Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1919-09-23

vanced and perfected in our attain
ments than is actually the case.
Third, we may conclude that we can
prepare and organize for an ~emer-
gency without taking forethought.
Let us see in this connection Just
what debt We owe to education and
how our relation to the intellectual
training and development Of. the
masses is to affect our future prog
ress. While it is true that much
of our training in the past was of
more Or less elementary nature, we
had the fundamental principles in
culcated very successfully in many
instances and we had the basis on
worthy of the effort of America in
agricultural. industrial, manufacture
ing, organization, and governmental
lines, First of all, We have been
soils for fifty years through the
agency of our agricultural colleges.
They have assembled a vast amount
of information of more or less
technical character which has been
widely disseminated by their grad
Invites which were formulated and
carried on by :esa institutions in
cooperation with the y. S. depart
ment of AGRICULTURE Therefore, we
gency and in position. to. know lar
gely how to combat diseases in ami
mails and plants. how to intensity
the production Of our land, how to
substitute one form of plant food
for another. just where and when to
plant crops so as to increase. their
area, and what to grow in order to
best enable us to supply our own
needs and those of foreign coun-
tries with the food materials they
Fortunately for US We had special
lied in the production, manufacture
and distribution of farm machinery
to a greater extent than any other
country in the world, hence when
our labor was withdrawn from the
farms it was possible for us through
the use of machinery to even in
crease the acreage cultivated. In
foreign countries, which depend
more largely on manual labor, this
there was a decline in food produc-
ton, even if the destruction incident
to war be left out of consideration.
Next We had organized through our
colleges of agriculture the reserve
officers training corps, and when it
became necessary to assemble great
army and train it intensively and
officer it the material out of which
to develop leaders was available.
and they were already acquainted
with the fundamentals of military
science and law. But for this fact
trained an army of such surprising
excellence and efficiency in so short
a time. Yet few people realize or
appreciate at it's face value the mar
Vicious service which the agricul-
tural and mechanical colleges have
rendered the nation in this crisis.
In a sense, therefore, we were not
altogether unprepared; as we had the
latent material out of which to de-
Velop officers capable of training a
great army under high pressure in d
short period of time.
This nation probably has more
technical institutions than any other.
Our scientists and experts have been
encouraged to develop their in
ventive genius, and, therefore, there
wer1 on file in the patent office thou
sands of devices which could be
used in an emergency such as con-
fronted us two years ago. These
same savants. and college professors
whom we have. been at. times dis
posed to point at derfsiyely, there
fore, were in position to- supply the
nation with the. amount of technical
information it needed and so permit
of the organization and development
of these astonishing war industry
factories Which supplied the. Amer
lean troops at Chateau Thierry and
St. Mihiel with the facilities and
equipment necessary to turn the tide
OF German aggression back forever.
Then our great industries, renowned
throughout the world for the size
and perfection of their organization.
had many experts in their labora-
tories who through years of research
had acquainted themselves with. ss-
Sential and itndamea tahE Ga GtSG where
Rby thesegtntiustrte hest could be instant
'ly expatfded aloI1g1o " hateyet life be-
came netessafy. - The perfsFEiSn, of
our MECHANICAL 3a sqilipnnent enahlga us
to use relatively crudeGT la boTs wand
still turn out most amazing amount
of shipping in comparatiuelyssh ort
time. Our business men aand bank
ers, trained economists and eXBerts
were able to provide the sinaMs of
war, and soon 3the, countrys 4yEsk1 sue
cessfully financed. = sa759'Hp
Judged from this angle it, would
appear as though we were III, IT,, Fair
ly good state of Preparedness, and if
we follow along in the lines already
marked out we will be able to- main
tain the efficiency of America. In
this connection let us not overlook
! igencies of war arose 1T was neces-
Sary for us to train thousands and
thousands of men through the agency
of the government for almost every
conceivable kind of scientific work.
This war was a war Of science and
1 VI d5dlIiSL d5HOSlIClSIu anu
materialism, That we won it is due
| to the basic training we possessed
and which I have pointed out. but
it will not do for us to- depend on
so f1imsy structure for the future.
Had our population been greater, our
| land more generally taken up, or
had the brlmt of the original attack
been borne by lis the story might
have been different. 1t certainly
would have been in many particu
lars.
The time has come in our history,
therefore, when we must specialize
more in education, when we must
train the masses of the people for
special service work. It seems rather
remarkable that in a country where
the automobile has been more gen.
orally used than anywhere else that
We were short on auto mechanics to
serve Uncle Sam. This is but one
illustration of a general deficiency
that existed with reference to veter1-