The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1915-01-12
Member of the Associated Press,
TUESDAY; JANUARY IL, 1916.
MILITARY TRAINING.


The Commentator, who turns out a |
column replete with sensible sugges.
tions in the New London Day, admits |
that he is not the least pugnacious, |
that he abhOrs the idea of bloodshed |
or the mere thought of fight, and |
that he has infinitely more admiration
for the fireman or surfman than for
the soldier, but expresses the belief
that sooner or later the United States
will have system whereby each able
! bodied young man will have to serve
a short term in the standing army, or
a longer period in the National Guard,
which will be closely supervised by
the federal military authorities, and
then he adds:
Six months of good hard training
are believed by many military men to
be sufficient for making of a good in
tantry soldier-not six months of
couple of hours a day but six months
of full days work. Six months is
good deal to take out of the life of a
boy who is just starting to make his
. way in the world, but it is not more
than many thousand fool away in the
period between leaving school and Sc
riously taking up the work of their
lives. And in my sincere belief the
average American boy would get, out
of n half year of military discipline,
SO much real benefit that in the long
run the loss of time would be more
than compensated.
If there is one thing more than an
other that this country is suffering
from it is lack of the qualities of or,
deriness and cooperation on the part
! Of its people, especially the rising gen
Il Grafton; a contempt for all control and
n a proper recognition of constituted au
u thority. Nowhere else in the world are
3 these things so thoroughly instilled a,
in a military camp.
There is too little control of lOul
boys in the homes, in the schools by
our civic authorities: so much too lit
tie that it is a positive fact that Amer
lean industry and American business
are suffering seriously from the iuef
ficieucy that this lack of .contro
breeds. As Il nation we are beeomin,
bad hammered, slOvenly, uncoutb, be
cause our young people for a goo
many years have been growing NOR
and more weedy and undisciplined. Pa
rental authority has shrunk to a mir
imum; the schools are failing lameI
tably in establishing habits of ment5
or moral orderliness; we are getting
as a people, into messy state of Ok
pertinent and ethics.
And it seems to me that in the eI
forced subjugatiOn of the youth of til
country to a period of real and une
capable discipline therel les brigl
hope for the remedy of this condition
No who buc oil lunt
Tipped, slovenly rocky signing in a r
cruiting Office and who has seen I'll
same soldier few months later, cree
we'll mannered, respectful and in
mensely more self respecting, with h
physical condition improved even moi
than his moral state, can deny tn:
military service makes for the bull
- ing of men.
- I do not mean by this to argue tn;
y the professional soldier is the highe
" type. of citizen, not by a long chall
49,. merely that the habits of obedient
en-. and self watchfulness, of doing. thins
ned in the right way and without procrast
on nation, of physical upkGep, are thing
ers that come from military training al
our that they are eminentIy desirab
things that every young fellow WI
has his way to make in the wot
IouSHI W hCs SupplItu Win. Noo i dl Il
l can see there is no way in which II
boys could well fail to absorb them,
greater or less measure, from a sho
military service.
Merely as a tuning-up school
standing army made up of short ter
soldiers is mighty we'll worth consi
- ering. If you dom believe it, size
- the mill run of New London boys
the boys of any other American tor
today; put your imagination, TO wo
- as to what these boys would be wi
the addition of a half year s dai
contact with unremitting disciplil
outdoor exercise scientifically apple
an iron control that still makes no |
due demand on the lads manhot
that teaches him how to obey and &c
sequentlv how to command. Don t Y
imagine that the average boy wol
be Il whole lot more of man than
IS now, when he doesn't even KIN
how to speak respectful to his o
VT mother or decently to his boss?