that in war the in- fluence of moral force is to that of physical force as three to one, And it is not fighting men alone who [269] Old Glory s" guard of honor. Note the splendid physical development and the keen, intelligent expressions of these fine young men. The set of their lips denotes self reliance and force of character. We need millions of boys like these. [ 270 1 need high morale to insure glorious victory, but the entire nation which supports them. The army is only the cutting edge of a tool which must be urged for- ward by the moral and physical forces of the nation behind it. Only the will of all the people to conquer or die can insure victory. A supine citizenry will neither create nor support a gallant and . devoted army. By the moral organization of the nation we mean the sedulous cultivation of the spirit of patriotism, pride in and love country, oar country which is so eminently worthy of our love and devotion. Every citizen (not the soldier alone) must be eager to give his all to his country, from a sense of obligation, but more especially from love. All is summed up in the one word— PATRIOTISM. Not that false and futile patriotism whose sole expression is a boastfulness be- fore foreigners or a watering of the eyes and a lump in the throat in the presence of our flag, but that deeper and truer patriotism that lies in the heart, that makes us willing, aye and eager to give our all to the country we so love and to which we owe all that we have and are. Cardinal Mercier, the heroic Belgian Priest, who performed such glorious service for his country during the past war, says : Down within us all is something deeper than personal kinships, than party feeling, and this is the need and the will to devote ourselves to that more general interest which [271] Rome termed the public thing, res publica. And this pro- found will within us is patriotism. Our country is not a mere concourse of persons or of families inhabitating the same soil, having among them- selves relations more or less intimate of business, of neigh- borhood, of a community of memories happy or unhappy. Not so; it is an association of living souls subject to a social organization, to be defended and safeguarded at all costs, even the cost of blood, under the leadership of those presiding over its fortunes. And it is because of this general spirit that the people of a country live a com- mon life in the present, through the past, through the aspirations, the hopes, the confidence in a life to come, which they share together. This is the spirit that has made and preserved us a nation. This is the spirit that we wish by univer- sal education to implant in the heart of every native born American citizen and of every alien who seeks asylum on our shores. There is no room in America except for patriotic American citizens. [ 272 ] APPENDIX The following is a synopsis of the principal provisions with reference to universal training and service in time of war in the Bill, S. 3888, introduced in the U. S. Senate in January, 1920, by Senator James W. Wadsworth, Jr., Chairman of the Committee on Military Affairs. Sec. 51. Military Training. — All male citizens of the United States (excluding Alaska and insular possessions) and all who have declared an intention to become citizens, other than persons excepted by this act, shall, upon attaining the age of eighteen years, or within three years thereafter, be subject to military or naval training, and shall be inducted into the Army or Navy of the U. S. for this purpose alone and shall be subject to training therein for a period of four months and for such further time as may be reasonably necessary for enrollment, mobilization and demobilization. The training of any such person may, with his consent, be continued for an additional period not exceeding two months. All shall have the privilege of electing, whether training shall begin at eighteen or shall be deferred for not more than three years and of expressing whether they desire to train in the Army or Navy, and, so far as practicable, they shall be trained in accordance with such expressed desire. Military training as herein provided for shall become effective beginning Jan. 1, 1921. All liable for training who do not begin within three years of the age of eighteen because exempt from training or for any other reason shall begin such training as soon thereafter as may be, but not after attaining the age of twenty-six. Any alien resident in the U. S. for not less than one year and qualified to become a citizen except by length of residence and prior filing of a declaration of intention, and who, if a citizen, would be liable for training, may, with his consent, be inducted into service, and upon completion he shall receive a certificate thereof and have the privilege of electing forthwith to become a citizen within six months. Any alien male resident who shall claim and secure exemption from military training, upon the ground of alienage; except as ex- pressly provided by treaty, shall not be admitted to citizenship there- after but shall be forever barred. Sec. 52. Classes of Training. — The military training and any preparatory education therefor shall be prescribed by regulation, and shall include general educational training and vocational training in appropriate trades necessary in war and useful in peace, scientific agriculture, physical training, instruction in hygiene, instruction in American history, principles and forms of government, and such other instruction and training as is adapted to qualification for duties as citizen soldiers. The training to be given in different areas of the country shall be adapted to the climate, agricultural, industrial, educational and other conditions. Upon induction for training all recruits shall be subjected to a physical and psychological examin- ation, including such mental and other tests as necessary to determine whether subsequent service shall be with combat or special troop units. Subject to revision and approval by the Secretary of War, regulations governing training shall be prepared by a committee of that division of the General Staff charged with direction and supervision of military training; this committee shall be composed of three or more officers and at least an equal number of other persons, including veteran officers, eligible for appointment as reserve officers, physicians and civilians specially qualified. Sec. 53. Preparatory Educational Training. — Persons liable to training not sufficiently instructed in the English language to be able to profit by such training may be required to receive, prior to the training period, the preparatory education necessary to fit them there- for, and they may be inducted into the service or not for this purpose. The preparatory educational period shall not exceed two months. Sec. 54. Pay and Allowance or Persons Undergoing Train- ing. — During the training period and, if inducted into the service, dur- ing preparatory educational period, each man shall receive pay at the rate of $5 a month, besides transportation, clothing, laundry, shelter, subsistence, and all necessary medical and dental attendance. Sec. 55. Exceptions prom Liability to Training. — The follow- ing shall be excepted: (a) Persons exempted by treaty; (b) citizens or subjects of any country with which the U, S. is at war or of any ally of such country; (c) persons in a status with respect to persons dependent upon them which renders their exception advisable, except when suitable provision is made by law for such dependents; (d) persons in the military or naval service of the U. S. or who have served therein for a period of four months, including only such kinds of prior service as prescribed by regulation; (e) students