The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1918-06-06
TO STAY IN COLLEGE.
President and Prominent Men Say Col
lege Trained Men are Worth More
to the Nation Than Others.

10 1lAC NdbAOu THAN ObuSIS.
Because you are worth more to the
nation with your college training than
without it, you will be expected to stay
in college until called up by the govern
ment, = is what P. P. Claxton, United
States Commissioner of Education, has
to say to the student who is thinking of
quitting school and enlisting in the army
In a special message to high school
graduates nearly year ago, President
Wilson said: cit would seriously i'm
pair America s prospects of success in
this war if the supply of highly trained
men were unnecessarily diminished. l
would parti sularly urge upon young
people who are leaving our high schools
that as many of them as can do so avail
themselves this year of the opportuni-
ties offered by the colleges and techni-
cal schools to the end that the country
may not lack an adequate supply of
trained men and women. -
The Presidents view was emphati-
cally supported in public statements by
Secretary Baker, Secretary Lane, the
commissioner of Education, and by
nearly every national body o1 scien-
tifc men.
Notwithstanding these words of the
President there are many young men
who are debating in their own minds
whether they shall go to college or
enlist in the army.
The War Department; has just made
it possible to do both. 1t says, in effect,
to the ambitious young American: "You
serve your country by going to college.
To make sure that you do not lose
thereby the opportunity of serving
your country in a direct military capa-
city, you will be asked to join the
special United States army college
training units that are to be formed,
You will be liable for service at a mo-
ment IS notice, but because you are
worth more to the nation with your
college training than without it, you
will be expected to stay in college I'M
til called by the government
The War Department s announce
ment provides that beginning with Sep
ytember, 1918, military instruction, under
officers and non-commissioned officers of
the army, will be provided in every in
stitution or college grade enrolling for
the instruction one hundred or more
able-bodied students over the age OF
eighteen. The necessary military equip
ment viii be provided by the govern
ment. There will be created military
training unit in each institution. En-
listment will be purely voluntary, but
all students over the age of eighteen
will be encouraged to enlist. The en-
listment will constitute the student a
member of the army of the United
States, liable to active duty at the call
Of the President. It will, however, be
the policy Of the government net to
call the members of the training units
to active duty until they have reached
the age of twenty-one, unless urgent
military necessity compels an earlier
call. Students under eighteen, and
therefore not legally eligible for en-
istment, will be encouraged to enroll
in the training units. Provision will
be made for co-ordinating the Reserve
Officers Training Corps system, which
exists in about one-third of the colleg-
late institutions with this broader plan.
'This new policy aims to accomplish
a two-fold object" the War Depart
ment announces, first, to develop as a
great military asset the large body Of
young men in the colleges; and second,
to prevent unnecessary and wasteful
depletion of the colleges through in
discriminate volunteering, by offering
to the students definite and immedi-
ate military status.'
No nation has made such generous
provision for combined military and
college education as has the United
States in this new plan. The youth
who avail themselves of the privilege
will be serving their country's imme
date as well as future needs.