The people's voice., 1951-06-22
By ANDREW CORDIAN
Distributed by National Council
Against Conscription

For nearly forty years l observed
at first hand the insidious effects of
the Prussian military program upon
the life of the German people. | saw
how the principle of peacetime COM
pulsory service was used by a small
domineering class to crush the demo-
cratic aspirations of the majority of
the people and how they used that
system to prepare the soil for the fin
al bloody tyranny of Hitler. 1t is
now with genuine fear for my adopt
ed country's future welfare that
view the imminent prospect of Amer
ica's acceptance of this vital principle
Of Prussian militarism.
Advocates of the system tell us it
will strengthen democracy by "bring-
ing boys together in a common ex-
perience." Nothing could be more
democratic than life in a barracks"
wrote one enthusiastic Army spokes-
man recently. If this were true then
by all logic Germany should have de-
veloped the finest example of democ-
racy in the world, for she certainly
brought her boys together" in
common military experience for
more than a century.
For those who think the German
and American brands of militarism I
are so utterly foreign to each other
that there is no point in even consid- |
ing the German experience, | would |
recommend the worlds of Col. Joseph |
|. Green, editor of the INFANTRY |
JOURNAL, who wrote during the re-
cent war:
-. the German army has con-
tinued to be our first military
school for most of the century
and half since Washington called
it that since the day of Steuben
at Valley Forge American military
leaders have closely watched the
German military developments,
studied intensively the German
military thought; and often adapt
ed German military organization
and tactical methods to our own
uses. Consequently, German mil
itary methods had their impact
upon every commander of Amer
lean troops since the beginning of
the nation. And those who have
shaped our ways of fighting have
looked more often to the German
than to any other foreign sources
of military ideas"
The United States Military Acad-
emy at West Point, which during I
peacetime furnishes half the Officers {
in the Regular Army and whose ira ,
ditions permeate the service, was set !
up along Prussian lines. Captain ,
Sylvanus Phayer, known as the +
Father of West Point, who reor- ,
ganized the Academy in 1917, made I
an extensive tour of northern Europe +
to study military institutions before !
being appointed superintendent He !
transplanted to American soil the es- /
sence of military training and disci- s
pline which he observed among the +
anti democratic governments of Eur '
ope. S
Where, for instance, did the arti- /
ficial and thoroughly un-American $
separation of officers and enlisted O
men into two distinct social classes v
originate? Certainly this rigid seq i
regation of not only the men them
selves but their wives and children at O
Army posts was not a natural out s
growth of democratic principles 1t r
can be traced through the Prussian J
tradition as far back as Frederick the o
Great, who set up ironbound caste c
between officers and the e
men in the ranks. The American s.
private who finds himself stopped at n
the door by the sacred symbol "For S
Officers Only" would be justified in
writing on such sign the words:
"By order of His Excellency, Fred
erick II, Founder of the Great Ira
dition."
| WAS A JUNKER
AS young man lived within the
heart of that tradition. My grand
father owned the estate of "Mevken"
in the district of Labiau, East Prus-
sia, and by virtue of that fact was
freely admitted to the social activi-
hTntboT-