Repository: UIHistories Project: Booklet - Military Training in our Land Grant Colleges (1916) [PAGE 10]

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th the 1 i their din t t • th ition lo i I• hose ol un linistration th I publi in: We 1 r gl. in th< Ids not mpl or are ti: tl in n the wild n« . \\ not eon med with blaming who ha> failed t m t th r r < in the p ply tncern i t t tl n in authori to tal the r [ui e :tion. matter is, oui to u fii all, :>r Presit nts and S< \ and Chi Staff have unit 1 for man ( ears in s. ing that ng will not do anything in the premi< an< here is consequent^ no < vising it. What I have id thus far plies to the * in military training as

it has been thus far or-, ni I in th< institutions, and is a di ussion of the action which should be taken to make it more < t h e . 1 might sa before passing from this point, that in my opinion this military drill at o u r land g r a n t colleges is one of the most valuable elements in the general education of the y o u n g men w h o c me Up to these institutions. T h e drill in regular, imm liate obedience to the c o m m a n d s of stiperior officers is something which is needed very much by our A m e n in youngsters, and the habit of doing things in the proper way because they are told to do it. is worth cultivating in the y o u n g people of this country. This military drill is one of the most democratizing' elements at work in our student body. It crosses all lines of college, church, fraternity or social organization. It is suceptible to no pull of favoritism. It measures all class* , rich and poor, idle and industrious, social and misanthropic b\ the same s t a n d a r d and insists on efficiency or elimination. Its principle is " d o " or "get out"—a most desirable antidote for the enervating policy of indulgence pursued by so many American parents and college faculties which tends to develop a race of mollycoddles and incflicients.

I am not disturbed by the tears of some o\ my pacifist friends that such

military drill as we are proposing will develop a militaristic spirit. This nation is much more likely to go to pieces upon the greed of Mammon, or indulgence in the lust of the eye and of the flesh, or the pursuit (>i pleasure and other dangerous rocks of that, kind than upon any development of a ar-like spirit. But, aft< i all is said and done, the real results accomplished by two years of such training as we have at the present time, and as 1 have indi-

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ed in the above description, are very limited; results which are well worth

Its tO achieve them, and yet e n t u c k

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while accomplishing, fully worth all it

inadequate to meet the pi. «,,t n< Is of our national defense,