The weekly tribune and the Cape County herald. (Cape Girardeau, Mo.) 1914-1918, 1915-10-08
Military Training in Schools
Formerly Infantry the Army

Nearly everybody talks today of the
advisability of military training in
schools. and l have failed to find in
our newspapers an outline of q pro-
gram for such a course.
The prevalent idea that for military
training in schools the boys assemble
with machine guns, rifles. bayonets.
and goodness knows what other war
Implements is erroneous. Military
training for schools, in strict accord
ance with the infantry drill regula-
tions of the United States Army (that
ought to be made compulsory by 4
federal act). is performed absolutely
without uniforms. without any weapon
whatsoever, by boys from their tenth
to fifteenth year.
The compulsory military training in
Switzcrland's schools applied to the
United States would mean teaching in
the physical training branch of our
public schools studies the following
program, taken from Section 165 of
the Infantry Drill Regulations of the
United States
Position Of soldier. or attention;
halt, rests, facings, steps and march
ings of soldiers or in formations of
squad. platoon and company; align
mcntS, taking intervals, distances
and assembling, kneeling and lying
down, turning on fixed and moving
pivots.
All these drills and exercises are
the foundation of training, and are
taught and practiced thoroughly and
uniformly in the armies of all ma
tons, not only because they make
the handling of military units posi-
bic and easy, but because they are
also the foundation for discipline,
which embraces all the manifold
qualifications man must have in
order to be not only good soldier, but
also a useful member of the civil army
Of good citizenship. To learn disci-
pline we cannot start early enough,
ard my advice to start it with boys
when they are 10 years old is certain
~, if nothing else, a good intention.
Military training is nothing else
but branch Of physical training, that
@ivas the boy gait ard posture,
straightcns his spine, throws his Shout
dcrs back, and makes him walk erect.
IN other words, it gives him the manly
appearance that you and | appreciate
in the common expression, isn't he
fine young man."
Unfortunately, most of our educa-
tional systems do not appreciate the
value Of physical education in schools,
as, for instance, New Zealand does We
should not forget that a sound mind
can only develop to its maturity in
sound body. and that therefore the ed
ucation of body and mind has to be
mutual and one rot neglected at the
cost Of the other.
| see the time not far distant when
physical training takes an equal rank
with intellectual training in our
schools. That the value of it is not
an imaginary or exaggerated one, but
proved. the following
facts may show:
One of the young Swiss who reach
their twentieth year and have to pass
Il physical and mental examination for
acceptance to the army, 1872 per cent
are accepted and per cent perma
nentl rejected for defects. The re-
naming 22i2 per cent are rejected for
Il REORGANIZATION q year later, for rea-
sons such as an insufficient height or
a shortage in chest measurement (the
recruit must have half Of his height |
for chest measurement. What do the |
military authorities do with these
Young men? They send them through |
a special physical training course for
the following year, and when the I
Youngsters come for a physical test |
the next year they are tall enough or
their chest is expanded.
That is what | call exploitation of
the practical and scientific value of
physical training, of which the much
dreaded military training" is the
most important branch.
The exercises Of military training
in schools" have to be so thoroughly
taught and so often repeated that they
become the second nature of the boys;
only then will they serve to fortify
body and mind. They should be made
2 part Of every lesson of physical
training. and the latter should form at
east three hours per week of the boys
school work Such a training-thor
,ueh. efficient. and uniform-fOr boys