The daily morning journal and courier., 1895-02-13
------------------ Military Training in Schools.
[From Uorper's weekly.l

Those veterans of the Grand Army of
 the Republic who for two years have been laboring with enthusiasm and
 unceasing diligence to create senti- ment throughout the country favora-
 ble to military instruction in the public schools decided upon very effective plan to aid their movement when they arranged to make a demonstration of
 the physical effect, at least, that mili- tary drill has upon school-boys. The chief promoters of this movement have
 been members of Lafayette Post, G. A. R., of New York city. On Friday, Jan uary 25th, a committee of the post in- vited to confer with them the govern
 ors of five other states--Massachuset
 Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Jersey
 and Pennsylvania-were present or rep
 resented by their generals,
 Messages of sympathy with the move
 ment were received from the governors
 of nearly every state in the Union who
 were not personally represented.
 When the conference adjourned to the
 amory of the Seventh the visitors
 found the drill-hall converted into a
 miniature army post. There were pres
 ent eight hundred school-boy cadets,
 from five public schools, forming reg
 iment of infantry, with colonel com
 manding, aided by regimental field and staff officers
 The hall was patrolled by boy senti- nels in full uniform, carrying the regu- lation state Remington flfty-calibre rifles, who rendered the proper honors and saluted with grave precision as they allowed the governors and staff officers to pass. The various compa- nies were drawn up on three sides of the hall. The captains and other offi- eers were not always the older mem bers, but surely they were the most sol dierly; for no line officers of the regu- lars ever looked more keenly apprecia- tive of their duties and responsibilities at inspection than did these fourteen year-old officers.
 The older boys, those who have had one or two years military instruction, marched with the style which has made New York's Seventh regiment so fla nous. But the younger boys, the tIIir 5jj ones. were more interesting to the observers who were most studying the exhibition. One such company was from school in poorer part of the city, and their own hats and caps were so variously ragged that they were marched bare headed They came from neighbor- hoods where there is little in their home or associations to induce or orderliness, but as they by the reviewers with their hands at salute it was seen that those hands were as clean as the shining | faces they shaded. Their poor clothing | was clean and neat. Their bodies and | legs and arms were responding quickly to the training which will make them strong and active.
 Military instruction in the public | schools of New York has no official rec | ognition, although the school commits | sioners are greatly in favor of it; 1t has no state or municipal aid. The compa- | nies of older boys however, are loaned | rifles from the state arsenal, for which | the teachers are personally responsible. | The principals and teachers In every | school where a company has been formed are greatly in favor of the ex- tension of the system. In their opinion It makes the boys better scholars and | more amenable to the ordinary school i discipline.