Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-03-03
TEACH CITIZENS TO SHOOT
IS NOW STERN NECESSITY;
THE BACKBONE OF DEFENSE

Under the title of The Backbone of
Defense, Forest and Stream in its cur
rent issue urges the enlargement OF
the army of sportsmen, and making
them a citizenry trained to shoot. The
article follows:
Most Americans learn from de-
velopments in the political chaos OF
Europe the stern necessity for pre-
pairing to defend with arms their soil
and their traditions Or is the neces-
sity only for revival and bringing
back to life of qualities they possess,
dormant but potent q
I'm either event, the striking lesson
they can find in the conduct of the war
itself, is the domination of man as an
individual over all his inventions for
killing. For no machine or con-
trivance or arrangement of mechani-
cal forces has survived the test OF
standing against man or horde OF
men crawling from hole to hole in
the ground and eliminating piecemeal
the directing minds of complicated
guns or defense works.
with rife slung on his back, grip
ped in bayoneters grasp, or clutchcd
to his shoulder, an infantryman can
go over. 1t has been proved time and
time again. And he can defy every
contrivance for stopping him that he
or his enemy has yet conceived.
And so the outstanding need per-
haps in all good efforts toward prepar-
alton for defense, is to develop that
'citizenry, trained and accustomed to
arms.-sman arms, the rifle and the
revolver - upon which the President
declares we must depend in every time
of national peril.
Luckily America has already such
citizenry; citizens of the hills and
fields, the forests and streams, the
nj rI kn f2Ia Az1
panses that are closer to home perhaps
to AMERICANS than to any other civil
lized people on the earth. And Forest
and Stream, Americas outdoor journal,
can recognize with pride and affection
the confidence with which this brawny
throng looks to it for leadership in
how they could 'mobilize'-in the true
sense-their strength for demands
that may eventually be made upon
them.
'Huntsmen = those who depend
upon their keen minds and ready
senses to wrest the ma living from
the wilds, and those as well who hunt
because of the relief it affords their
office-chained instincts are of the
breed who first offer that last full
measure of devotion for a cause they
love. Familiarity with Gods own
world, cleaned from contact with it
unfurnished and unalloyed, seems al
ways to adjust mans values and
keep his conscience squared with his
instinct. And in fosterin gthe growth
of this clan, Forest and Stream has
been a factor.
Andso it is appropriate that through
these pages there should be recognized
and proclaimed the ideal nucleus for
Americas ideal citizenry-a potential
arm" already trained and accustomed
to arms. Theirs and their Journals is
largely the responsibility for increas-
ing the public interest in and respect
for arms and their use. Theirs Jointly
is chiefly the duty of inculcating q
pride for craftsmanship in the aver
age American who may have drifted
away from thoughts so wholesome,
and in the average newcomer to Amer
can soil who may have had his instinct
for personal dependability discouraged
for centuries.
The showing America has made in
past wars-frequently against odds
has been due to the average Ameri-
cans knowing how to shoot. That
knowledge was a necessity in the early
days when the republic was being re-
claimed from the savage and the
forces of wild nature. The pioneers