Richmond planet. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1883-1938, 1917-08-11
COZ G. G. BALLOU, TRAINING
CAMP COMMANDER CORRECrS
ERRONEOUS IMPRESSIONS.
Failure of Some Officers Is Il Natural
tonScqucncc-All Cannot
Qualify.

When it was recently called to the
attention Of Colonel G. G. Ballou, Com
mandant of the Officers Training
School tor Colored hen at Fort Des
Moincs, that there was a tendency on
the part Of acquaintanccs to criticisc
candidates who are being discharged
and returned home said:
Many persons seem to feel that
failure to complete the prescribed
course at an officers training camp
carries with it a certain stigma ap.
proNimating to disgrace.
This is. in general, not true, and
is only true in cases of mcl sent
home by reason of misconduct.
There is more dangerous and en-
roneous belief than that INDUCED in
by many of our people, to the effect
that any and every man can become
good military officer. This idea is
almost equivalent to the notion that
putting a uniform On man and a
rifle in his hands makes him SOL
dier. Both ideas are as incorrect and
fundamentally absurd rs would be the
belief that putting ~ scalpcl in a
mans hands converts him into a sur
gcon, or that putting Oh the cap OF Il
naval officer qualities a man TO navi-
gate and light Il DattlcShiD.
mot the least useful result of our
great training camps will be the cor
rcction Of these absurd notions.
i once mustered into service as an
officer of high rank, a man who frank
ly said: Il don't know anything
about military matters. | don't know
how to get my regiment going, and
II l ones got it going, wouldn't
know how to stop it again Yet
twelve hundred lives, and untold Ma
tional interests were made dependent
upon this utterly u.:>lualincd man for
purely political reasons.
'"rhe mass of the people have had
very little idea Of the danger and
disaster that lie behind such appoint
ments, but there are, nevertheless,
many wives, mothers and sistera who
are beEin"ing to realize th"' they
..ers
men wno uon't know how to give them
the least show for their lives. And
these training camps are going to
vastly increase the appreciation of
the simple proposition that a soldier
needs to know his business Just as
does the surgeon, the lawyer, the sail
or, the electrician and every other
man of profession or trade.
Furthcrmore, they will spread a
conception Of the fact that army Off
GERS, on whose competence or incom-
pctencc depends the lives of men and
the fate of nations, require for the
proper discharge of their grave duties,
training and abilities of a higher or
der and a more varied character than
do men OF any other profession in
life.
1T is, therefore, only reasonable to
expect chat large numbers Of those
who enter officers training camps
Will find after a few weeks trial that
they were not destined by nature for
the duties and responsibilities of mil
ltary command. This fact should IN
VolVe no reproach, 1t is no more dis.
graceful to be misft at an officers
training camp than to be similar
mlsiit in training for the church choir.
Real military leaders are as rare az
GOOD musicians. and the unfit must be
eliminated as ruthlessly as are tho
dlscordant aspirants for place in
the orchestra, and this elimination Is
not evidence that the rejected ones
are not good men, brave men or na-
triotic men,"