Compulsory Training Un-Christian.

To the Editors of the CRIMSON:

We are very glad to take advantage of the invitation of the CRIMSON to discuss the question of universal compulsory military training. We feel that as future preachers of the Gospel of good-will we have a peculiar interest in this question. During the last few days a majority of the students of Andover Theological Seminary, Harvard Divinity School, Episcopal Theological School and Boston University School and Boston University School of Theology have expressed themselves in a petition to Congress as opposed to "any form of universal compulsory military training, on the ground that it is un-Christian, contrary to American ideals, and defeats its own ends by breeding international misunderstanding and distrust."

We are moved to protest against compulsory training because we have seen what compulsion has done in so democratic a country as England. We note the fate of the several thousand men whose consciences will not allow them to become part of a military machine whose purpose is the destruction of life. We recognize that conscription laws usually provide for conscientious scruples, but unfortunately the men who are appointed to judge the validity of these scruples are either military men or civilians of a military mind. They are unable to comprehend the workings of a conscience different from their own. These British courts have not only forced conscientious objectors to go to the front, but have sentenced them to hard labor, to prisons where they have been tortured, and some cases executed. A compulsory military system has small room for private conscience. It is a truism that England is as democratic a country as the United States. Would a compulsory military law work differently in this country? An indication of what would happen here is shown in the working of the Slater Bill recently passed in New York State, requiring military training of all school children, not even excepting the children of Quakers. To us as ministers of Christ and lovers of democracy the compulsion of conscience is abhorrent, but with compulsory training it is inevitable. Therefore we oppose it.

HAROLD L. STRATTON, Andover.

ARTHUR S. WHEELOCK, Andover.

A. CARBOLL BINDER, 1 Divinity.

E. P. BAKER, Andover.

R. E. BAYES, Andover.

A. W. CANNEY, Andover.

J. RUSSELL COOMBS, Andover.

ALFRED SCOTT PRIDDIS, Episcopal Theological.

FRANK GOOSTRAY, Episcopal Theological.

LESLIE F. WALLACE, Episcopal Theological.

MAX H. HARRISON, Andover.