Evening star., 1928-12-23

xmas In the last century and {
half, faces today another bis
assignment. 1t must provide
professors and instructors for student
body of more than 10000. Reports
reaching Washington from variou:
corps area commanders show that the
enrolment this year in the correspond
enca courses which the Army conducts
fog citizen soldiers will exceed thai
number, giving the Army a good claim
20 conducting the largest university ir
the world.
Business men, bankers, college stu
dents, lawyers, doctors, dentists, clergy
men, engineers-men in almost every
Cccupation-are represented in this
Army university. Though the students
pay no tuition and thought the work
they do brings no addition to their pay
kheckS, they show great diligence and
Willingness to study.
In the fiscal year that ended on June
13, the $4,000 students under instruc-
tion by the Army faculty completed In
all $50, 900 hours of work. With an en-
follment OF 5000 more than this, the
current year should bring this total
well over 100000 hours.
Training for Reserves.
After the World War, the United
States found itself with a small Regu-
lar Army again, National Guard, and
q third and new component of the mill
tary establishment, the Organized Re-
nerves. Uncle Sam provided the Regu-
Ar and the National Guardsman with
facilities for professional training, but
The reserviSt, in sense, found himself
a fish out of water. The Regular Army
had to find a way of training him,
apart from the 15-day active training
irG
give a limited number of Reserve OFF,
GERS each year.
! In 1922 the Army put into operation
It's first correspondence courses, which
claimed to give reServiStS and others a
chance to keep up with tine military
profession. At the outset plans were
made for an enrolment of 5000 OFF,
GERS. Even that number seemed for
midable. The plan was successful from
the start. How successful 1t has proved
may be judged by the fact that the
student body in five years has grown
from 5000 to $4,000. In 1925 there
was an enrolment of $1,000, and In
az months these students had 10000
hours to their credit. Last year the
students did $4,000 hours of work.
NO civilized university, it IS safe to say,
has ever grown faster.
COSt Fut at S4V,VUVs
What does it cost Uncle Sam to give
thiS instruction? So little that in COM
parison with the four billions that are
required to run the Government the
appropriation looks like small change.
The annual cost is about $4,000, and
this included the distribution and
printing of the texts, the printing OF
The lessons and the maps, etc.
The Post Ofice Department carries
free of charge the lessons sent out to
the pupils, the comments of the in
EtructorS and the lessons which the
students send back for correction. II
3ou have an arithmetical bent OF mind
you can figure out that the cost OF a
man for a years instruction is about
$l.50. For an hour Of instruction the
cost is 6 cents.
Other factors, however, enter into
the cost. The instructors are Army
oficers. whose salaries the Government
pays. Through the corps areas 600
officers spend all or part of their time
In correcting papers. These officers
would be doing other work If not as
signed to correspondence school duty.
In addition, there are officers at each
of the service schools. and the head
quarters of the chiefs of branches who
spend all or part of their time prepar-
ing the subject matter for the 800
courses on the curriculum Of the Army
university
The courses they prepare each year
are substantially the same as are given
to Regular officers who pass year at
the various service schools. The cor
irespondence course In each subject
may be little more simple. but 1t rep
resents practically the same work that
Is required of the Regular officers who
go to these schools. There Is this Diff
ference: A reservist ordinarily will take
three or four years to complete full
tcourse, whereas the student in the
Regular Army will complete the course
An a school year.
Extensive System Operated.
To Regular officers the Army offers an
extensive system of schools grading up
ward from West Point through the spe-
cial service schools of the various
branches at Fort Sill, Fort Riley, Camp
Benning and elsewhere to the command
and general staff school at Fort Leaven-
worth. The Army War College, in
Washington, which trains officers for
duty on the general staff, stands at the
peak of the Army educational system.
! Only those who graduate with dis
tinction from the lower schools are
eligible to take the course here. and its
graduates have as much right to feel
proud of their academic careers as those
who win a PhD. degree from Columbia
or Cornell. School work bulks large In
the peace-time routine of the Regular
Army. The officer of today finds him.
self schoolboy much of the time. He
As constantly studying the theoretical
aspects of the military profession.
Soldering, on the other hand, Is not
43he main business in life of 10000
Reserve officers and the 10000 officers
of the National Guard. For Is days a
year they must be soldiers and, in the
case of the National Guardsman, an eve
ming or two a week. Their main job is
D civilian one.
The educational training and oppor-
tunities open to the Regular officers are
not open to them-unless they are to
neglect their professional work. Hence
the War Department had to find a
method by which it could give the Re-
servist enough instruction to keep him
prepared to fill his military assignment
If the country should need his services.
In the development of the project, the
first phase was experimental. Old
timers, naturally, were at first disposed
to look bit skeptically at schoolroom
instruction. But those who had charge