Great Falls daily tribune., 1920-04-07
HASKIN LETTER
A NEW SCHOOL FOR MARINES.
Bv FREDERIC J. HASKlN

Washington, D. c., April 3.-Are the
young men of this country, who have
ambition but not money, willing to work
their way through a good education by
serving four or five hours a day as SOL
diers, with the liability of active service
in case OF war?
That is the question which the United
States marine corps is now putting to
Americans. It has established at the
marine barracks at Quantico, Virginia,
school known as the marine institute,
where it is prepared to give men regular
grammar school and high school educa-
| tons, and to teach them several highly
| paid vocations, such as automobile engl-
neering, electrical engineering, stationary
gas engine work, building, construction
| At this barracks it is an absolute rule
! that only the morning hours are devoted
to military exercises, and all OF the at
ernoon is spent in classes and in attn
letic work. The routine is much like
that of a first class military school. Men
are now offered enlistment in the Fifth
regiment: Of marines, which is the one one
stationed at Quantico, with the flat
promise that after preliminary training
at Paris Island, the recruit will be sent
to the Quantico school, and will be al
lowed to stay there until he has COM
pleted whatever course he desires to
take, subject to the single condition that
if the United States gets into war; ne
may be assigned to active service.
The opportunity for enlistment under
these terms, which amounts to a con-
tract with the government to give Ger
| tain amount of service in return Tor an
education, began on April first.
This marine school is the latest OF a
number of efforts by the government TO
make military or naval service attractiSe
to young men by giving them education
in return for their time. Both the army
and the navy have always had some
classes where man could spend rev
hours a day and study grammar school
courses. These schools never amounted
Ito much. and they did not offer voca-
tional courses. During the war, the STU
dent army training corps. and since the
armstice. the army universities IN En-
rope. have offered men in the service
much more varied educational opportu
mites: but it was seldom possible tor q
man to remain in any of these instiut-
tions more than few mouths,
This marine school is new departure
in two ways. In the first place it offers
man a complete course leading to a
diploma. and in the second place ne is
given a definite promise that he shall DC
allowed to finish his education to his OWE
satisfaction unless the emergency of wal
interrupts it. ,.
The marine barracks at Qnantico :
4. Lejeune and Brigadier General s. D
Butler For this account of it we are
Indebted to Lieutenant J. Fl. Craige, who
is aid to General Lejeune. and who
leaves no doubt that the marine corps !:
sharing neither expense nor effort u
make this school real school where
man can fit himself for the business O
making a living. AS Lieutenant Craig
sees it, this is not merely an effort tt
get to serve in the marine corps in re
turn for a certain amount of schooling
lit is an effort to put the whole business
of military service on higher plane. ant
to attract to it higher. type, OF men.
It is agreed by all that, the state o
the world being what it Is. we must nav
considerable standing army, 4 large
navy, and marine corps OF =, goo
strength. It is equally clear to all tha
there is n strong sentiment in the coun
try against compulsory military servic
and compulsory military training. IN
alternative is voluntary enlistment.
is a notorious fact that men are not vol
unfairly en1isting in any. branch of tn
service in adequate numbers. The ma
rine corps has about two-thirds Of 1t
authorized strength, but both the arm
and navy are in worse condition. -.
It is not remarkable, from clvllla
viewpoint. that young men 90 NOT rus
into the service Most of them have ha
all the military service they want in tn
past few years. And peace time. servic
IN a standing army as it was before tn
war, offered very little inducement to
man of any ambition or energy. 4 fe,
hours of drill every day, and for the. rest
''bunk duty''-that is to say, loaflng. un
! der especially monotonous condition!
There is nothing in that to attract
high type Of man. or to attract men |
any numbers, and it is a we'll know
fact that our professional army neve
has attracted either.
} If, therefore, we are to have volur
teer standing army strong. enough (
mike us safe in a very troubled and ur
settled world, something has got to b
done to make the service really worth