V *> 
Vol. LXXXVII JUNE, 1917 No. 6 
LEARN NOW TO SHOOT STRAIGHT 
THE TIME IS AHEAD WHEN ON YOUR MARKSMANSHIP MAY DEPEND 
THE SAFETY OF SOMETHING YOU WOULD WANT TO FIGHT TO KEEP 
T IME was when nations at war sent 
out armies to fight their battles. The 
man in the street—if they had streets 
in those days—was little concerned over 
whether they won or lost perhaps, except 
in so far as it meant more burdensome or 
lighter tithes he must pay for the tradi¬ 
tional protection they afforded him. 
But now war means that all the nation— 
men, women and children—do the “fight¬ 
ing” of it. Men judged, by experts at 
human values, to be most effective on the 
battle line are sent there by the common 
dictum of the whole population; others 
selected for their skill or adaptability—or 
on the very practical basis of being already 
engaged in pursuits essential to the main¬ 
taining of an army—are kept at their tasks 
or assigned new ones as needful to the 
purpose in hand as fighting. Developments 
along other lines have caused armies to 
grow from expeditions that could be 
launched spontaneously and required little 
but bare weapons and fo>od, into complex 
organizations requiring the utmost of skill 
and energy simply to prepare them and 
equip them for possible future fighting. 
As the expense in money and other values 
of thus building them up and maintaining 
them became more and more staggering, 
occasions and excuses for their actual use 
became fewer. At the same time respon¬ 
sibility for their maintenance became more 
widely felt, and broadened as the govern¬ 
ment, its administration and its inviolabil¬ 
ity, came to be recognized as the responsi¬ 
bility of the average man. 
S INCE individuals have begun to recog¬ 
nize this growth away from the idea 
that war is the concern only of that 
abstraction known as “the government,” 
and that it comes close home to every 
human unit of the nation, each has begun 
to feel more keenly the necessity for pre¬ 
paring himself to play a part in the dread 
drama when it confronts the nation he is 
part of. Only a few are destined—at the 
stamp of approval on civilian rifle clubs, 
such organizations are still feasible for the 
average community and for the average 
group of individuals enthused with will¬ 
ingness to train themselves. There is 
scarcely a community or a group of clear 
thinking men but can afford the means, 
the energy, and the slight sacrifice of other 
desires, that it takes to form themselves 
into a club and learn to shoot. 
This is hardly a time to dwell on the 
other benefits they derive from becoming 
marksmen: becoming cool, steadfast, clear 
of brain and prompt at decisions, means 
wholesome growth upward toward the 
superman. These things and the neighbor¬ 
liness, comraderie and respect for skill in 
other walks of life than one’s own, make 
the development of marksmanship a 
worthy pastime at any period. In the 
crisis that is today, these results become 
incidental to the paramount duty of get¬ 
ting ready. 
T HIS duty—this interpretation of it— 
is practical of early accomplishment 
through the numerous organizations 
of sportsmen and others who are already 
considering means for turning their en¬ 
ergy thus far spent in playing, to the more 
serious duty of preparing for eventual 
service. Some have announced their in¬ 
tention to give over the time spent at 
sport, to actual military drill. Others, 
notably the national organization that em¬ 
braces the golf clubs of the country, will 
use the land they control for the actual 
production of food crops. Most of them 
would find rifle practice an appropriate 
substitute for the diversions they will 
forego, and many of them that their 
grounds can be suit¬ 
ably converted into 
firing range s— 
whether temporary 
or permanent, 
events must show. 
There are few 
start at least—to give their service on the 
battle line or even prepare actively 
for such service. Many must stay at home 
and at their peacetime occupations: per¬ 
haps during the whole war; perhaps only 
until they too must beat their ploughshares 
into swords and fill the gaps out there. 
Should such a necessity arise it would be 
a pressing one, and any preparations they 
have made for adapting themselves rapidly 
to the demands of military service will 
mean precious delays avoided,—perhaps 
hearthstones kept inviolable. The most 
practical preparation the average man— 
farmer, ploughman, munitions operative, 
scientist, stoker or traffic expert—can make 
on his own initiative is to learn to shoot, 
and to shoot straight. 
If his training to this end must be over¬ 
looked by those engrossed in desperate 
preparations for more immediate needs, 
his duty is plain to afford himself such 
preparation as he can. With learning to 
shoot once conceded as the plain duty of 
every man whose presence is not demanded 
in the actual training camps, its accom¬ 
plishment is easy. For even without the 
aid that seemed promised by Congress’ 
Schooling the Last Line of Defense 
