[Vol. 19]

Transmitted to the Legislature April 7, 1919

which modern education authorities avoid for adolescent students. 5. The cost of administering the Military Training Law last year was $354,000, and yet it reached less than one-third of the boys intended to be benefited. This is too large a sum for such small results, as are being obtained. 6. The system of exemptions is bad, as was explained above. The extent of these exemptions renders the scope or the law narrow, covering not more than one-third of the field intended. 7. Those who oppose the law, present data to the effect that the monotony of military drill so bores the boys that they become surfeited with things military and thus the law defeats its own ends. This is borne out by the fact that the National Guard has discontinued its cadet corps for boys of this age, on the ground that training at this period does not stimulate their enthusiasm for military life, but, on the contrary, deadens their interest in all things military because of its monotony. 8. Military drill, its opponents claim does not give good physical training. When men of the National Guard were first mustered into service, 30 per cent had to be discharged as physically unfit. Yet these men had had military training. 9. The New Jersey Commission on Military Training said "it is specially significant that none of the great nations of Europe in which the military service of adults has been universal and compulsory, and which have shown phenomenal efficiency in the present war, has thought it necessary to resort to the military training of its boys. Even the federal military system of Switzerland, which exacts compulsory service from men over 20 years of age, and which is looked upon with much favor as being peculiarly adapted to a republican form of government, does not impose compulsory training upon school boys." Those favoring the law as it stands, presented no definite or adequate answers to these nine objections.

OTHER METHODS FOR OBTAINING THE SAME AIMS

Those who believe in the purposes and aims of this law, but are opposed to its method and content, suggest other paths to the same goala goal which involves the possession of a system of

Transmitted to the Legislature April 7, 1919

[Vol. 19]

space

of

education aimed to perfect the physical development of the boy and to produce the highest type of citizen. The suggested plans include all kinds of supervised games, and a thorough application of a scheme for the teaching of hygiene and for physical exercises. A definite program of this kind has been worked out by the Department of Education of the State of New York. It is not possible to give a full description of this program in the this report. It includes supervised games, careful health inspection of all pupils, instructions in hygiene and physiology, frequent intervals of fresh air and formal exercises during the school day, marching, mass formation, and careful training of teachers to know how to watch the health of the children. One suggestion for physical training is the establishment of summer camps. Each boy would remain in camp from two to four weeks. Camp life should include hikes, marches, breaking camp, setting-up exercises, athletic exercises, signalling, markmanship, etc. It is believed that the adoption of these suggestions would give a development which combines all the advantages contained in the Boy Scout movement, with the ideals of service to the State and of general physical development which form the basis of the Military Training Law. The Boy Scout organization as is well known lays emphasis on a spirit of service, good physical development and preparation for citizenship. This organization ascribes some of its best results to the camp life for its boys.

ADVANTAGES OF A CAMP

There are six advantages claimed for the camp, as a means of citizenship training as opposed to technical military training. 1. In camp life the authorities have an opportunity to reach the boy all day, every day, for a continuous period of at least two, probably four weeks. This means that there is really an adequate opportunity to impart information on the one hand, and to influence character on the other. 2. The development in camp life is complete since it touches all phases of the boy's life. It includes intellectual development, character building and every kind of physical training. 3. In camp, a boy learns to be a good mixer.

[Vol. 19]

Transmitted to the Legislature April 7, 1919

He develops a democratic spirit of comradeship with boys of all classes which is the best possible basis for citizenship training. 4. In a camp the group spirit can be fostered more effectively than in any other way. The prevailing spirit of good fellowship and ambition is wholesome for the lads. 5. In a camp, a boy may be taught the ideal of service to the State. He should, and could, be taught that he belongs to the State while at camp, and that those in authority there speak, not in their own persons, but as the mouthpiece of the community. 6. Camp life tends to develop habits of punctuality, promptness, neatness, alertness and obedience. This has been exemplified in boys' camps throughout the country in the past.