preparing for the ministry in recognized theological schools; (f) persons mentally, morally, or physically incapable of profiting by the usual training, for whom appropriate measures may be taken. Sec. 56. Assignment op Reservists in National Guard and in Organized Reserves. — Each reservist who has completed the pre- scribed training shall be assigned to an organization of the National Guard or the organized reserves established for the locality in which he lives, and shall serve therein for five years, when he shall be trans ferred to the unorganized reserves; reservists assigned to the National Guard shall serve therein for a period of three years. Any reservist may, upon change of residence, be transferred to an appropriate organization of the Guard, or organized reserves for the locality of his new residence. So far as the needs of the service will permit, each reservist shall be assigned, or transferred, to an arm of the service which he may elect or for which he is found best qualified; no reservist shall be assigned or transferred to an organization of the National Guard without his consent; the number of reservists who have com- pleted training that may be assigned to the National Guard shall not exceed in any year one-third of the maximum strength of the Guard. While assigned to organized reserves, reservists shall be subject to mobilization and additional training for two annual periods of not to exceed two weeks each during their membership therein; any desiring to qualify as officers or non-commissioned officers, may with their consent, receive additional training, and be continued in the organized reserves for a period of ten years. Sec. 57. Grades, Ratings, and Rates or Pay op Reservists. — The grades and ratings to which reservists assigned to or enlisted in National Guard, or the organized reserves, may be appointed, the num- bers in each grade, and rates of pay, when in the active service of the U. S., shall be the same as grades, ratings and rates of pay provided for enlisted men of this permanent personnel. Sec. 59. Liability of Reservists and of Organized Reserves for Service. — Reservists assigned to organized reserves, in addition to being subject to call for training may at any time, with their own consent, be called into active service to act as instructors, or to per- form any other appropriate duty for which qualified. All reservists may be required to make an annual report by mail or otherwise. The organized reserves shall be liable to call for military service by the President, only when Congress shall declare that a national emergency exists; but this shall not prevent voluntary assembly of the units of the organized reserves nor annual mobilization or training. Sec. 63. Training of Recruits in National. Guard. — Any per- son liable to military training who is able to speak, read and write English intelligently may elect to receive such training in the National Guard. In any state not more than 200 such persons for each Senator and Representative, and a number to be determined by the President for each territory and District of Columbia, shall be accepted in any one year; they shall enlist for five years; the first three years shall be substantially equivalent to the training prescribed for recruits in the training forces. If they shall fail to carry out their obligation in receiv- ing prescribed training honestly and faithfully, they shall, upon recom- mendation of immediate commanding officer, approved by corps com- mander, be transferred to the training forces and required to receive prescribed training therein for four months, at expiration of which they shall be transferred to the National Guard and serve therein for three years. Training in the National Guard shall be conducted by officers and enlisted men of the training forces hereinbefore provided for and assigned for this purpose; subject to the supervision of the corps commander of the area. Such training shall be authorized only for those localities where adequate facilities exist and are made avail- able by state or other authorities concerned. Persons who elect to re- ceive equivalent training in National Guard shall while receiving such training receive the pay and allowances prescribed for privates, to- gether with medical and dental attendance. Sec. 71. Liability for Military Service in Time of "War. — Whenever Congress shall declare and the President shall proclaim that a national emergency exists — (a) The National Guard, organized reserves and unorganized reserves shall be subject to call for immediate active military service during the emergency. (b) All other male citizens of the U. S. (except officers and enlisted men of the permanent personnel of the Army, Navy, or Marine Corps) between the ages of eighteen and forty-five, both inclusive, and all other male persons between such ages residing in U. S. (including Alaska and insular possessions), who have within seven years prior to the call declared an intention to become citizens, except persons excepted in Sec. 55, shall be subject to call for immediate military or naval service. The order in which they shall be inducted into such service shall be determined by their classification as provided in Sec. 72. Sec. 72. Classification of Persons Liable for Service. — In determining the order as above, classification shall be provided for as follows: So as to constitute such special classes as may be pre- scribed; so as to place in a deferred class those needed in occupations of importance during the emergency, so long as they regularly and in good faith continue in such occupations; also those upon whose families and dependents the hardships would be greatest by reason of their induction; so as to provide the Military and Naval Establish- ments with persons having special qualifications; so as to except from service, upon claim for exception, a regularly ordained minister of religion, member of a well-recognized religious sect in existence for at least five years whose principles forbid participation in war, etc., but they shall not be excepted from service in any non-combatant capacity; also Federal, State, District of Columbia, county, or municipal officers or employees, whose functions render their exception advisable, including police force and reserves. No exception or deferred classification shall continue when a cause therefor no longer exists. Sec. 73. Registration. — Whenever Congress shall declare that a national emergency exists, the President is authorized to require regis- tration of all or any class of male citizens or residents ; exceptions : Officers and enlisted men in the permanent personnel of the Army, Navy and Marine Corps and reserve officers, enlisted men and re- servists in National Guard, and organized reserves and recruits un- dergoing training; diplomatic representatives, etc., of foreign countries. Sec. 74. Registration of Persons Liable for Military Train- ing. — -To carry out the provisions of this act all male citizens, and all male residents of the U. S. (except Alaska and insular possessions), after attaining the age of seventeen years, shall be required to register with local or other board, on such days as prescribed by the President, to the end that they may be called for training; any who may require preparatory education under Sec. 53 may be required to receive it at any time after registration; any subject to military training, physically qualified therefor, may, with their consent and that of parents and guardians, be inducted for training at any time after registration and before attaining the age of eighteen. A number of other bills providing for universal training are also under consideration. *.n 13 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 021 899 194 4