page_title: National Defense Act of 1916
section_title: Reserve Officer Training Corps
hierarchical_section_title: National Defense Act of 1916 / Reserve Officer Training Corps
caption_attribution_description: English: William Oxley Thompson sketched in an 1899 newspaper upon being named president of The Ohio State University.
context_page_description: The National Defense Act of 1916, Pub.L. 64–85, 39 Stat. 166, enacted June 3, 1916, was a United States federal law that updated the Militia Act of 1903, which related to the organization of the military, particularly the National Guard. The 1916 act included an expansion of the Army and the National Guard, the creation of an Officers' and an Enlisted Reserve Corps, and the creation of a Reserve Officers' Training Corps. The President was also given expanded authority to federalize the National Guard, with changes to the duration and the circumstances under which he could call it up. The Army began the creation of an Aviation arm, and the federal government took steps to ensure the immediate availability of wartime weapons and equipment by contracting in advance for production of gunpowder and other material.
context_section_description: The provision to establish the Reserve Officer Training Corps was advocated by a delegation from Ohio including William Oxley Thompson, President of the Ohio State University.  On February 7, 1916, Ralph D. Mershon, a graduate of Ohio State, testified before the Committee as a professional engineer.  Present to testify as an advocate of a Reserve Engineers Corps, he expanded his remarks to argue in favor of the "Ohio Plan."  Mershon noted (in bold):
  "...the transformation that will take place in one term of drill in a man just off the farm and very clumsy when he enters college, and who at the end of a term is 'set up', carries himself well, looks neat in his uniform, and has acquired a measure of self-respect, and the respect of his colleagues, to an extent he would not have had without the military training."
  Congress agreed, and the ROTC provision was included in the final version of the law.
caption: William Oxley Thompson, Ohio State University President, ROTC advocate.
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