HUNDRED THOUSAND COLLEGE MEN PREPARE FOR CALL TO WAR

College men and colleges themselves are anticipating any call that the nation may make upon them, and the institutions of the East, West, North and South are preparing themselves. If the Government wants sites for training camps, campuses are at its disposal. A dozen or more technical schools have offered the unrestricted use of their scientific laboratories for experiments; farming experts stand prepared to teach the people to live more cheaply and to conserve the nation's resources; forty state colleges which have for years had military training as a dominant feature of their curricula, will furnish officers to instruct raw recruits; and the women's colleges stand ready to carry out the Red Cross work. And, finally, if the United States needs officers, fighters, aviators, surgeons, ambulance drivers, engineers, signal corps experts, or sailors, a hundred thousand college men offer the best that is in them.

The universities of the Middle West are just as alert as the great private colleges and institutions in the East. There is, perhaps, one difference, for the state universities which are required to have some military training, and have accordingly been accustomed to the preparedness movement, are not quite so upset over the developments of the last two months.

Prepare In Particular Lines.

The Reserve Officers' Training Corps, as organized at the University and other Eastern colleges, plays but a small part in the complete preparedness movement. The different institutions are organizing and preparing themselves along those lines in which they can be of the greatest service. Thus Technology, Princeton, Johns Hopkins, Pennsylvania, Columbia, and the great laboratories in numerous other universities are open to the Government scientists to make such experiments as they wish; thus the Massachusetts Agricultural College is organizing the farmers of the state in order that the coming food crop will be the maximum in size; other institutions are giving special courses in military medicine; the Tufts wireless station is offered as a central wireless station for New England; the students at Smith, Wellesley and Mount Holyoke are engaged in Red Cross work; and Western Reserve has already formed an ambulance unit of more than 100 men. Nearly all the colleges and universities are taking a census of their alumni in order that all resources may be utilized immediately as soon as the Government issues the call.

Special Training at 50 Schools.

The Intercollegiate Intelligence Bureau is an indication of the services which the colleges of the country stand ready to render to the Government. This Bureau was organized with the approval of Government officials. It has sent the following telegram to President Wilson and members of the Council of National Defence:

"The Intercollegiate Intelligence Bureau advises you that 50 of the largest and most prominent universities, colleges and technical schools throughout the country are ready to provide the nation with men of specialized training for every need which may arise in your plans for rational defence."

Yale has probably been the leader in the promptness and completeness with which it has prepared for the emergency. The university has organized a unit of the Reserve Officers' Training Corps, a unit of the Naval Training, the aviation coast patrol and the motor boat patrol; a research committee to co-operate with the National Research Council, a unit of the Intercollegiate Intelligence Bureau, and has built a complete armory and stables. If war comes, Yale is prepared to put its equipment at the disposal of the Government, to turn over Yale Field and the armory as a training camp, and to organize more units of the Reserve Officers' Training Corps. Dean Jones has said that if war came he would like to see the university grounds turned into a training camp, the dormitories into barracks, the "Commons" dining hall used as a mess room, the athletic fields as parade grounds, all extra-curriculum activities eliminated, and the students, while attending classes, giving the greater share of their attention to military preparation. He would also like to see the students, should a call for volunteers come, formed, if possible, into a distinctive Yale organization.

High Efficiency at Cornell.

Cornell, in common with land-grant colleges, has had obligatory military service as a part of its course of study since the institution was opened to students in 1868. The university aims to give all its undergraduates enough military training to qualify them to become officers of volunteers. Military efficiency of the highest order is attained. Delinquencies in drill are treated like any other academic failure, and the five per cent, who receive failure in the drill take the work over. Officers of the rating of captain and lieutenant are given faculty rating as assistants.

The Cornell Corps consists of 16 companies of infantry, one company of engineers and sappers, one machine-gun platoon, an ambulance corps, and a signal corps. The signal corps is equipped with field wireless and telegraph instruments, and an aviation unit is in process of formation.

Cornell has a new armory, the largest university building of its kind in the country, in which 2,000 men can drill at the same time. The building, modelled something like the old Tudor castles, is 412 feet long, 228 feet wide, and four stories high. It is constructed of stone from the university quarries to conform with the other buildings of the same material on the campus. In the towers are rooms for the officers of the various companies, and for the minor organizations within the cadet corps; in the basement provision has been made for a rifle range to be used for indoor practice.

Princeton at Government Disposal.

Princeton was one of the first institutions to offer its resources to the Government, for, soon after the breaking off of relations with Germany, President Hibben, with the accordance of the faculty, placed the facilities of Princeton at the disposal of the Government.

President Hibben says that the regular academic work will continue as usual if war is declared, but that the scholastic schedule will be lightened to allow the students who are now at work in military training to put more time on such activities. It is planned to keep the different volunteer soldiers and officers at the university, as the site at Princeton is regarded as being as well fitted for hastening training as any in New Jersey.

Great interest has been shown in the attempts to establish an aeroplane corps, and more than 200 men have agreed to become members if it is formed. The equipment would be provided largely by the alumni.

Tufts has organized an efficient wireless corps, Boston University is giving war courses, New Hampshire is forming a nurses' aid organization in addition to the regular cadet corps, New York University is preparing, Columbia is organizing, Rhode Island has raised a signal corps in addition to its required military unit, Pennsylvania is taking a detailed census of its faculty, students and alumni, and 1,000 men are drilling at Purdue. Among the other institutions that are preparing to do their share are Norwich, Maine, Middlebury, Bowdoin, Dartmouth, Colgate, Wesleyan, Trinity, Chicago, Minnesota, Williams, Amherst. Vermont, Worcester, Tech., Lafayette. Allegheny, Michigan, and a host of other colleges and universities that are either adopting military courses or have military training as a regular part of their curricula