The times., 1898-06-10
District Boys mt the Front.

District Boys ut the Front
The report from Florida that the Dis
trict regiment has been included in the
troops drawn for foreign service, if
true, viii give universal satisfaction in
Washington. 1t is not only that the
corps in which We are so much inter
ested is regarded as one of the very
best and most efficient of the volunteer
regiments offered to the Government in
the present emergency, but that its per
scnnel is a fiattering commentary upon
the local system Of making practical sol
diers of school boys. Our High School
organization. from year to year, has
turned out hundreds of lads who, at
least, were able, on being graduated,
To take their places in the ranks of an
infantry command as soldiers able tC
fire gun and to obey and appreciate
orders. There have been very few %
them -Tho could not, also, command
squad, section or a company with in
telligence
The large extent to which our District
force i composed of High School
cadets, coupled with the encomums
which regular officers have bestowed
upon them since they were mustered
into the United States service, is proof
that there is something good in the sys-
tenn which has produced most of them
The record they have made so
far. and their superiority over the
gallant but green recruits who have
come from some other States, leads
Us To the conclusion that it is
right and sensible thing to train
the youth of America to bear arms
in the defense OF their country while
they are being educated by it.
All the rights of citizenship are de-
rivable from the ability and the re-
sponsibility of the unit of male popula-
tion to fight in support of the COM
monwealth. During past years of peace
We have been exasperated to see a
tendency among some of the phiIan-
thropo- o-emasculated elements of Ameri-
can society TO oppose the teaching OF
military tactics and science in our
schools. Idiotic peace societies and hys-
| terical female organizations of one sort
or another, have exerted their influence
against the idea. They have held that
10 train boys as soldiers is to assure 2
militant and murderous sentiment in
the community
The best answer to that is. that if,
since the civil war. every public school
in the country had been a military
school, even in the limited sense that
our High Schools in Washington are.
ii would have been a much easier mat
ter for MI Mckinley to construct a
volunteer army out of the material al
his command. Necessity and emer-
gency teach stern lessons, and one OF
them is. that a nation which does not
choose to maintain a large standing
army, although exposed to all the vicis-
situdes and perils of other nations which
do, would better resolve itself into an
unlimited lunatic asylum than to neg
lect the great and overpowering neces-
sity for thoroughly trained and eff
cient army reserve.
More than once we have offered this
suggestion to the military committees
of Congress. Why do they not see the
Importance of preparing a national
guard system which shall be a sturdy
background for the regular and volun-
teer forces?
In one way or another it is certain
that America must be armed to be re-
spected; perhaps to maintain its proper
position, if not its independence among
the powers of civilization. Is il not
necessary, and vitally necessary, there
fore, that the organization of the ulti-
mate basis of national protection
should be studied out and established.
The present is not mere passing
episode. 1t is precursor of coming re-
sponsibilities. events, and, if we are
dense to its lessons, of disasters. One of
the first duties of the hour is to provide
an adequate reserve military force for
the nation. We have more than ten
million men of fighting age to draw
from Why not wake up to the oppor-
tunity which their ability and patriot
ism offers to Congress and the country