Arizona republican., 1921-01-26
MANY MEN SEE IN
 ARMY ONLY CHANGE
 FUR AN EDUCATION

FUR AN EDUCATION
 That the army offers the only op- portunity for even an elementary edu- | cation for thousands of young Amer 1 jeans who live in undeveloped com munities is evident from the flood of | letters which have been received by 1 the adjutant general since the policy of | education in the army was recently an nounced.
 Mothers and fathers whose sons have 1 been declined for enlistment because of minority or physical defect have writ ten stating that there are no schools to which their boys can be sent and that they are unable financially to send them away from home to schools | where gainful occupations are taught, and asking that special permission be | granted for their acceptance into the army.
 Public spirited citizens in many com ! munities have sent in the names of young men who should be in school, requesting the army to send literature to them calling their attention to the opportunity being missed.
 The father of II children, nine of whom are boys, including pair of twins, writes that he sees no possibil- ity at home for a proper education for any of them and desires that special permission be given to enlist his second oldest son and the twins, all three of
 whom are a little short of the mini
 mum age He says his boys ''are large for thir ages and will grade we'll mp to the average country boy in looks and intelligence" He lives on a so
 acre run down" Ozark farm in Mis-
 souri and finds difficulty in even out
 fitting his children to attend the com
 mon district school.
 A letter from Nebraska reads in part
 as follows:
 q don't know where the recruiting
 office around here is, but I have boy
 who will be IS years old Christmas,
 He has quit school and has no profess
 sion; at present he is helping on a farm We read the literature all
 through and we wish he was old enough
 to go He might better be in the army
 for three years learning to be good
 farmer or whatever he would rather
 learn and also earning something, too"
 This letter came from a small town
 in Oklahoma:
 aI have read the letter that was sent
 to - and see 1t is an opening for
 any one with ambition. Since my
 parents died I have not had the chance I to obtain the education I desire. l sincerely hope I may join the army, i although am not of age. I am only Is
 years old. 1 am feet inches tall
 and weight 135 pounds. I am doing a mans work and drawing a mans pay. am working in the mines, not fin the . ground but on top. I have not a de-
 sire to attach myself to the mines, 2 but to better myself and country Therefore I hope that I may join the { army and schools with your consent -
 A widow pleads that her son be f taken into the army training schools a since she is compelled to work out s and she feels that he is not having the proper associates under the present a circumstances. Ut is killing me to sec
 my only boy go to ruin. He is not g bad boy, but he needs training. Please ! let me know if can put him in the s army's schools. Please help be to save 3 my only boy, and please let me hear as : soon as possible. Please state what ! have to do to put him there." Another Missouri father writes thai . his boy is anxious to go on with schoo but has to attend school under greai difficulties, as we live six and a hal : milesfrom town and he has to go or 1 horseback" He states that the boy , ] though only 15 years old, Is 5 feet Si. = inches tall and weighs 1855 pounds r and asks that the age requirements b. n waived.
 As a part of the campaign to widel, e advertise the new educational work il = the army, circulars were sent to tn n thousands of rural addresses where re : cruting officers could not be sent. Thi y was done in November, so that farm I work would not be interfered with b. , enlistments. Twenty occupational sub Il jects which are taught in the arm.
 were advertised in this standardization
 Thousands of replies have been re- A ceived requesting further information ' Among the subjects specifically men n toned in inquiries, agricultural train if ing Tears, forming 1s1a per cent of th "a subjects mentioned. Auto mechanics l. courses come next, with r per cent ID business and commerce, 6 per cent; L. machinists and mechanics, 6la pei le cent music, { per cent; wireless oper Is alton, 4 per cent.
 Maj. Gen. P. c. Harris the adjutan
 general of the army, in snnouncin
 these figures. states that 1t is prob s able that the localities to which thes > circulars were addressed and fror ic which the inquiries were received hay of never been visited by recruiting rep
 resentatives of the army because c 1e their remoteness. He said: ITO theI T. the announcement doubtless conveye ts the first intimation that the army ed T- ucates in so many subjects that ar is only indirectly military in characte
 The army has learned that uneducate ne men are serious liability to an arm lg in time of war"
 .s Morse wedding ceremonies last fror " three days to a week.
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