CO-OPERATION BETTER THAN COMPETITION

The announcement is made today that representatives from the various college training units of the Eastern and Middle States will confer at the University May 28. Although a demonstration in the Fresh Pond trenches will be an interesting feature of the program, yet the real importance is the chance to take steps toward co-operative action among the various corps. As the University took the lead in the spread of military education by securing instructors trained in the school of experience, so now we welcome a conference to universalize the war preparations of undergraduates.

The history of R. O. T. C.'s has been varied, due to the altering conditions under which each has existed. Each body of student soldiers has been created and developed through its own initiative, independent though often influenced by other corps. The resulting system of instruction has been such as each separate body, usually helped by an officer inexperienced in the new warfare, could best devise. The more progressive a college, the more efficient has become its military system, while neighboring institutions remain behind. Nothing has yet been done to eliminate the consequent irregularity of training, and unfortunate competition between institutions, or to give slower universities the benefit of methods successfully introduced in the more energetic. It is the unification of military education, or at least the spreading of systems that have proved most successful, that should be the aim of the coming conference.