Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 22, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 January 1913 — GIRL AS A CONSCRIPT [ARTICLE]

GIRL AS A CONSCRIPT

Barrack Training Is Advocated in Germany. Adoption of Female Conscription School Urged as Remedy for Decay of the Empire—Will Meet a Social Need in Empire. Berlin, Germany.—Conscription for women —or rather for girls—-is the latest of the great reforms which Germany promises the world. A heated debate has been raging on the subject Scores of distinguished Germans like Field-Marshal Vpn der Goltz, ex-Mlnister of Education Von Moeller, Prof. O. Wltzel, the woman novelist; Dr. Martha Gauthe, all far vor the project, while it Is opposed by a great many others, including the The problem Is well within the range of practical politics, and were it not for the unceasing financial need of Germany it would probably be carried out within a few years. What form exactly conscription for women will take Is still under dispute. A few zealous —mostly suffragettes—seriously propose that women be trained to fight in war. A much larger class —among them Von der Goltz —want women organized into companies and battalions, and drilled and disciplined on military principles, but confined, as far as duties go, to army tailoring, army cooking and sick nursing. The women’s army would be an adjunct to the men army, and all the males of the nation would be free to fight their country’s battles.

Neither of these schemes Is likely to win. The proposal most seriously backed Is that women shall be drilled and disciplined on military lines for the sake of physique and character formation, but that they shall learn nothing except purely domestic duties. Just as men are trained to serve In time of war, women would be trained to serve In time of peace, trained to make better wives, better mothers, better housekeepers, citizens and social workers. They would be taken at the age of eighteen or twenty, drafted into barracks, and for a year or perhaps t two taught by the state on scientific lines all the functions of womankind. Women’s conscription would thus meet a social need. The need is proven by the decline In the birth rate, which has fallen in thirty-five years from 42 per 1,000 to only 30. “That,” says Von der Golts, “is proof of the decay of Germany.” The female conscription school argue that In Germany the stat* always thinks Its function la to fight national evils; therefore, the state must not shrink from attacking the evil of “the dewomanizing of womanhood.” If the natural woman Is dying out, the state must replace her with the state made woman. “The woman conscript is the Ideal of modern Germany." So far the most detailed scheme of female conscription has been worked out by Dr. Kurt Lomann, an ex-official and privy councilor. Lomann Is a competent authority on organization. He stands strongly for. the barracks system. Every girl of eighteen. If not an actual Invalid, Is to enter the barracks for a year. Good character should be the only qualification, because the idea should be circulated that training by the state to an honor, not a punishment u-. The barracks would cost £22,000,000. This would bouse the 250,000 girls who would reach conscript are every year. Probably 250 barracks, each housing 1,000, would be the best distribution. Conscription barracks would be under the charge of matrons; no men would be employed. Also there would be no servants. All work, including gardening and the disposal of rubbish, as well as the secretarial and accountancy work, would be performed by the girts themselves.