St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1886-09-20
Retirement of Chaplain Mullins, We De-
signed the System Of Mental
Training
Now in Use in Our Army-An Interview
With the Originator at Fort
Smelling.
A Good and We1l-Furnished Mind as
Necessary as Good Health
and Muscles.
Ten Per Cent. of the Members of the
Army Can Hardly Sign
Their Names.
Intelligence behind the Gun.

mental training anu LloHtdl recreation now
in use in our army. 1t was a gigantic con-
ception, invaluable to our military service
and to the country at large. On a slight
physical disability contracted in the line of
duty. Chaplain Mullins is about to be re-
tired His last army post is at Fort Smell
ing and at the headquarters of this military
department there yesterday GLOBE re-
porter called upon him. Instead of ven
cradle Nestor. the reporter found man in
the prime of life. and instead of the con-
ventiOnal minister. man Of the world.
He is a clear thinker. brilliant writer. an
accomplished scholar, and his views con-
corning education in the army-a subject
to which he has devoted much time that
pecuniarily might have been spent most
prOtitably-seem fairly to comprehend it
ALL and to constitute broad foundation
for
FUTURE ACTION.
81 cannot give" he said. "a formal and
consecutive discourse on this matter, but
l will say few things as they come to
me" and wholly ina conversational way,
he began: 'Once, one-quarter of the peo-
pie of the earth were organized in standing
armies. Then war was an humiliation.
Now armies are smaller in comparison and
less destructive. In the end" he added as
a light climax. rising to offer cigar, 1.-TWO
conflicting forces will stand ON the oppO-
site banks of rivers and make faces at each
other. When war was force against force,
the balance hung even, and so it docs now
when intelligence is opposed to intelligence,
but woe to the country that in the nine
teenth century attempts to match the old
power against the new. 1t is an old saying
that soldier should be a machine and
even now in the United States army officers
may be found who MAINTAIN that a soldier
has no need to think. But patriotism is q
necessity to the successful man-farms and
soldier should think. for patriotism is the
OFFSPRING OF KNOWLEDGE.
To-day we are behind all other civilized
nations-ffty years behind. Read Upton's
Armies of Europe 1t is known in Europe
that soldier must have not only the skill
of his weapon, but the physical ability to
use it under all circumstances. and the
mental training to use it to the best adj
vantage. The foreign soldier, therefore,
devoteS only part of his working day to
technical drills; he is exercised in gymnas-
tics and III the studies or ordinary schools
The result is, that while in the military
service. he is of maximum value to his
country. and that, Oh returning to civil life
he carries not alone the then valueless
knowledge of his old profession, but good
health, good muscles and good and we'll
furnished mind.
ut seems very simple, yet from the first
up nearly to the present time. the United
States has exercised it's soldiers only at
tactical drills and those of minor sort, leay-
Ing minds and muscles unframed. A
hundred years of drill at the manual of
arms! 1t is like teaching miiner only
how to hold her needle, a musician only the
position of his hands.
1t was in 1866 that the school law was
passed, but not until 1878 that General
Order No. "a was published prescribing for
the schools SYSTEM" This order was the
direct outcome of report made by Gen. N.
H. Nelson in Chaplain Mullins personal
work in Texas
''One Of the great faults in
THE SYSTEM
is that it does not provide trained teachers.
Now post schools are taught by enlisted
men, and OH the education and fitness Of
theSe-a matter of chance-depend the
entire results of the school of a garrison.
The army should have corps of $50
trained teachers. Another fault of the sys-
TEN is that the attendance of schools
aud cypher he should be compelled to go to
school-for the same reason that he is com
PEELED to go to drill and target practice
that he may become an efficient soldier. l
am in favor of compulsory education, be-
lieving it to be wise. just and practicable.
Ten per cent. OF the rank and file OF our
army can hardly sign their names, and an
examination in United States history, arith-
metc and the articles Of war would find
two thirds of our force deficient to-day.
And schools should be open to army chill
dren. The state and federal governments
appropriate millions annually to popular
education. There are 5000 children of
school age in the army to-day. Posts are
isolated and attendance at public schools,
for the young especially, All impOsSibilty.
Many enlisted meu-the best men and with
the most laudabe ambition-are now pay
ing from 81 to So from their
MONTHLY STIPEND
of S13 for private instruction for their chill
dren. Five dollars per month is paid here
at Fort Smelling.
1T has been hobby of mine for many
years that every army post should have
brilliantly lighted hall, large airy school
room and a library supplied not only with
good books but with the leading papers
and periodicals."
That soldiers are now furnished with
these latter, is due entirely to Chaplain
Mullins. In the reading-rooms of our army
he has reared splendid monument for
himself.
THE soldier in the desolation of the av-
erage army post" continued the chaplain,
''should have some suitable, agreeable
place to pass his idle hours, some worthy
and pleasant object to employ his mind.
No money can be better spent than the
$1,000 which supplies $4,000 men with
these read and re-read papers and maya
zines. But strange to say, some economists
have made it a necessity to cut of, to a
great extent, even this small sum. and
Herewith the instructive periodicals which
enter so largely and valuably into an Amer
leans education"
In answer to question as to what signs
he had observed of the utility of army
Libraries and Schools the chaplain said that
after
THESE INSTITUTIONS
were established there were fewer breaches
of discipline, the guard reports showed
fewer men in the guard house, and there
were fewer men in the hospitals. fewer de-
sertions; above ALL better, more intelli-
gent and more cheerful performance of
duty. l shall always contend for most
liberal provisions for schools and reading
rooms and that the great amount OF mani
ual Matchmaking roads, guarrying stone,
building houses-the hundred laborious
things our little army is made to perform
is the mother cause of desertlon, and the
chief obstacle to mental. moral and SOL
dierly improvement" He repeated his
opinion on the value of patriotism, quoting
and disputng Juvenars quid stemmata
facunt? 1.-The pride of nations" said he,
1.-The pride of family, the pride OF country,
the pride Of banners won-these are our
best possessions. But unless we know our
country, our ancestry, ourselves, we can
have no pride in them worthy the name.
The soldier should know his country. its
history, its anticipations." AS stated,
Chaplain Mullins is about to
RETIRE FROM THE SERVICE
that he has so intellectually benefited and b.
4 =