The New York herald., 1921-11-23
Killing a Military Superstition.


ehadowed by Premier BRIAND's speech,
IN reducing the term Of compulsory
military service to eighteen months,
will be hailed with approval by the
people of all countries which employ
similar systems in times OF peace.
The new period Of conscription is
six months shorter than that which
prevailed in France until August.
1918, when three years service was
made obligatory.
While the change in the French
system may have its origin in the
growing wish Of all democracies to
have the burdens of war and possible
war lightened, it is undoubtedly the
fact that the great war itself taught
governments that long and oppressive
years Of training are not necessary
TO the making of good soldiers.
AS an example of this it is no;
necessary to go farther than the East
Side Of New York. The selective SER
vice act of 1917 took. into the National
Army thousands Of young men who
were apparently unsuited by occupa-
tion and environment for matching
against German soldiers who had
been brought up in the most rigorous
discipline since the days Of Sparta.
These young men, with others from
Che metropolitan district, were organ
azed into the Seventy-seventh Divi-
sion in August, 1917, at Camp Upton,
on Long Island.
Not one in a hundred Of these
youths knew anything of military
methods. Some of them did not know
what the war was about. Many could
not speak English. Thousands were
the sons Of men who had come from
Europe to avoid compulsory service
and the menace Of war itself. They
were all drafted men, lacking at the
beginning the knowledge, the history
and the spirit of the regulars and the
National Guardsmen.
These troops. the rawest Of the
raw, received what small training the
Government could give them at Yap-
hank; but down there the principal
effort of the Government was 20
keep the men in health and good
spirits. What with the confusion Of
the new camps and the business of
moving the troops to Europe, there
was little military class to such di-
visions as this when they reached
France in the spring of 1918.
In May the East Side men were
brigaded with the British for train
5ng purposes. Here the going was
not perfectly smooth, for the allied
troops had been trained almost en-
tirely for trench or defensive fight
ing, while General PERsHrNG was de-
termined that his mems training
which, such as it had been, was
strictly for offensive warfare-shouli
not be changed. In June the East
Side men were brigaded with the
French in the Baccarat sector. In
August they were moved into the
Vesle sector.
Early in September, a year after
the organization of the division, the
Eeventy-seventh went into the very
important Argonne section, where,
according to General PERsHISG, only
the American troops "had the morale
Or the offensive spirit to overcome
successfully the dificulties." Late in
September the Seventy-seventh was
fn the great Meuse-Argonne offensive.
In thirteen months the lamblike Yap-
hank Bennie had become a lion.
OF course General PERsHrvG. in his
report on the war, does not say that
green divisions like the Seventy.
seventh were perfect soldiers. lie
remarks that the less experienced
divisions, while aggressive, were
hacking in the ready skill of habit"
They were capable of powerful blows
but their blows were apt to be awk.
ward" And yet he found in these
men something new to military ex.
perience. The American soldier
earnest belief in the justice of our
cause was productive OF q form OF
self-imposed discipline" This, he
says, must be regarded as an un
usual development of this war, q
facs which materially aided us tc
organize and employ in an incredibly
short space Of time the extraordi
mary fighting machine developed in
France"
The old military superstition thai
b man must be drilled into a piece oi
machinery before he became an EN-
Fient fighter was blown to pieces il