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decide on what to omit where time is so limited. Many students find the whole 
subject uninteresting and even distasteful, and these are the ones to whom much 
attention should be given, for they are generally the ones most in need of the 
physical exercise — for their «>\vn health. The athletic men are generally the 
soldiers and take the most interest in lectures and recitations as well as in 
the drills. 
"That the work so outlined is of value to the Government can not now he 
questioned. The many valuable olhoers now in the Army whose only military 
training was obtained in the land-grant colleges hear testimony to this. 
■• Earnest and faithful work on the part of the instructor, with the cooperation 
and support of the faculty, aided by the natural liking of many students for the 
military, can not fail to render the course successful and give the Government a 
fair interest on its investment — even with hut three hours weekly for each 
student The more this time can he increased the hotter for the Government 
and. in the opinion of the writer, for the physical and mental welfare of the 
student and the ultimate good of the college." 
Coming now to the second part of the question proposed, namely, the relation 
of the colleges to the War Department, there are two attitudes which the 
Department may take with reference to military instruction in the colleges. 
The one view is that the Government has bestowed large endowments on these 
colleges, and has a right to demand in return special military service which 
men educated in these colleges can render, and to prescribe the methods of the 
training which fits them for that service. To this view no objection can he 
taken if it is not in practice carried so far as to exact of the students an amount 
of effort which would impair their efficiency in their chosen field of study, and 
so drive them into other institutions and thus defeat its own intent. It is 
natural also aud honorable in the military authorities at Washington that they 
should seek to prescribe a standard of instruction and discipline which bears 
some comparison with that splendid training at West Point which gives dignity 
and prestige to an officer in the Army of the United States, or at least that 
their point of view and their estimate of military education should be largely 
under such influence. Then there arises a difference of judgment between the 
Department and the colleges as to how much may be insisted on in the way of 
military discipline, in which we find the Department virtually saying to us. 
with military courtesy, hut with military firmness: "We will not detail an 
army officer to conduct your military instruction unless we can dictate substan- 
tially the amount, the methods, and all the conditions of such instruction." 
The other view which the Government might take is not to insist on military 
training as an obligation on the part of the colleges and the detail of an officer 
as a concession carrying with it a certain supervisory right over the colleges. 
but to look at the whole situation as an opportunity of which both parties 
should strive to make the utmost for the good of the country at large. 
Here is a body consisting of many thousands of the choice young men of all 
the States < f the Union, as good material as the country or the world affords 
for making citizen soldiers — such- soldiers as the country is likely to need — 
and at an expense to the Government which is trifling compared with what 
any other method of getting such soldiers would cost. There is a certain 
amount of the military spirit — call it the patriot-military spirit — which it is 
desirable to cultivate in our youth — not too much, not the militarism of France 
and Germany — not too little, not the supineness and neglect, inviting assault, 
of the North before the war — but enough to inspire a sense of security and 
compel respect. Let the Government take advantage of the opportunity it has 
to get this moderate amount of military spirit diffused among the young men of 
the nation and. along with it. the moderate amount of military training 
which will make it practically effective in time of need. This it will best 
accomplish, not by setting up a military regime of its own withiu a literary 
institution, not by issuing orders from Washington which ignore or override 
the policy and the regulations of the colleges, but by cooperating with the 
institutions in a patriotic endeavor to make such adjustment of the legitimate 
claims of the civil and military departments, respectively, that all shall attain 
their maximum efficiency. Passing over some of the obvious considerations 
under this head, we may be permitted respectfully to suggest for the con- 
sideration of the Department : 
(1) That less emphasis be placed on the manual and technical branches of 
military training, and more upon the higher, the intellectual, topics in the mili- 
tary art. College students take " military tactics " as part of a liberal educa- 
tion, not to fit them to serve as enlisted men. Introducing a cerain amount of 
