The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1917-02-22
MILITARY TRAINING IN THE
PUBLIC SCHOOLS BEING URGED
BIG FIGHT PLANNED IN OPPOSITION

Hungary, Italy, Russia, Japan, provide
efficient military training. In none Of
these countries is this training given thru
the schools. nor does it begin under 20
gears Of age"
Mistaken Ideas the Basis of
Agitation
A false conception upon the part of
many people is the basis of the present
agitation. By military training, a large
number of people understand that only
the settinS-up drill is meant. The setting
up drill is not military training at all, but
is pure gymnastics given to counterfeit the
one-sided development of the drill Every
one who believes in healthy boys and girls
advocates such physical exercises with
their disciplinary training
Boy Scout Executives View
Walter S. Cowing, Philadelphia Scout
executive, expresses his views on the sub
ject in this way:
81 am not an advocate of military train
ing in our public schools, because l believe
it to be educationally and bioogically
wrong, and because it fails to produce an
efficient soldiery, which is its aim
THE intent of our educational system
and the purpose of teaching in our schools
is to bring out initiative and responsibility
Military training for boys, with its I'M
questioned obedience to command, shifts
personal responsibility and inhibits initia-
tive.
1.-The Boy Scout movement, with pro-
gram of play and service, its incentive to
mental and physical efficiency and disci-
pline, is logical method of preparation
for citizenship and for life.
1.-THE fundamental needs of boyhood can
not be supplied by military training The
program for boys can never be identical
xxyifh thof fnr full
Neither can the leadership of boys be
Identical in method or practice with the
leadership and direction of men, The
preparation of programs for boys and
their education should obviously be in the
hands of those who have made a study Of
and know its needs.
Lieutenant General Sir Robert S S.
Baden-Powell founder of the Boy Scout
movement in England. states in his recent
book, Quick Training for War that
loyalty, patriotism and courage are the
essentials in soldier, and that no amount
of drill can instill these fundamentals.
IF you wish to spoil a soldier he says,
attempt to make one of boy
Real Danger Lies in Ideals of
Militarism
The greatest democracy the world has
ever known, the greatest nation the world
has ever known, has since its birth prac-
ticed the arts of peace. 1t has promoted
concord and amity by means of its great
moral and spiritual forces. The intrcduc-
ton of compulsory military training or
universal service would be the overthrow
of the idealism which has made America
great and fasten upon it autocracy and
militarism, those pet children of privilege
which have been the curse of Europe.
Military training of boys teaches them
that the highest service to their country
is to fight for it. 1t breeds suspicion and
contempt for others. 1t plants the seeds
of war and makes it impossible for the
diplomats and statesmen to hold back the
red flood in times of stress because of the
brute instincts which it cultivstes. II
Americans make this surrender of free
dom they will witness the beginning Of
the end of democracy.
Special literature upon the subject hal
been prepared by committees of the Socie'
ties of Friends and by the Pennsylvania
Arbitration and Peace Society, PhiladeF
phia. This may be had upon request