DISADVANTAGES OF A CAMP

The recognized disadavantages of a camp are two. 1. They cannot be established immediately. Those who favor the establishment of such camps consider this a reason for hastening action, rather than for postponing it. 2. The cost would be great. This drawback is admitted by all. It is claimed, however, that the results would be commensurate with the cost, which is not true of the $354,000 spent by the Military Training Commission in training 77,000 boys one and a half hours a week, in armories.

PUBLIC OPINION ON THE MILITARY TRAINING LAW

It is interesting to make some inquiry into the attitude of the public on this question. The Massachusetts Special Commission on Education has gone on record as opposed to military training for boys 16, 17 and 18 years of age. The New Jersey State Legislature appointed a commission to inquire into this matter. This commission reported adversely to military training for boys of this age. New Jersey, therefore, does not give military traming to its adolescent lads. Representatives of the Board of Education oppose the law as interfering with the school work. This interference, they say, is inevitable while physical training is in the hands of a separate department, since time schedules clash and red tape is multiplied. The National Education Association

Transmitted to the Legislature April 7, 1919

[Vol. 19]

of the United States published a statement containing a most convincing argument to the same purport. Military experts from various military organizations all over the country have gone on record against such training. General Pershing has said: "Give me a well developed athletic youth and I will make a soldier of him in short order." Baden-Powell says: "Drill a boy and spoil a soldier." The National Guard has abandoned its cadet corps because such training did not tend to increase enlistment in the National Guard. On the contrary, enlistment decreased because the boys became surfeited with military drill. The attitude of the general public is more difficult to estimate. The Committee has sent out a questionnaire to representative men and women in New York State, either as individuals or as groups. A more definite estimate of opinion in the State will be possible when the full returns are in from this. Interesting conclusions may be drawn, however, from the replies already received. Two things are to be noted: In the first place, the majority of the answers indicate decided preference for camps and general physical development, as contrasted with technical military training; in the second place, the committee is interested to discover that the consensus of opinion of those who have taken the training is against such training. Some boys' clubs who have sent in illuminating answers indicating the uselessness of this training for the development of true citizenship.

To SUMMARIZE

The Committee finds that the present Military Training Law is designed to reach all boys of the State 16, 17 and 18 years of age, and give them one and a half hours a week of drill; but in reality it reaches less than one-third of the number, chiefly owing to the system of exemptions. This law has the advantages of being ready and of giving some form of direct service to the State. The law also has the disadvantages of interfering needlessly with school work; it creates a false and temporary obedience; it is too brief to be able to accomplish results; the instruction is given by officers instead of by teachers; the system of exemptions is bad;

[Vol. 19]

Transmitted to the Legislature April 7, 1919

repetition of drill bores the boys. The Committee believes also that true citizenship training and true physical development can be better attained in other ways, i. e., by thorough physical training and by summer camps. Governing should be with the consent of the governed, and the military idea; the strictly technical military idea, is the opposite, government without the consent of the governed. The Committee, therefore, desires to report adversely on the matter of technical military training for boys 16, 17 and 18 years of age, and to make the following recommendations:

1. We recommend that the duties discharged by the Military Training Commission be included within the functions of the State Department of Education.

2. We have reached the conclusion, after numerous hearings and careful consideration of the subject, that military training of a technical character for boys 16, 17 and 18 years of age is inadvisable, and we, therefore, recommend that any features of military training which may continue to be used shall be employed solely for such values as they may have in physical, mental and moral development.

3. In view of the alarming disclosures of defective physique in connection with the recent draft, and in order that the State may possess citizens of sound body, better enabled to fulfil their duties, whether in peace or in war, we recommend that health. instruction and all round physical development, including supervised games, receive the greatest possible attention in the schools of the State, and that whatever appropriations be necessary for this purpose may be generously furnished.

4. We recommend the establishment of compulsory continuation schools for boys and girls who are at work up to the eighteenth year, and that in the curriculum of such schools a sufficient number of periods each week be set aside for physical culture.

5. We recommend that as soon as the necessary funds can be supplied, State camps be established for boys of the high-school age, as a means of inculcating in them habits of self-control, deference to rightful authority, and the democratic attitude towards. their fellows."