The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-08-31
College Men in Training To Be
Paid by Government.
COmplete instruction Is Sent to
Washburn Today.
TO TEACH MILITARY SUBJECTS
Colleges Must Revise Their
Curriculum To Meet Need.
Men IS to 21 To Be Modified
Within s Months.

Registrants between Is and 21 years of
age will be mobilized and in the field
Members of the students army training
corps will receive the pay of private
The cder utan Of Per members of the
students army training corps will be paid
by the government after October l.
College courses must be modified to have
direct military value.
Members of the students army training
corps will be regularly inducted into the
military service October 1, and will be as
signed to continue their studies in the
college"
A telegram received by President
P. P. Womer, of Washburn college,
from the special committee of the war
department on education gives plain
indication that the things set forth
above are the high lights in the plan
for the Students Army Training corps
which is being established in the col
leges and universities of the nation.
The fact that it is the intention of
the war department to mobilize and
have in the field within ten months all
registrants under Is years of age, is
indicated in this one sentence of the
telegram, as follows: New military
program probably necessitates mobil-
ization of all physically fit registrants
under FL year. within ten months;
therefore virtually all students over s
years will be in the field by June, ex-
cepting certain technical students"
An Army of 100000.
This is the first real information
that has. been given out by the war
department on the working of the new
manpower bill. 1t is the first indica-
ton that has been given of the scope
of the war department aims in regard
to the immediate mobilization of the
youths between Is and 21 years of
age. Taking the figures of the draft
as it has worked out to date, it proba-
bly, indicates that the war department
proposes having an army of not less
than four million men ready for serv-
ice in France by next June.
The telegram. which was sent to
every college and university in the
country, where a students army train
ing corps has been authorized, specif-.
ically stated that the student soldiers
will be kept under observation to de-
termine qualifications for officers or
technical experts The telegram also
states that it is the plan of the war de
partment to transfer men to the Of
ficers' training camps or to the can
tonments for duty"
seem to indicate that it is the plan of
the department to utilize the college
and universities of the nation as the
crucible in which the officer material
may be tried out. and when a speci-
men stands the test that one will be
promptly transferred either to an Off
GERS training camp for more intensive
instruction or will be assigned direct
to a cantonmnt for duty.
OF especial interest to the youths
who are planning to enter college this
fall and to take a part in the military
training units, is the provision of the
telegram which states that all young
men planning to go to coEege should
carry out such plans. Such men over
eighteen will register with their local
boards in September and will be in
Quoted into the Students Army train
ing corps about October 1. Members
of the Students Army training corps
will be. soldiers subject to discipline
and with the pay of a private soldier"
May House and Feed Them.
The telegram also indicates that the
government is working out a plan
whereby the soldiers in the Students
Army Training corps may be housed
and,fed at the expense of the govern
ment. Nothing definite is announced
as to this part of the plan at present
diers will receive thier regular army
pay, which even if the subsistence and
housing were not forthcoming would
make easy the path of learning.
The telegram has another angle of
vital import to the colleges and uni
Academic instruction must be modi-
fled to have a direct military value"
This means that the colleges must so
arrange tiher curriculums that every
subject taught must have a direct
bearing on the things a soldier and
an officer should know to become an
effective and an efficient fighting unit
1t probably means that many studies
will be abolished and that other and
more warlike studies will be stubsti-
tuted- One other angle of this move
is that it is the first step toward uni
versaI military training
Another significant statement con-
tanned in the telegram from the war
department is this: mo units of the
students army training corps being
established in secondary schols (high
schools) but hope to extend military
! instruction to secondary schools at
early date" It is another indicatiop
that the installation of the training
units in the colleges of the land is but
| the first step in preparation for uni
VerSal military training