Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-01-28
COMPULSORY ARMY TRAINING

Mo GREAT foresight can be credited to
the Senate military affairs commit
tee for the compulsory military training
bill which it has formulated and recon-
mended to the favor of Congress. Yet
the committee appears to have done it's
best in an impossible situation.
In suggesting a law that would compel
all young men between the ages of eight
cen and twenty -one to take" four months
of army drill and present themselves for
two weeks of training each year the sena-
tors have fallen back on an expedent
that is old-fashioned enough to be at
least respectable. And it is interesting
to observe that the scheme is recon-
mended not on the ground of efficiency,
but because, seeming cheap it may prove
to be easy medicine for the country.
The plan, which is the outcome of
months of pous thought. will seem harsh
and un-American to great many people.
ct 1t cannot be called militarism. It
does not assure military preparedness for
an emergency.
Military training such as the Senate
dreams of would be little more eff
cient than that now possible with the
system evolved by the Boy Scouts and not
quite so dependable as that long familiar
in the National Guard. For the youth of
the land there would be little hardship.
The hardship would come to the country
itself, which might be lulled into false
and dangerous sense of security bv
schemc that Is no more promising than
Mr. Bryans plan for a system of good
roads, fords and farmers with shotguns
to guarantee our safety against possible
invaders.
If the Senate committee has had to
temporizc with the question of national
preparedness and defense it is because no
nation knows how to meet such dangers
as may arise from revival of militar-
ism. No one can yet know what will be
necessary if peoples must go on fighting
for their existence. The sort of standing
army suggested in the newest Senate bill
would be little more than a good target
for opposing forces armed with the
elaborate and terrible mechanisms now
being perfected by inventors who already
have made the Big Berthas and subma-.
rines seem relatively harmless and tame.
The aerial torpedo is now a reality.
There will be long-range bombardments
IN future wars, but shells will not be
loaded with high explosives. They will
carry deadly gas to externinate whole
cities. If war cannot be prevented armies
will fight in future years with chemicals,
electricity and monstrous devices of me-
chanical science. AS war becomes more
intricate it becomes more expensive. Its
scope is broadened.
The Senate committee on military
affairs seems to take another and a far
more cheerful view. It suggests, for ex-
| ample, that the cost of maintaining the
| training system which it has devised to
| keep the nation safe would not be more
| than S5OOO0O,OOO year. Yet a future
| army capable of defending itself would
! have to spend that much on chemicals. 1t
would need tanks, expanding air fleets,
| colossal artillery. Even a senator should
! know that these things are not brought
| by the ravens. A soldier OF the future
| will need extensive technical training.
You cannot keep technicians in form with
two weeks of practice in year.
The choice that confronts statesmen
who have to formulate military policy
! here and elsewhere is not one of method.
The decision must be between the policies
that may bring assurances of interna-
tional peace and the policies that make
miitarsm necessary. If a program of
military expansion is made necessary in
the United States it will involve stagger-
ing costs and hardship for everybody
The alternative lies in such understand
ings as will lead to the abatement OF
military insanity in all countries. And
while the military affairs committee is
noundering with the preparedness idea
the gentlemen of the foreign relations
committee are doing their best to max,
such understandings impossible.
May the Scnate's Unruly Eight IN
| N, N E;ouro If Gnaa,L9