El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1915-03-04
"0rganized Insanity"
Editorial From New York
Evening Post.

The Pennsylvania state sUperintend-
ent Of education, n. c. Schaeffer. went
even further. for he characterized the
proposed teaching Of things military
as organized insanity"
This practical educator declares that
to make military training an integral
part of vocational training would about
finish the teachers distraction from his
or her real purpose. But he does not
stop there; he takes the offensive By
asserting that military drill is injuri-
Gus during the adoIescent period; and
this is as nothing compared to the
moral damage which results from
teaching that "justihes spying, lying,
forging letters, kilograms, and signals
to mislead the enemy"
The press summary does not say
whether he dWelt upon the impossible
ity of making such teaching really
effective, but he might readily have
done so. In Boston, for instance, where
they have had military drill for years
past, its results are trifling; and in
many colleges compulsory drill merely
becomes a bore Take those state
aided universities that have a year or
two years of training. Nobody but the
cadet officers who serve four years
really get anything out of it; TO the
with as rapidly as possible. Such
benefits as result from it are aside
from the real purpose of the drill 1t
probably keeps men out of the militia
instead Of sending them into it. so
great is the distaste acquired.
Fortunately. on this matter some Of
our college students are wiser than
their elders. Thus at Princeton the
effort of the beliCOse son Of George
Mcclellan lit is entirely in keeping
with family tradition that he should
be calling for more sOldiers), and Of
president Hibben to start a military
company has failed utterly. The best
that is now hoped for is a course Of
lectures on the military art. The most
gratifying fact about this is that the
"PrinCetonian" strenuOusly opposed the
proposal and that some Of those most
antagonistic were students at the sum
mer military camps, who have had
their fill.
At Yale too, there is strong oppOsi-
ton to the summer training idea,
while Columbia undergra have
won the honOrs by organizing against
the extension Of our ornaments. IN
deed, an intercollegiate league to COM
bat the present big-army and big-uavy
hysteria is already under way. It is
certain TO find wide support in the
socialist, the cosmopolitan, and the in
terpolity clubs, which are bound to see
that the Introduction Of militarism in
our colleges by whatever euphemlSm
it is concealed makes directly against
the international solidarity which they
preach.
But whatever arguments may apply
to military training in colleges, there
are none to justify the teaching of war
in the public schools. If there is to be
any instruction there, it should be that
true patriotism includes all the world
and is not restricted to any given
nationality.
That the soldiers trade is an an
achrOnism, that the profession must
yield before the spirit Of international
amity and broth erhood-these are
things that school children ought to be
told unless they are to lose faith in
some Of the deep-lying tenets of char
acter and religion.
Certainly, with DR.. Finleys aid, we
should be able to nut n stOp to rifle
shooting by schcolbOys in this city for
prizes donated by the powder com
panies who profit by II.
There is truly no time I'm the curricu-
lum for courses in killing ones fellows
when our public schools are turning
out half-EaRed products as it is.