Arizona republican., 1917-06-10
Where the People
 May Have Hearing
The Side of the University


 To the Editor of the Republican,
 Sir:
 l noted with much chagrin your ed- itOrial of Thursday morning, headed "A Campaign Against Enlistments." It seems to me that whoever wrote this editorial was very much misinformed, and has interpreted it in such way that harm will be done and plans au- thorized by the federal government will be opposed.
 In the first place, MT. c. z. Lesher, to whom you refer as missionary" is himself an enlisted man, a lieutenant in the United States Marine Corps, sta tioned at Mare Island, San Francisco. You have done him very much of an injustice by allowing others to think that he is against the campaign for en- listment
 A short time ago, Dr. von KleinSmid, president of the university, was called to Washington for a conference of uni- versity presidents with the National Council of Defense. Up to that time there was a great deal of indecision on the part of the colleges and universities of the country as to just what they should do; the instructions received at that conference were that every effort should be made to have young men who were too young to enlist to continue their school work, as college men would be needed more than ever.
 In this connection. the government departments have been sending out a great deal of literature, some of which you probably have received. It is con- sidered by the government departments that one of the greatest mistakes made by our allies was their failure to con- tinue the training of young men. could write you on this subject at very great length. but rather than that, l am 1 enclosing copy of an article issued from P. P. ClaXton, United States Commis- sion of Education. in which he is urging the same things that MT. Lesher is urg i ing. and I do not believe that you could accuse Dr. Claxton of conducting a campaign against enlistment. 1 1 do not believe that a single institu- 1 tion in the country has sent larger proportion of it's students into service than has the University of AriZnoa, as the list includes not less than 95 per cent of the men who are eligible to go i MT. Lesher's duty, and it is official is to interview the graduates of PhOe 1 nix High School, who are not old enough for enlistment, to see what they plan to do during the time previous to their age of enlistment, and to urge them to spend that time to best advan- l ) The example set by young man of | MT. Lesher's type is most excellent one, for, as l have said, he is himself an enlisted man.
 1 The war department of the United | States. the United States Department of Education, and the National Coun- cil of Defense all agree that we need men in the colleges, and l cannot quite 1 see by what authority the Arizona Re | publican can tell these departments that they do not know what they are talking about, other than complete misunderstanding of the situation. You state that it is proposed to es- tablish class" composed only of those
 whose parents are wealthy enough to
 keep them in training. Here again, you failed absolutely to understand what
 was meant. The National Council of Defense has urged all the universities T to crowd their courses intosas short a time as possible and for this reason, il
 was proposed by the University of Ari
 zona, as by many other universities in
 the country, to provide continuous
 schooling, winter and summer, to en-
 able a student to complete the ordinary four years course in three. While this
 idea is excellent in many respects, 1t only provides for the student who is not forced to earn part of his way through
 college. Hence. those students whose