MAJOR SCHNEIDER BELIEVES UNIVERSAL TRAINING COMING

"Universal Military Training for men in the United States would be a fine thing, but we shall not have it now," commented Major F. E. Schneider, Assistant District R. O. T. C. Inspector, Northeastern Department, when approached by a CRIMSON reporter yesterday.

"I think that Congress is against it, though far from unanimously, yet with sufficient strength to defeat any measure proposing Universal Military Training for men in America. Yet, from the experiences I have had, and the articles I have read on the subject, I am sure the people as a whole in the United States desire to see some form of Universal training.

"Of course there are people who howl loudly against even such a proposal. Prussianism! Military life to usurp the place of a happy life! Terrific expense to the Government! Many ejaculations of like nature sum up the arguments of the objectors. As yet the issue has not been placed directly before the country but it probably will be before long. In any event the arguments pro and con will not change appreciably; and the way the fires of disunion are breaking out today, it would not be impossible that people will clamor for universal training in order to protect the country.

As for the Prussian spirit of military autocracy which is feared, there will be little likelihood of any move in that direction on the Continent such a regime developed only because of tradition, of the all-pervading system of militarism established, and the autocratic government already in control.

Conditions are and would be the reverse in the United States. Instead of a militaristic tradition steeped in imperialism we look back on a democratic past, little troubled by international complications. In place of a system of compulsory military service extending over a period of three years we would have a shorter period founded on a different basis. Where in Germany, that was, and in France men were seized by the Government for three years and compelled to live the life of a professional soldier, the United States would adopt a system more of physical training. Herein, I think lies the chief safeguard against militarism in this country.

For a period of not longer than six months and not less than three months men will be gathered into great camps in the various sections of the country. During this time it will be the chief aim of the instruction to better the physical condition of the men and instil in them the rudiments of fighting upon which the whole complicated system of training might be built in the future.

Benefit to Citizen and Country.

In other words, the purpose in the United States aims at making of an ordinary man a physical specimen capable of being converted into a soldier in the event of a future war. In France and Germany the men are moulded into soldiers for instant use. While in the United States benefits from the training accrue to both the man and the nation, in France and Germany the nation only is benefited.

"There is one great advantage in such a form of training which, to my mind, is overlooked by most people. The military standpoint monopolizes the field of vision. They fail to perceive the fact that through this system of training the Government would come into contact with men of every class in the country. And to the boys who have no opportunity for education, to the mountaineers of Kentucky and Tennessee, a chance would be given. In almost no other way can the men in the back country of those states and others ever receive any advancement. For six months they would receive instruction for the mind and the body and associate with college men. The fear of a spirit of Prussianism growing out of such a system is unfounded. A broader, more educated democracy would result.