Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1915-08-20
NATIONAL DEFENSE PROBLEMS
By Frederic J. Haskin
Compulsory Military Service

ment and will spend sixteen days, also
in vigorous field work, with the other
men of his kind in his community who
go to make up that particular part of
the army of the nation. After that he
reports for sixteen days of service each
Two years until he reaches the age of
thirty-two. when he becomes a mem
Der of the landwehr, and is called
upon to drill but eleven days in each
four years until he is forty. All this
with variations for the different serv-
ices. Then he enters the landsturm.
where he remains. subject to call if
needed, until he is fifty.
Altogether the citizen of Switzerland
gives about six months of his life to his
country. This six months is spent out
OF doors in the most manly and health
giving sort of work. Every youngster
is taken away from his mothers apron
strings just as he comes to maturity,
is set upon his feet, taught hygiene
the virtues of physical exercise, the
possibilities of his own physical Prov
ess-is Strengthened up, hardened
The approach of other terms of serv-
Ice make 1t necessary that he should
keep In condition and affect the whole
of his life. Aside from the benefit that
the state derives from thus securing
for itself the equivalent of a strong
standing army, it profits through the
added health and efficiency of it's man
hood.
All of this training takes place un-
der the eye of highly skilled military
instructors. Switzerland has almost no
regular army, but a corps of these
officers, acting as instructors and the
noncommissioned officers, who act as
drill sergeants and in such minor ca
pacities 1t has such a corps as the
experts claim the United States should
develop for the training of a volun-
teer army even though nothing is done
toward general military service.
During all these services of the citi-
zen of Switzerland he receives his sub
sistence and 10 cents day to cover
any incidental expense.
Exemption Penalties
The man who is exempt for any
reason from military service not only
suffers the humiliation of the brand
of unf1tness, but is subject to three
separate taxes in addition to those
otherwise borne. He must pay a poll
tax of francs, a material property
tax and tax of 1 u per cent. on his
income. There are exemptions under
certain minimums for the benefit of
the afflicted and very poor.
AS result of this system Switzer-
land, with a population of 100000.
could raise an army of $780, eco trained
and properly equipped soldiers in
twenty-four hours. Back of these
would be another body of similar size
partially armed and trained, but not of
the first line. In any community a call
may be published to-day and to-mor-
row morning the elite, in uniform and
bearing arms, will report for service at
prearranged point, and by noon a
battalion may be entrained and hur-
ried to the front All Switzerland may
thus fly instantly to arms.
tIA
Grafton in the United States It would
produce, judging from the results from
a given population in that country,
$500 900 fighting men between the
ages of twenty and forty, reasonably
trained and ready for service to-mor-
row. Basing an estimate of the cost
of developing this fighting force upon
the cost in Switzerland. the United
States would need spend about
$3.50, 900 year upon 1t.
Military authorities say that an army
of this sort, made up of the men who
are the backbone of the nation, men
of intelligence and initiative, would
make the most formidable fighting or
ganization in the world. They assert
that the Swiss army of 25O,O0O men
which might be called out tomorrow
would be a better force with which to
prosecute a campaign than would be
the same number of regular soldiers
who had been in the ranks for years.
They would have more snap, enter
prise, ingenuity. patriotism, will-to-
conquer, in them than any regular or
sanization, and they would know the
essentials.
1t is also held that an American
army made along these lines would
be particularly effective, for the Ameri-
can learns quickly, is normally a man
of enterprise and ingenuity, is more
accustomed to outdoor life than the
citizen of most nations,