Evening star., 1919-05-12

| Secretary Baker during his recent visit
to the American forces in Europe was
much impressed with the educational
system introduced in the Army. and
| speaks with special enthusiasm about
[ ican EXpeditionary Force University at
| Beaume, France. He said the buildings
! at Beaume were originally put up for
base hospital, and the war came to
an end before they We're occupied. The
I university was established there and has
| over 5000 students. There are eleven
departments in the university, includ-
ing school of agriculture, a divinity
school. a school of law, a school of
medicine, a college of arts. a college
of sciences and school of dentistry.
College Professors Instruct.
"They have gotten their teachers" said
Secretary Baker, "in part from the
teachers with the Y. NJ. c. A. brought
over when it planned to do work along
that line, but for the most part the
teachers are college professors or college
graduates who were in the ranks them
selves as soldiers, and who have Volun-
unteered as teachers: and as you go
through the university you find. for in
turing on integral calculus and there
will be seated down in the classroom a
major, couple of captains, a lieutenant
or two. sergeantS and corporalS: but the
man who knows is the private, he is the
professor, and the military hierarchy is
completely upset before the intellectual
hierarchy. Perhaps in the next depart
ment of the university. however. a
major will be the lecturer. and so on,
sometimes an officer, sometimes nom
Wi
vate.
Men are sent to the university by
volunteering. They have, also. a
university extension course, when Is
something like the old Chautauqua
Literary Circle. This was established
for the benefit of men who could not
get to the university, or did not want
to do so. These men write in, for
instance, that they got as far as al
zebra in mathematics and would ike
to take up plane geometry. They
send him a text book, tell him how
to study it, and he sends in the re-
sults-the work is carried on in this
way. 1t is a complete educational
system.
Lay Down Arms, Take Up Books.
"The university at Baume is strik-
ing in two respects: In the first place,
the cheering and stirring thing about
it. to me, is the readiness with which
the American soldier lays down his
arms and takes up his books, and. in
the second place, it shows what.
think. in the future will be the nor
NAL occupation of a permanent Army.
Instead of the men of the permanent
Army living in idleness. we will have
them doing military things half the
time and educational things the rest
of the time, SO that they will come
out with an education and the Army
will become the West Point of the
enlisted men. That is really a great
idea.
"In addition to the university. as
you know. some 5000 of our men are
matriculated in colleges in England
and France. They are actually in
Cambridge. Oxford the, University of
London, University of Manchester.
Trinity College of the University of
Dublin, and in the Sorbonne and
other French universities, so that
5000 of our men are in foreign uni
versities and are taking courses there.
They have at Beaume, also, as a
part of the university. what they call
the normal college-and to this school
selected men are sent from the vari-
Gus divisions in France. These men
take course in pedagogy. They go
back to their divisions after three or