The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1917-02-16

of school boards, although conscien-
tious and other scruples of boys and
parents would have to be considered.
But the scheme to have any military
value must also include the far larg-
er number of boys not in school at
tendance. But if boys from the out
side were included, the drill would
cease to be an educational function.
State compulsion would succeed that
of school boards. If developed as a
permanent policy, the scheme must
become national, involving all states
alike, and letting no boy escape, if
legally liable. United States mar
shals would hunt down truants, and,
as now in Australia, boy who, for
any reason, failed to appear might
be sent to prison and his parents SUBJ
jected to fine. Any scheme of COM
pulsory military education of High
school boys must thus of it's own
weight fall out of the school and be-
come, like the Australian system, a
state matter, to be dropped when the
first excitement passes. In a repub-
lie compulsion is exercised only by
ourselves and on ourselves.
The Australian system has involved
great expense and much ill-feeling
1t is claimed that the camp is "dem-
ocratic" because all classes meet on
the same level. Bad boys here get
a touch of good company, but good
ones often find themselves for the
first time in very bad company. The
associations of the camp on the whole
are not wholesome. The old trooper
avowedly no "plaster saint" is usu-
ally not a fit instructor for growing
youth. Except for the constant ref
erence to the covetous enemy, the
''black crow that watches for the
eyes of the tired sheep" the system
could not have been maintained In
Australia, with population about
double that of California, 22,143 boys
have been in two and a half years
prosecuted for failure to appear al
the barracks. Even for writing home
accounts of their experience, boys
have been punished.
In Central Europe, compulsory drill
exists not alone for the purpose Of
making good soldiers, but rather tt
make bad citizens, men who will take
orders from above and obey then
without thought.
In general no nation with compul
sorry military service can long retair
its sanity or its freedom. The frs
purpose of compulsory service is tc
make subservient industrial as wei
as military units of the young mer
of the country. The docile army is
the right arm of privilege, and the
reliance of the industrial exploiter
Military drill accustoms men to blint
obedience. They are taught to re.
gard frigtfulness in terms of exalted
patriotism. To think of time of ser.
vice as years thrown away occurs tc
but few of them. The danger from
the enemy nation demands their sac.
rifices. This "enemy nation" which
they blindly hate, is always watch.
ing for chance to spring. When all
men have been through three years
OF camp servitude they are open tc
all kinds of ''war scares." They are
prepared for the domination of "mak.
ers of Madness" Thus the people
become incapable of self-govern-
ment." They subject themselves to
extortions and discomforts to pay the
insurance against war;" The whole
system tends to evoke the war-spirit
at once making war more probable
and more profitable to it's financial
hackers.
America means opportunity" and
the young men and women of the re-
public should be trained to grasp op-
portunity for themselves. Their
springs of action should be respon-
sive to the individual conscience. The
discipline of driven sheep is not
for them, however useful it may be
to aristocracies which claim to rule
by Divine Right. Collective disci-
pline impairs individuality. The good
citizen of America is not a chattel
sheltered by state he does not con-
troll. The democratic state exists for
the common welfare of the men and
women that compose it. The idea of
compulsion has little place in a DEM
ocracy. Wherever it appears it should
be scanned most critically, for it is
legitimate only in time of severest
need. Such need does not appear to-
day. 1t may not appear when the
High school boys of today have
grown to be men. We hope with
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