Omaha daily bee., 1917-05-05
Universal Service IN America
Bg Frederic j. HaSkin

Washington, May 2-In the republic OF Bo-
livia universal service is not only an effective
means of maintaining an army, but it is one OF
the strongest educational and civilizing forces in
that country. A large part Of the Bolivian popu-
lation is Indian and half-breed These people are
potentially excellent citizens, but in partially
developed country like Bolivia it is difficult to
educate them. Every able-bodied Bolivian male,
however must enter the army at the age OF IL
and serve for two years, during which time he
has the advantages of night school. The re-
suit is that constant stream of unkempt young
Indians come down from the Bolivian mountains
and return as trained and educated young men
In the republics of Latin America, which are
modelled after the United States in fundamentals
and have the same ideals of personal liberty, the
necessity for universal military service has been
recognized for some years. One after another
these American republics have adopted some form
of compulsory service and several of them, espe-
cially Bolivia, Chile and the Argentine have de-
yeloped extremely efficient systems. Now that
the United States is about to adopt the same prn-
ciple the experience Of these other American re-
publics ought to be of interest in this country.
1t is characteristic of the mutual ignorance which
separates North and South America that, although
everyone has lately learned something about the
Swiss and Australian systems, few North Amer
leans are even aware that other American repub-
lies have adopted the principle OF universal
service.
A,,,a1 .h ,,,;.s ,,,o.o ,,,44o.,od ,ttor
,ho Ifn;tod st,tos When i "atne 70 nrgan;z;na
arn,;es rn thev ,ers comne1ed to trrn 70 Fmrone
g. ~ L; r,adois ,nd tLn;r ;,str,ct;ons CO.. tbe
United States has no adequate army and no good
method of raising one. This is one Of the reasons
why many of the Latin-American countries have
yss" ~ 1I;t.J ~ Ca oJ ILL.,, ~ Eroaop on,,,tr.s
tne ohlted oldtes anu why Eul1peen Sount,es anos
sadeu az enai; ;rte,t " ,'te ch;Ioan re,rn
i,aons CO.. .Yar,nI. was led bv :, German officer
t iGr . e"ee Sa wa. eu oG u oro,;zad
n' 's' .,ne eI ,ra nao oi poI ,rt;ons ,n,s
ndorod a,.d W frnS, ths Inted Sat- hnt w.s held
rcvolutionists, nevertheless won their battle with
machetes and shotguns. Afterward the German
who led them was given charge of the reorganiza-
tion of the Chilean army OF course, it was mod
eled after the German army and it does the goose
step as well as any OF the kaser's divisions 1t
may be pertinently addedathat in Chile there is
one good sized city which is almost wholly Ger
man, and that in the present situation, when other
Latin American countries are endorsing the stand
taken by the United States against Germany, Chile
holds back.
Ecuador also has a German-trained army A
few wears ago the congress of Ecuador author
zed The nresident to negotiate with S1e German
government for the services of Germany army
oaicers IN reoryanize the forces of Ecuador and
to ART az instructors in the Fcuadorean military
schools Needless TO saw thc officers were
nromnlv sent and thew we're verv cordially re-
ceived
Paraguay emnloved a CAPTAIN of artillery in
the Chilean army to reorpanize that Of Paraguay
mn basis of comnulsorv service. Colombia and
Ecuador have also studied each others methods
hv ewch.no;ng cadets from their military schools,
In PARAGUAY ali able-bodied male citizens be.
tween the ages of l8 and 45 are soldiers. Each