The Detroit times., 1916-01-15
An Army of Public Service
BY DR.. FRANK CRANE
Copyright 1915. by Frank Cranel

some sort of sanity and vision in the pre-
paredness question: in which, under the
garb of fiction, he indicates how a ma
ton, this nation, might best prepare for
defensive war by drilling its men in pub
lie works.
+. W. West, of Leonia, N. j., has
worked out a plan involving a similar
idea.
The idea is worth thinking over. Per-
haps II is the one scheme that lacks the
Objectionable ideas of both the extreme
militarist and the extreme pacifst.
Here is the gist of the matter.
The efficiency of an army depends up
on the capacity of its soldiers to do man.
ual labor, among other things. They
must know how to dig trenches, make
trying marches, and endure other hard
| ships Without that they are of not
much force.
Soldiers also need discipline, training
in team work and the habit of obedience.
Soldiers and all other citizens of a
country need too, skill in making war
munitions and in managing machines,
such as automobiles, cannon, air-planes,
etc, besides the craft to make machines
and armament.
To sum up, soldiers require % hard
I ness to endure physical eXertion, ~
training in cooperation with each other
and obedience 70 officers. and (3) me-
ctNnical ingenuity and practice.
All these things can be secured by or
! ganizing the available men Of the nation
as an ARMY OF CONSTRUCTION.
1t could be called THE ARMY OF
PUBLIC SERVICE and be a part of
our system of education.
Service should be compulsory Every
able-bodied man of nineteen should be
required to serve for one year, and after
that for period of one or two months
during the summer until thirty years Of
age, after that being subject to call in
emergency.
The only democratic plan is conscrip-
ton 1t is not right to depend upon vol
unteers, thus causing the more public
spirited youth to do that work which
ought to weigh equally upon all.
The army should be employed in such
public works as protecting forests, re-
forestration, reclaiming waste lands, irri-
cation, constructing bridges, fortifca-
tions and public buildings, improving
rivers and harbors, exterminating pests,
and carrying on other sanitary projects,
and doing other work in machine shops
and on railways and steamships.
In a notable article published at thu
time Of the Spanish war, DR.. Eliot of
Harvard pointed out that nations eff
cheney in the arts Of peace was it's best
equipment for efficiency in time of war.
The present war, as have already
written, shows that the wars Of the fu-
ture will be more and more wars of the
workshops" as Lloyd George says.
Such an army would be self-support-
ing.
It would strengthen the constructive
powers Of the nation even while il pre-
pared us for the possible necessity of de-
structive effort
Boys trained under military discipline
in forest conservation. in machine shops
and the like. would be prepared to take
their places, with but little added drill,
in the army Of defense, if occasion re-
quired
If every boy, for year or so of his
life, served in such an organization, on
equal terms with his fellows, of what
ever station in life, it would be a magnifi-
cent training in democracy and help
toward forming a dependable civic con-
science.
But the main advantage Of all this
would be that youth would get into it's
head that PATRIOTISM DOES NOT
! NECESSARILY IMPLY KILLING,
THAT DEVOTION TO ONES FLAG
MEANS CONSTRUCTIVE AS WELL AS
! DESTRUCTIVE ENERGY.
Rich and poor shoulder to shoulder in
the ranks Of public service would mean
a keener sense Of public duty.
Let the young men be taught that
honor and distinction may be won in
peace as in war, that to construct q
Panama Canal is as glorious as to bat
ter a Rheims Cathedral, that the build