Evening star., 1918-08-19
'DRAF TING BOYS Of
IS HARD PROBLEM
Government May Step In to
Prevent Hardship on
Colleges.
EXPERTS SUGGEST PLAN
EXPERTS SUGGEST PLAN
BY DAVID LAWRENCE.

Post Company.)
How long time will elapse before
the boys of eighteen will be called to
active service after they have regis
tered under the proposed draft law?
Will they be permitted to complete
their education, if enrolled at present
in universities. colleges and technical
schools? And If summoned to service
between the ages Of eighteen and
nineteen. where will the colleges get
their future students?
Questions like the above are pour
ing into Washington from various
parts of the country and reflect not
merely an interest on the part of par
ents as to their sons, but an appre-
hension on the part of the nations
educational Institutions that they may
have to go out Of business entirely
during the period of the war.
Most of the universities and colleges
which are not permanently endowed
are in a quandary over funds to hold
their instructors and maintain their
buildings.
Colleges to Furnish ofacers.
ING war department mas uuUcE
consideration, however, plan to
meet the whole situation. Since 1t is
before Gen. March, the chief of staff
of the Army, the details cannot be
disclosed. but the consensus Of Opin-
ion among those who have been work
ing on the probiem-military men, as
well as educators-is that the col
leges must be preserved in order to
furnish the Army with officer ma
terial.
Plans that amount to government
aid for the colleges while the War De-
partment uses their facilities are very
likely to be adopted. The War De-
partment views the question not SO
much from the side of conservation
of the country's educational ma
chinery for after the war. but funda-
mentally and primarily from the de-
mands of military necessity. Medical
students, dentists, engineers and 9TH
ers engaged in scientific specialties
are too important to the army to be
cut of in the middle of their courses.
the wording Of the new draft law: If
Congress specifically says that men from
thirty-one to thfrty-Six years OF age
shall be called before any boys below
twenty-on9 are summoned. then the War
Department will have plenty Of time
to work out system of military train
ing and general education. Should the
matter be left to the discretion of the
War Department it Is likely, too. that
the boys Of eighteen now in the caalegss
a chance to get more education and At
themselves for officers training camps
Plan Likely to Be Adopted.
In a general way. the plan, seems
most likely to be this: A boy Of sew
enteen now in college on reaching the
age of eighteen would register either
in his home town or with the local
draft board in the district where the
versity or college in which he is ma
circulated, however, arrangements
would be made to induct the young
man into the military service of the
United States promptly on his regis
tration and he would be assigned to
the military training unit which has
been placed in that college by the
government. He would therefore pass
from the jurisdiction of any local
draft board to the military command
he had enrolled. He would be. per-
nlitted to continue certain academic
courses and would live in his college
dormitory, but he would be required
to keep a certain mark in both his
military and academic studies.
Whether he could stay until he was
nineteen or twenty and thus have two
years Of education will depend largely
on the phraseology Of the new law as
well as the situation on the western
front, but there probably will be q
flexible system introduced which win
from the colleges every quarter Of the
year as soon as it is apparent that
they are fitted to be commissioned or
non-commissioned officers or Just
plain privates.
But if the government draws a cer-
70 in - zkv,
leges to make them officers or privates,
how will the colleges be able to keep
going? Here it is contemplated to
put into operation the democratic idea
The various National Army detach-
ments where boys of eighteen will
the colleges, but who had a high
school education will be canvassed to
obtain students to I'LL the places left
by those who had graduated into off,
GERS training camps. The govern
ment, in other words. would contract
with the universities and colleges for
subsistence and instruction and pay
the bills. This would mean a steady
income for the country's educational
institutions, and while cost experts
would see to it that no fancy tuition
prices were asked Of the government,
cost to the college of housing the
students and instructing them in the
needed courses, most institutions
would be more than willing to keep
open.
Every boy Of eighteen, on being in
Quoted into the military service. would
receive pay from the government. a
portion Of which may later be used
to meet the expense Of educating him.
though this feature Of the plan has
not been worked out.
Chance for Poor Mans Son.
Thus boys noa now in colleges win
have the opportunity to get part Of
a college course. or at least those
branches of the cirriculum which he
would need to become an officer. The
poor mans son. vino could not afford
to go to college on account of the tu-
ition fee, will now be able to enter
for a brief period. provided he has at
tended the public high schools and
obtained a satisfactory standing.
Some boys will be assigned to
technical and vocational schools, others
to academic institutions dependent upon
an examination of their individual
cases by the War Departments se-
lective machinery.
the schools. and colleges Of boys Of
eighteen who have been inducted into
the military service under the new
law, and a steady flow out as soon as
they are trained sufficiently to be USE
full in active service Before they are
called out of the colleges. however,
the military commander stationed at
each of the colleges will cooperate
with the faculty of the institution in
determining which men shall be per-
mitted to go on to officers training
camps, non-commissioned onicers'
schools or National Army camps, and
which shall be retained for further
instruction and education. =
doridna IN rail-