The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1914-10-19
College Men and Arms


in articles long and short upon tbs
war in Europe, its nominal and its
real causes, and upon the course the
United States should pursue. One
writes: Prepare for peace by in
crease of army and of navy" an
other: avoid wa, by dismantling
the one and disbanding the other
Yet others would follow the advice
and the practice Of Alden Partridge
and would see to it that college men
whose vocations are to be peaceful
are trained in the right use of arms,
That is an old story to Norwich
graduates, but there is nothing in the
course of the history of our country,
o. in the light of recent expense to
lead us to believe that Partridge was
not right
AS a nation we will not maintain
a great standing army, neither will
we now stand for universal military
service, but we do, and we viii, mix
into the affairs of the world at large,
moral, commercial, political and even
religious. We cannot keep out.
Sometime, somewhere, then, we will
either have to stand fast, even if we
have to fight; or else yield to every
demand, just or unjust. So to yield
is not merely ignominious. In the
end il is vain, as far as the purpose
is to avoid strife and bloodshed; it
will not avoid. 1t we're better to end
all in ono supreme, the futile. effort
for right and justice than by a supine
bowling to wrong and injustice to for
felt all by slow degrees and with
multiplied loss.
y great standing army may be a
menace TO the peace OF the nation
which owns it and of the world. No
army with no navy invites distruc-
ton. Some power in arms we must
have. If we cannot have the best, let
us make the best of opportunities
that are available and train many to
high knowledge and high skill, for
the protection and preservation of
those principles which the experience
of the ages has proved sound and
which the efforts and struggles Of
our forbears have made our inheri-
lance. Partridge thought he saw the
need for the nation to have men
laboring in the arts OF peace, yet so
trained in arms that they could quick
ly make the less fortunate, the less
skillful, patriotic volunteers an affec-
tive. defensive power in the hour Of
need Such men as officers must of
necessity fall short of the profession
al soldier; but there are pages upon
pages OF our history showing that
they do not lag far behind.
Il is hard for some to conceive
that our little standing army is
inimical to peace; but no possible
strain OF the Imagination can make
men trained, as suggested, a menace
Thousands Of college graduates,
trained during their college years, to
the observance Of military duty. In
barracks, in the camp. and on the
march. trained to caro- for themselves
and for their fellows in the open.
trained to use arms OF all kinds, yet
following peaceful pursuits can be
neither stumpling block nor offense
They go out to the needs o: the world
filling positions OF trust in the agri.
cultural, manufacturing and business
affairs with all their energies bent to
tho arts of peace. Peace 10 them
spells prosperity and advancement
Such will not provoke no make war,
nor promote It, but if war comes they
will be ready. In the hour of its
peril. the patriotic devotion of college
graduates rallies them TO the support
Of the nation. But neither academic
knowledge. nor SKIN in agriculture, in
manufacture or IN business will sui
fee Love of honor, love of glory, pa
triotlsm are not enough. The time
demands. beside all these, readiness.
and readiness comes only with train
ing and practice.
The story of the few military col.
leges and the military school other
than West Point suggests extraordi-
nary service in the Civil War They
did send in proportion more than
other collegs to the battlefield.
General Hawkins proposition to be
one OF four to give $4,000 apiece to
Norwich should be met not by tho re-
naming three required. but by