Evening star., 1918-08-01
PRESIDENT FAvORS
BROAD PLAN FOR
MILITARY TRAINING
CONTINUED from First Page)

and the President was making clear
his views on preparedness or what
he termed reasonable preparation.
He touched on something which the
of the universal military
training idea are asserting is an ad-
in training our youth IN
arms. They are saying that at the
peace conference America will be able
to exert a bigger influence If she
has potentially a large force avail
able to back up her words. Here is
what the President said then:
"As to the general thing we. are all
most profoundly interested in. and
that is peace-we want the peace of
the world. Now, l do not know,
cannot speak about what l am going
to speak about with any degree OF
do not suppose any man
can-but nation which, by STANDARDS
of other nations, however mistaken
those standards may be. is regarded
as helpless is apt in general counsel
to be regarded as negligible, and
when you go into conference 10 es.
tabIish foundations for the peace OF
to the people you are con-
ferring with.
"Got to Have the Force"
Now let US suppose that we have
formed family Of nations and that
family of nations says: The world is
no. going to have any more wars OF
this sprt without at least first going
through certain processes to show
whether there is anything in its case
or not. II you say. We shall not
have any war you have got to have
the force to make that Shall bite.
And tire rest of the world. IL America
takes part in this thing. will have the
right to expect from her that she con-
tributes her element of force to the
general understanding. Surely that is
not a militaristic ideal That is a
very practical ideal
And the above line of argument is
precisely what the universal military
training advocates are urging on the
ground that America must show to
Germany that the United States in
tends to see to 1t that the peace of
the world is kept-there will not be a
ficient to defend the principles and
provisions of the treaty that binds
the whole world to keep the peace.
Fears From Militarism.
But it is after the war. when the
hate and military ardor Of the present
struggle shall have died down, that
the opponents of military training
have feared militarism would develop
out of any system of universal mill
tary training that could be devised.
They argue that the present war
shows how narrowly -visioned the mill
tary man can be when once he has
authority and red tape to play with.
They declare that to introduce mill
tary discipline interferes with the IN
itiative of the individual at an i'm
portant time in his life. Shall his
University career. for instance, be in
terrupted while he is put under Army
officers for year?
To this the advocates answer that
there are more advantages than dis
that some system can be
dangers. that perhaps the schools and
colleges can take care of military in
structfon in their curriculums, and
that boy who is the sole support
of his family and is. already engaged
at the age of eighteen in useful
trade may be spared by his employer
without loss of compensation for
couple of months in the summer time.
The whole plan is still in embryo.
The wisdom of Solomon may be neces-
isfy all the elements in Congress and
keep it in operation after peace comes.
But it seems to be pretty generally
agreed that If system of universal
training is put into operation during
the war and works results that are
on appropriating money for It,
whereas, under an adverse set OF
circumstances, when Congress gets
back to economies and a riddance OF
taxation, the military feature might
grow less important with the evolu-
tion of disarmament and the voca-
tional education become the dominant
factor. That is perhaps the Presi-
dents reason for insisting on the lat
ter.
At any rate. his idea seems to be
to have an all-embracing and elastic
system. Some system of universal
training, however, is going to be
sponsored by the administration.