The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1903-02-20
HANDICAP OF YOUTH.
Young Men of Europe Forced Into
Military Bondage.
Rival Nations Vying with Each other
for Armed Supremacy-Influ-
ence of the Service on
Subj ects.

Europeans who have resided in the
United States for any length of
time are usually struck by the large
number of young men who occupy
positions of prominence and re-
sponsibility in business, professional
life or the service of the state. This
is due in great part to the fact that
the American youth has ample OPP
portunity to work at his chosen
craft or profession without the un-
welcome interruption of compulsory
military service. Consumption is a
state of bondage which the young
man of the European continent must
undergo during the most valuable
years of his life. AT a period when
lad should be strainlng every nerve
to win place in the world he is
compelled to give up the struggle and
conform his ideas and even his phys
ical development to the Procrustean
standards of military martinets, says
the Chicago Daily News.
] In the various countries of CONT
mental Europe military laws and
service are very much alike. Inter-
national riyalries and ambitions are
ever urging these nations to keep
up with their neighbors in matters
: of national defense. Even the small.
er nationalities in some instances
have been armed by their big neigh
bors and proudly drag along their
burden of militarism. France, Ger
many, Austria and Italy compel
every able-bodied lad of 20 years of
age to devote two years of his life
to military service, Actually the
period of service required by law IL
longer than two years, but financial
considerations limit the term of
training. In addition to this period
the European youth must perforce
belong to the reserve and devote ac-
cording to his age longer or short
er part of his time each year to drill!
and maneuvers.
At the present day there are 1885,
600 young men engaged in actual
military service in France, Austria,
Germany and Italy. These figures
take no account of Russia, Belgium,
Spain and other countries, but sim
liar conditions prevail in and lika
reasoning applies to those nations.
vi this large number of young men
snatched away from trade, craft or
employment 100000 are French, 513,-
900 German, $4,000 Austrian ana
100000 Italian: This vast amount of
productive labor is annually lost
to Europe.
Only men in frst-class physical
condition are accepted for military
service. From six to seven per cent.
OF these men are permanently in
jured by the seventies of army life
Many more are incapacitated from
pursuing the careers they had
mapped out for themselves. The
case of one young German is sig
nificant. He had devoted almost six
years to learning matchmaking. He
had taken the greatest pride and
| pleasure in his skill as a craftsman
and had become so expert in his
work that he saw before him the as.
surance OF prosperous career. Two
young sisters as well as his mother
were dependent on him.
| This lad was drafted into the ar
tillery at 20. Handling heavy shot,
manipulating heavy guns. moving
gun carriages and other rough work
incident to artillery drill ruined his
delicate hands and untitled him for
carrying on his old craft. When he
completed his term of service he saw
before him the necessity of learning
some other business or being reduced
to the level of an unskilled laborer.
Meantime the family he had labored
so hard to keep together had been
scattered.
One of the worst features of mill
tary life is the cramping influence it
exerts on young men endowed with
any originality of thought or native
powers of mind. Will power, the
faculty of criticism or analysis, pow
ers of organization, invention and
| gift for the simplification of labor
are not merely useless in European
armies but even meet with the stern.
est repression. Mechanical obedi.
ence and unreasoning execution of or.
ders are the highest military vir-
tues in Europe. Such training speed.
| ly units young man for making his
mark in the world of industry or
commerce. The young European may
leave military life with a body unim-
paired by its hardships, but he is
likely to be handicapped for the
rest of his natural days by the arti-
fetal state of mind his training has
produced.
While the military system is itself
an exemplification of the survival of
the fittest it encourages the survival
| of weaklings in civil life. The halt.
the MANNED, the consumptive, the
asthmatic, the young men with
chronic complaints of whatever sort
are given an immense advantage over
their competitors from the military
ranks, no matter how, sound in body,
The army wants only lads of the
highest physical standards. The
others are rejected. They paw a
small yearly tax and are exempt.
They are thus enabled to attend tc
business or to work at their trades
for which the army is meanwhile un.
| fitting the others.
In America parents value a sound
mind in sound body for their off.
spring. In Europe parents often
Il. 4. ~ II