The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-08-21
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
INFORM ALTON
Blu RE AU
FREDERIC J. HAsKIN, Director.
Washington, D. C.
FIGHTING MECHANICS.
Washington. D. c.


numbers for the army, the govern
ment has indirectly taken over LAO col
ieges and turned each of them into a
combination work shop, school, and
war camp. Army training attachments
composed of men selected from the
ranks and others just enlisting are
sent to these colleges for two months
intensive study at trade, after which
they are qualified as fighting me-
chanics'' and set to work to run and
repair the machinery of the army.
1t is estimated that another year OF
war would call for one million skilled
workmen to be sent over from this
country to back up our fighters. 1t
has been difficult to secure such men
in sufficient numbers for our army at
its present size, even tho every skilled
man Is being taken out of the ranks
and placed in the army work shops
and labor detachments. To supply
the deficit and provide for the future.
the army is now giving the man with
a fundamental knowledge of a trade.
or with unframed ability, the chance
to develop under expert teachers.
Two months at a technical college
under army supervision makes a re-
soldier. Six hours Of the student-sol-
dier's day are given to study. shop
training and lectures. Three hours
are devoted to military drill.
The development of morale is an
important feature of the training.
Regular classes are held by professors
especially detailed to inculcate into
the students that elusive spirit of con-
fidence, understanding, and poise
known as morale. The unusual thing
about these classes is that the students
come prepared to ask questions and it
Is the professor who must answer
them. Military strategy, diplomacy,
international law are a few of the
topics discussed. A list of questions
asked by one class contains such 5am-
pies as What is the good of interna-
tionaI law" What will become of
the German Ell pire after the war;"
and ''Is Russia neutral?" 1t is I'M
derstood that the knowledge of war
conditions obtained thru these classes
gives the soldiers a glimpse into the
purpose behind all the monotonous
drilling and labor, and thus tends to
strengthen the all important morale of
the unit.
Outside of working hours the men
are quartered in barracks built for
them near the college. Every effort is
made to provide entertainment for
them, and in most cases the college
town receives its visitors gladly. Y
NJ. c. A. huts are erected in some of
the student camps, and when this is
impossible, the boys fit up an ar-nory
as a recreation hall and hold their
| gymnasium.
Every college that has sufficient
equipment for technical training is
opening it's doors to the army. AS a
rule not all of the training is given at
| the college. In Akron. for instance.
| the soldiers go into the tire factories
for practical application of lectures
given at Akron university. Corpora
| ton of the factories in furnishing their
experts as instructors and their floor
space as a school room speeds up ap-
probably the work of turning out
| fighting mechanics in record time. AT
| another school, where mining is
| taught, there is a real mine close by.
at which the students get first hand
experience.
The school atmosphere is kept by
regular quiZzes and reports which are
a part of the system at each college.
| Instructors as we'll as pupils are given
lectures, their subject of study being
methods of teaching. A need for this
| teacher training is found in that the
shop classes are taught by expert
workmen who often have had no ex-
perience in teaching their trade to
others. The college professors in
charge of lecture classes haves OF
| course, no need of this work.
The list of trades needed by the
| modern army is a long one. A few OF
| the most essential are blacksmiths
miners. tinsmiths. electricians, ma
chinists, carpenters, mechanics an
gunsmiths- As urgently as the army
needs men of these and other trades
it has no time for the recruit that is
lacking in ability and willingness
Few men of this kind find their way
into a training detachment and if one
brief. A training detachment has toe
much to learn in its allotted two
months to waste time on even one in
different pupil.
The courses aim to reproduce actua
field conditions, disadvantages an6
the smooth concrete floors of the
average work shop are replaced with
soil. Soldiers studying to be tin
smiths are taught to hammer out non
leaking tin cups and frying pans in e
typical army work shop and with 6
minimum of equipment as quickly a.
in perfectly equipped civilian shop
Until the students In an auto repair
detachment can be trusted with al
army motor truck, they are given OLD
and battered automobiles to work on
and no matter what the instructo
does to one of these. the student mus
be able to locate the trouble and know
how to remove 1t.
The government started its colleg,
courses for training workmen abou
! three months ago. Fifty thousand mel
are IN training at a time, and by No
vember first ninety thousand will hav,
graduated. So great is the necessit,
for workmen in the army that evel
raw recruits with only promise of abil
; ity are taken in if otherwise qualified
, Under present regulations few mel
who cannot pass the physical tests o
the army are taken for this work
, The army cannot assure man that h
will make good at his trade and there
fore it may be necessary later t.
transfer him to some other branch
: possibly to a fighting unit. Then, toe
, the workman of the army goes every
where with the troops and needs a
strong a physique as the infantryman
> Even when the colleges start OF
t their regular fall program. the arm
| training detachments will continu
, their work. Two hundred and twent
. thousand men must be trained by mex
| June, and to accomplish this the col
leges must share their faculties an,
/ L.. ].