The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1916-05-30
PEKA DAILY STATE JOURNAi-TUEsDAY

do not wish us. the people. to sink into
a condition where we are so soft. so
ease loving. so fond of pleasures. or
so wrapped up in. money getting that
we cannot do the hard work that
brave men must do when the need
calls. / speak for universal service
based on universal training.
For Universal Training.
Universal training and universal
service represent the only service and
training a democracy should accept.
1t is the plain people, it is the farm
ers, the working men, the small bust
ness men, the professional men. who
above all others, should back up this
plan. / have just received a letter
from a friend, a farmer in North Car
DINA. who is arranging to have six
farmers boys from his neighborhood
sent to one of the training camps for
boys this summer. He writes that he
has been besieged by farmers and
their wives to send their sons to that
camp. They wish them to get the
training, to have the value of the trip,
and of the association with boys from
other ports of the country. They real
ize how much good it would do them
in every way. They realize that the
kind of training for preparedness that
their boys would receive would help
them industrially in time of peace just
as much as in war. These farmers
and their wives do not wish war. They
| the war can legitimately be avoided.
But they feel that if the nation does
get into fight they wish their sons
to take part in that fight, and in such
take care of themselves and not mere
ly be helpless victims of fever or of
bullets.
Farmers Should Awake
The farmers and wage workers. the
business men and Professional men who
are not men of large means, and whose
wives have to exercise proper economy
| in order to keep their homes happy
and comforta ble-theSe are the peo-
pie who, beyond all others, should
realize that such training should not
be reserved for the boys whose fathers
or friends are rich enough to pay for
| it, but should be given to all America n
| boys at the expense of the nation. 1t
is the present lack of system, the pres
ent method of allowing only those boys
| to train whose fathers have money
| which is unfair and undemocratic. 1t
| breeds class distinction, among other
unhealthy things. l do not believe as
| a permanent thing in a system that
merely puts the Harvard boy alongside
the Yale boy or the Princeton boy, the
big merchants son or railroad presi-
dents son beside the big lawyers son,
or, perhaps, beside the employee of
| the rich man who is patriotic enough
to pay his expenses. All this is the
! best that we can get at present; and
until the people as a whole wake up.
But it is not enough. 1 believe in the
system that will put all the boys 1 have
mentioned alongside the boy whose
| father is brakeman here in Missouri
or hardworking farmer in Kansas. or
factory operative in Massa chusetts
or New Jersey, or a bookkeeper or
| stenographer in New York or Chicago;
that will put all of them beside the
boy from the mountains of North
Carolina who has never seen railway
train and has always gone barefoot
Let all these boys be given the same
/ kind of training, and let the best boy
out of the bunch become an officer
Let no one be allowed to shirk the
duty of preparing himself, for if he
does, he is putting on the shoulders OF
! a better man the burden which he
himself should carry.
For Summer Camps.
We have heard a good deal of talk
about the officer class. that we are
getting from the volunteer training
camps of the present day. As long
as we do not have universal military
service these camps offer the only
chance for young men to prepare sc
as to serve the country. The man who
goes to them renders high and pa
triotic service and incidentally profits
immensely by the training and ex-
perience. My sons have gone and arc
going to these camps 1 believe in
these camps with all my heart and
soul. They are supplying by private
initiative what our governmental rep
resentativeS have not the foresight tc
provide for everybody. AS long as ouI
citizens do not insist upon everybody
being trained, upon everyone going
to such camps, why the boys that dc
go to them will inevitably get the
commissions if war comes.
In other words, as long as our peo
pie do not make the training univer'
sal, and do not make it paid for b,
the commonwealth, only the men Of
means will be trained as officers a
these camps. At present this is the
only way to provide that, in the event
of war, we shall have officers worth
having. But such a system is funda
mentally undemocratic. 1t is our owl
fault, the fault of our people, tina
we do not establish the really demo
cratic system, for the only way to es
tablish the democratic system ii
through universal service. Napoleon
drew his marshals from the hum bles
ranks, simply because they were th'
best men for the job; and in a demo
cratic army promotion should go b.
merit. Here, at present, the son o
the farmer and the son of the wag
worker know that they have littl
chance to become officers in the even
of war because they cannot afford tn
time and the nror-9v to get themselve
trained in advance. I ask the plail
people of the Ui.I.ed States, l ask tn
farmers, the wage workers, the ordi
nary men, to give their sons the sam
chance that the sons of weather. mel
have. Make the opportunity open t.
all; to your sons, to my sons; to al
on an even basis. A system of uni
versal training for universal servic
would be one of the biggest thing
, ever done in this country to preserv
our democratic institutions in spiri
and in fact
4 All of Equal Rank.
The other day when 1 spoke OF
: universal service in Detroit, a woman
: in the gallery called out: Il have tw
sons and they shall both go if tn
country needs them" l answered her
Madam, 1 take off my hat to you