The Ordway new era., 1916-10-27

annexed by one of them. and Its young
men drafted into her armies. The pres
ent war. 100 years later has seen her
territory respected. although had she
not been ready she would have unaues-
tionably suffered the fate of Belgium
inc inc renHOn for the difference In that
training among her men. nor any apti-
tude for war on the pnrt of the nation.
M1ich therefore fell "a helpless prey to
the military powers. Now there is uni
versaI service, the people are trained
to defend. themselves, and because of
the fnct TINT they had been thus train
had prepared their strength, and were
ready to use their strength. they were
spared the necessity of using 1t.
Universal Training.
I advocate universal military training
as much because of what 1t will mean
what It VIII mean to this nation in
war. Washington said: "A free people
ought not only to be armed. but dis
eipiined;" CT This is simply another way
sal obligatory military training for our
young men: and surely we need the dis
eipiine: all Of us. in civil life Just as
ing is emphatically American, emphat-
lcally democratic, emphatically anti
miiitaristic: and every young man who
enjoys it will be a better citizen in time
of peace, better able to hold his own.
and more desirous of doing his duty by
his fellows. At present only those who
can pay for it can get such training
and discipline. This is unjust. At pres
ent. in the event of the outbreak of
war, the officers commissions must,
boys. who have fitted themselves for
the jobs. Therefore under the present
SYSTEM instead of having all the boys
without any regard to whether their
parents are or are not people of means,
treated alike and the best men made
officers. we find commissions limited
to those who can afford to pay for
ent conditions, If war came a very
much larger proportion of the officers
would be chosen from this class than
from the class with less means. In ad-
dition to this. the shirk. the coward.
the mere money getter. the creature
without patriotism. would stay at
home and would try for the job the
patriotic man left when he went to
the front. l have actually seen, even
this summer, cases where men who
tional Guard have had their Jobs taken
by men whom. I am sure, no mere ap-
peal to patriotism would ever be able
to get to the front.
The Thing to Do.
The democratic thing is to give all
on equal terms to prove the stuff there
Is in them, so as to secure each man
his rights. Then, In order to exact
from ench man the full! performance
selfish mnn. the mere greedy money
Eetter. the pOitroOn and the paclfist do
their pnrt Of the work Of war. when
comes. and run their full share of
the danger. instead OF sitting Mt ease
nt home to profit by the courage and
self-sncrifice of their more patriotic
from the standpoint of the nation. It
will secure our national efficiency in
war. 1t will immensely help our indi-
vidual efficiency in time of peace. 1t
will benefit us individually in soul,
mind and body. 1t will make the aver
age man more self-respecting and law
abiding, better able to shift for him
self, and to work for and in conjunc-
tion with others.
There Is no more thoroughly demo-
cratizing agent than the dog tent, I'm
der a system of universal training all
of the young men of the nation would
for several months do the same hard,
healthy work, and live together on the
same terms. The son of the railroad
president, and the son of the brake
man. the son of the farmer and the son
of the lawyer. the son of the bricklayer
have the same training. the same
chance; and the officers would be
chosen squarely on their merits from
the boys bet fit for the Jobs. The most
important feature will be the develop
ment of the officers.
President Wilson in his speech of Au-
gust Goth and September 23d has furnished
his own condemnation out of his own
mouth In them he explicitly condemns
exactly what he has done and actually de-
mands legislation whcs will make impos-
sible the repetition of such proceeding!
This is SO extraordinary an attitude that
quote his own words. He said he wished
"to provide" against "the recurrence of
such unhappy situations in the future" by
thn ,l,,,o orl Fol orhif of
all industrial disputes in the days to
come" This lis an explicit assertion that
arbitration of all industrial disputes is
the right method of action; and therefore
that he had adopted the wrong method
of action-although in the case of
the anthracite coal strike he had an
exact precedent in point. by following
which he would have enforced the right
method
President Wilson further says, This is
assuredly the best way of vindicating a
principle, namely, having failed to make
certain of its observance in the present t
make certain of its observance in the fu.s
ture." On the contrary, this is the very
worst way of vindicating principle. In
deed, it is impossible to devise worse
way of vindicatng principle, than to
finch ANONYMOUSLY from enforcing it in
the case at issue and at the same time to
seek to cover the ignominy by vociferous
protestations about applying it in the me-
hulous future The same paper, the New
CONTINUED to page 8, this sec.)
Rxoadhent a Man