The Devils Lake world and inter-ocean. (Devils Lake, N.D.) 1915-1920, 1917-03-15

Like many others, / assumed that
the organization vas given entirely
to creating sentiment by education,
favorable to military preparedness.
This in itself, after | had informed
myself as to our deplorable eondi.
tons, met with my appreciation, how
ever, [ SOC became acquainted with
the fact that I was mistaken in my
idea of the purposes. True, like all
discerning Americans, the organizers,
leaders and apparently all of the dele
gates, believes that it is absolutely
essential that any nation to survive,
must have capacity to enforce It's
mandates, to protect itself from in
vasion, to make moral suasion really
effective, by a universal knowledge
that back of it is the power Of physi-
cal suasion, and above all tile great
and central idea that universal mill
tary training is the greatest agent to
democratize society, as well as to
maintain republican institution. Mr..
Root proceeded to point out that the or
iginal theory Of u government was
that of universal military training and
quoted from the Act of Congress, May
s, 1892, which required all men from
eighteen to forty-fve years cf age, to
be enrolled in the militia. The act
provided for guns and ammunition for
officers and men, for drilling, ETC., and
reports as to conditions to he mace to
the President and Secretary of War.
Mr.Root then pointed out, that as we
drifted from immediate and imminent
danger and became isolated as it were,
in international affairs, we forgot the
bitter lessons taught us in the Revo-
%lutionary War, namely, that through
the lack of military preparedness, our
armies suffered untold ha1Mships and
frequent defeat. Forget the precept
of Washington anG the Statesmen of
his time. Mr.. Root, then said, "It
now appears, however, I think with
great certainty, that that process tan
not produce more than.a comparative
ly small number Of me VITO are train
ed so that they have even the elements
Of military service. The National
Guard has not increased very much
during the whole period that has e.
lapsed since the so-called Dick bill
that made the arrangements wor this
joint instruction and joint exercise.
So we find ourselves in this situa-
ton, that we have not yet secured
any real substitute for the old uni
versal service that is adequate to
any great military operation. But, in
the meantime, the science of wal has
changed, and the relation of armies
and navies to the other peoples of the
earth have changed so that we have an
entirely new and different problem.
In the old days nations used to send
out armies, composed of but a very
small part of the population, and those
armies used to look for each other and
fight each other, and when they got
through, there would be a peace made,
which would result in some little
changes, sometimes Of consequence
and sometimes of very little conse-
quence, but the great mas of the peo-
! pie were not very much affected. The
great mass of the people took but lit
tie part in it.
But, now, war has become a con
flict Of entire nations against each
other and we see today the whole PEG.
pie of England and the whole people
Of Germany and Of Austria, engaged
in actual participation in the conflict
Now, with that kind Of war, u little
provision of a small Regular Arm!
land a small National Guard is entirel,
4 incompetent to deal. We have alread.
discovered that we can't get through
volunteering any considerable in
crease. There aren't enough with al
the interests IN preparation Tor de
Tense, to fill up the ranks of our ma
tional guard. The reason is that tn
spirit of adventure isn't adequate t
furnish the soldiers.
That same thing has proven true be
fore. In 1912 we had to come to
draft. We tried to fight hiatt wa
with volunteers, volunteers in the reg
ulars and volunteers in the militia
and we were unable to do it and W
came to a draft and we made a terri
BILE mess of it. In the Civil War w
had to come to a draft. We tried t
fight with volunteers. The south ap
preciated the difficulty in 1862 an
started on a draft then. We waite
until 1868, when we took recourse t
CONSUMPTION. Whenever the rea
stresses came, since we have abandon
ed the old universal system of this Ac
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