HARVARD PROFESSORS ON COMMITTEE THAT CONDEMNS MILITARY TRAINING

Several Harvard men are included in the list of the Massachusetts Committee on Militarism in Education which is organized for the purpose of inquiring into the status of compulsory military training in the schools of Massachusetts, and to urge the abolition of such training. Among the prominent names on the list are Professor Zacharia Chaffee, Professor A. N. Holcombe '06, Professor Manley O. Hudson L. '10. Professor Bliss Perry. Dean Roscoe Pound Hon, '20, Professor F. B. Sayre L. 12, and Professor Harlow Shapley, all of them connected with the University faculty. Reverend Harold E. B. Speight, Minister of King's Chapel is the Committee's chairman.

Massachusetts First in Drill

This committee has delved into the matter of compulsory training and its survey, published today, makes known the following facts, calling attention to the War Department's plan to extend military training in every educational institution in the state: J. Massachusetts stands first in the number of public school boys taking military drill. Over 19,000 is the number in this state, while in California. Massachusetts nearest competitor in the matter of schoolboys taking military drill, only 8000 are so listed. 2. The War, Department has plans afoot to extend compulsory military training into every school and college of any importance within the state. 3. Compulsory military training, the survey reports, without exemption, is unlawful in Massachusetts according to the law of the state. 4. Compulsory military training is maintained in two colleges through the misinterpretation of the Federal law. 5. In the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the report discloses, the War Department distributes a scholarship of $210 to induce men to take the advanced course in military science. 6. The report also points out that educators are practically unanimous in condemning compulsory training in schools and colleges, and cites in its report such authorities on the subject as The Massachusetts State Department of Education. The National Education Association. President Charles W. Eliot. Dr. Dudley A. Sargent and others.

The committee is careful to point out that it is opposed to military training when it is compulsory, and not to the teaching of military science when its study is taken up voluntarily.

The foreword, setting forth the Committee's purpose, and the conclusion, which summarises the whole report and makes special recommendations are here with reprinted in full:

Foreword

This report on the extent of military training in the schools and colleges of Massachusetts deserves the attention of every citizen in the state.

"The Massachusetts Committee on Militarism in Education has set for its objects:

"To inquire into the status of military training in the educational institutions of Massachusetts.

"To urge the abolition of compulsory military training from the high schools and colleges of this state.

"We are living in days so near the Great War that its passions and hot partisanships are not yet dead. Thus it is that certain topics relating to our national policies are extremely difficult of sane and ordered consideration. One of these, is the problem of military training.

Educate Youth For Peace

"This Committee desires at the outset to recognize the sincerity of those with whom it differs in the matter of military training. It realizes particularly that many splendid men are engaged in teaching military science in schools and colleges and that it is far from their purpose to inculcate in pupils lust for war. It knows that members of the War Department and Army officers who advocate compulsory military training for all boys do so from the firm conviction that this is the best way to keep our country out of war. Here, in other words, is a question of policy on which honest people differ.

"The Committee itself is composed of citizens of many, often opposing, views as to the proper extent of military preparedness, who are agreed in the desire to see this country continue the traditions of justice, freedom and democracy which are at the base of our national greatness. One great element of our national tradition is our love of peace. The youth of today must be educated for peace if peace is to endure. The policies of our nation tomorrow are in their hands.

"The way of peace is not easy nor simple. There are dangers from without and within, and we would be dwelling in a fool's paradise to claim that all men of this or any nation are motivated by considerations of justice and good will. Just how proper preparation should be made by our country to meet the danger of war is a question upon which this Committee is divided. This is a question which it does not seek to settle. One thing unites its members.

"They all agree that the building up of a huge war machine on the basis of compulsory military training would make for war and not for peace. Such military and naval establishments were the expressions of the fears and conflicts of the European nations and played a large part in bringing on the Great War. It is because our preparedness program is developing features dangerously skin to the militarism we enlisted to fight in 1917 that this pamphlet is sent forth. Today to an extent that most of us have never dreamed of, military training is being forced upon our young men in high school and college. Other large numbers, encouraged by the War Department, are voluntarily undertaking military training. That is to say, in this country large and increasing numbers of our students, the potential leaders of tomorrow, are being trained for war in such fashion that they accept the inevitability of conflict.

"Accompanying this tremendous in- crease in military education we find no evidence of any adequate instruction in 'American principles,' little instruction as to the cause of war, the part played by the foreign policy of a nation in bringing on the occasion for conflict, little instruction in regard to our own foreign policies, our-own wars, and the united efforts of many kinds now being made to eliminate the causes of war and to ensure the peaceful settlement of international disputes. We are doing little or nothing, in other words, to offset the militarization of the mind of our youth!

"Therefore, the action of the authorities of Boston University in abolishing compulsory military training, and of the Massachusetts high school principals who recorded their unqualified opposition to military drill for school boys in an overwhelming vote (approximately 150 to 9), are distinctly encouraging.

"We hope these actions mark the beginning of a concerted effort to abolish compulsory military training from every public school and college in Massachusetts.

"In this effort we call for the co-operation of every citizen in the state.

"Were this merely a question of military drill, as most men recall it from their own high school days, it would be one thing. We have here, however, a frank proposal to extend military training, compulsory so far as possible, and under the management and control of the War Department, to public schools and colleges throughout the United States. This at a time when, perhaps in all world history, it is most important to avoid stimulating the war spirit!

"Educators generally agree that military drill in schools performs no really useful function. Compulsory military training in colleges is based partly on a