Adventure Magazine, March 1916 — page 221: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

THE January issue we published the photograph of an unknown man found dead on a Canadian trail by one of our number, C. E. McBride. Today comes a letter from a man who believes the body was that of a chum of his. The circum- stances of the two cases, so far as they are now known, coincide closely. The letter is being forwarded to Mr. McBride. One of our identification cards would have been of value here. ae chief argument of the pacifists, of those who oppose adequate prepara- tion for national defense, is that military training for our boys and youngmen will imbue the spirit of militarism in the com- ing generation. They ‘have no proof that it will. They just think it will and say it will. It is only a theory, an expression of their own belief, this argument upon which they base most of Facts? Have they any facts with which to prove their case? No, just theories. - Just opinions. Just say-so. - Well, let’s mallet them over the head with the facts in the case. The facts prove just the opposite. And we don’t have to go to Australia or Switzerland to get them. For many years many thousands of our own youth have been receiving compulsory mili- tary training in our public-school system. I mean the various State universities where for two years of his course every able male student is compelled to undergo military in- struction and military drill. At these uni- versities are stationed officers of the regular army, and the drill is real drill. "T HERE you have it exactly—our youth undergoing compulsory military train- ing. Exactly what the pacifists say “im- bues militarism” in our youth. But does it? No. Just the opposite. When the boy finds aETHE CAMP-FIRE A Meeting Place for Readers, - s\ Vriters and Adventurers. out that war isn’t merely glamour and glory, the martial flame which burns in the breast of every normal boy receives a dash of cold water. No, the facts explode this theory which the pacifists make their main argument. I first put this to the test at a dinner of the alumni of my own university, Ohio State. They ranged from men thirty years out of college to the last crop of graduates. Of the 24 written ballots I received before I had to run for a train, only 1 said his two years’ drill had increased his desire for war; 2 said it had for preparation only; the other 21 said it had decreased their militant ten- dencies. Out of 24, 23 flatly contradicted the pacifist theory! BEN I tried the men still in college, some drilling, some through with it. Ohio State’s daily, the Lantern, printed the following four questions In the form of a ballot. To the 78 signed statements thus secured are to be added 55 votes that the Lantern’s editor, Melvin Ryder, personally secured from two fraternities. A total of 133. Here is the result: : 1. Has military service increased your desire to take part in ware Yes 15 No II2 Undecided I 2. Has té decreased it? Yes 33 No oI Undecided 8 : 3. Do you regard military training as a valuable part. of the education of American young men? Yes 87 No 30 Undecided 4 4. Do you favor lenger military service in univer- sities? Yes _ No 57 62 Study the above results. In 112 out of 133 military training has mot increased the 219° *| (oe) (@) ‘S (E(9)