Repository: UIHistories Project: Booklet - Military Training in our Land Grant Colleges (1916) [PAGE 4]

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to protect the country adequately from invasion, we must keep alive the interest of every section of the United States in this fundamental functi i of government. One of the most efficient minor means to accompli this

result is to see that the national forces and the corps of officers are recruited from fever} section of the country alike. Third, the majority of such a large body of officers as is called for under present conditions should he obtaining a practical preparation for the pursuits oi civil life while acquiring their military education, since the most of them will oi course enter the reserve instead of the active corps. West Point oilers an admirable center for the training of a considerable number of the officers of the active and permanent force, but even if it were greatly enlarged and often multiplied, it could not turn out a sufficient supply even for the active service alone. Moreover, it should he emphasized that neither West Point nor schools like it can turn out the body of reserve officers necessary, since its curriculum is too exclusively military in character, and not sufficiently broad to serve the purposes of a training which, while primarily organized for other purposes, namely, the pursuits of civil life, should as an incident, furnish the preparation required for a reserve officer. A partial answer to the question I have raised, namely, how can these officers be provided,—and I believe it will be found to be more nearly a complete answer than it would seem to be at first blush,—is to utilize the means at hand in the series of national-state institutions, now more than fifty in number, at least one in each state and one also in Porto Rico and Hawaii, known as the Land Grant Colleges. These institutions are first of all national institutions. They owe their origin to national initiative, were created in response to national legislation, and are supported in large part by national appropriations. They are required by federal law to give instruction in military science and tactics, and nearly thirty thousand young men are now receiving in these institutions such military training as may be obtained by three hours' work per week through two years under the supervision for the most part of an officer of the regular army detailed for this purpose by the W a r Department of the United States, and carrying out a scheme of instruction approved by said Department. All that necessary to make at least the beginning of an adequate scheme for supplying the reserve officers, and for that matter, many oi the ctive officers of our national forces, is to energize and vitalize the military departments of th< e institutions, already in organic connection with the federal W r Department, already attended \iy fifty thousand young men.

all of whom arc pledged to perform at least two years' military service.

How much better it is to train effectively the young men who are now on hand and who are willing to accept this training, instead of trying to get thirty thousand other volunteers who will come in, in an\ case, with

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