COMPULSORY CITIZENSHIP TRAINING
By Dr. Harold S. Hulbert
At the present time there is much discussion about the compulsory military training, and while the plans are still in the formative stages it is proper to bring forward ideas which will modify and extend these plans. Compulsory military training is only a part of a needed and greater opportunity. It is here proposed to inaugurate plans to survey and to instruct all the male population as the young men reach the age of military training.
In the last two years, both the army and the navy have had experience in amplifying their present formations. The army has had some opportunity in its Plattsburg Camps for instruction and has enlarged its skeleton form by taking in the organized militia for service on the Mexican border. The navy, last summer, not only had a cruise for the organized militia, but it had a more extensive cruise for the training of civilian volunteers. There are two possible conditions which would greatly enlarge the army and navy. One is the declaration of war and the other is the adoption of the idea of compulsory military training. In case of the latter, many changes must be established.
At the present time when a young man goes up for recruiting examination, he is rejected if he has defective vision, bad tonsils, dental trouble, syphilis, tuberculosis, mental disease, hernia, flatfoot, etc. Those physically fit are accepted, but the physically unfit are rejected, and as far as the state is concerned they are lost from sight. This certainly is a waste of efficiency. It is here proposed that the examination be made more thorough than any one man can make it, and also that it be made more thorough than the examinations are at the present time in the army and navy for recruits, or the examination at Ellis Island and similar places for immigrants. The young men could be gathered together when they are about to enlist for their term of military training and examined in large groups. The examinations should be made in central places, such as in large cities, and should be in properly equipped institutions, such as hospitals. Examinations should be made by a corps of specialists; a skilled ophthalmologist to examine each recruit for his vision; an internist for tuberculosis, enlarged heart, and so on; a dentist for his teeth; a surgeon for hernia and orthopedic abnormalities; a psychiatrist for his mental condition, etc. If the recruit is physically fit he may then be accepted for military service at once. If not, he should be referred to some suitable clinic or hospital, or private physician, for treatment and it should be demanded that after the treatment he re-appear for examination and the report of the treatment be forwarded to the officer in charge of the recruiting station. It is possible that the treatment would extend over a number of years for such diseases as tuberculosis, syphilis, malaria, hook-worm, etc. If he is insane, feeble-minded or epileptic, he would be put in a suitable institution for custody and treatment. At once the national efficiency, both for civil and military duties, in peace or in war, will be greatly increased. At the same time that the man is being surveyed for his medical examination, it would be possible by study of the individual to determine the field where his ability and capacity to learn would make him of the most value, e. g., in certain branches of the army and navy, railroads and munitions and at the base. Too many of our young men simply drift into their occupations and they do not select them from choice, nor with discretion; but a little suggestion properly given to the individual would also arouse his ambition and help him to find the best possible work in civil life later.
Of equal importance with examining all our young men, is the point that they may be given instruction in the fundamental things which good citizens should know. It may be assumed that the average young American, of native or of foreign birth, has attained a sixth grade education. These young men can well be benefited by brief lectures given while the men are at the camps for military instruction, by civilian and government lecturers who have appropriate rank. For example, there could be talks on thrift, banking and insurance, or on the prevention and cure of tuberculosis, cancer, and other diseases, on the duties and obligations of a voter, on the American forms of government in city, state and nation, on elementary laws, on American ideas of Democracy and of personal opportunity. No time should be wasted in talking about theories which are not generally accepted. For men above the average mentality there would be advanced courses appropriately graded. The general knowledge which the men would gain while at camp would be brought home by them and thus the women would be indirectly benefited; but whether or not it is possible to survey and directly to instruct in citizenship the women, is a question which needs further study.
It is essential that at the camps for instruction there must be an attitude of seriousness, because the military and the educational work will be intensive. It is to be regretted that at the present time the newer recruits in the army and navy wear an air of bravado and braggodocio. Until this defect is remedied by the officers of the army and navy the American people will not support any idea for compulsory service because of the desire to shield and protect the youth of their families. The welfare work being done now by the American Young Men's Christian Association in the European armies and prison camps indicates how the noblest of American ideals may be exemplified.
The supporters of the present great worthy propagandas, such as the prevention of tuberculosis, life extension, and others, will undoubtedly be interested in any plan which coordinates their work and which carries out to a logical conclusion their plans of surveying and instructing all those who need their advice. There are many people who have not felt that they could sincerely support the idea of compulsory military service for military purposes only, but it is hoped that these suggestions will appeal to all of those who are interested in any of the great movements for a safer and greater nation, for better citizenship and for more efficient citizens.
It will be necessary to secure the assistance of public officials, both in the government and in the lines mentioned. There must be public demand and public support for compulsory citizenship training for efficiency and defence, by surveying all our young men as they reach the age for military service and by instructing them in the essentials of good citizenship.