Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 232, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 October 1917 — APPLYING THE FUNDAMENTALS OF A SOLDIER. [ARTICLE]

APPLYING THE FUNDAMENTALS OF A SOLDIER.

The young soldier has now been Initiated Into the fundamentals which make up the fighting man. All war is a serious business —modern war a business of tremendous gravity. It is not play; with the nation at war, there is no time for play. “America must realize,” say the French generals, “that she cannot play at war.” Whether or not America plays at war or preparing for war depends upon whether the young American soldier. Individually and collectively, goes about his training in a spirit of play, or In deadly earnest. The young soldier would do well to see the moving pictures—if he has the opportunity—delineating the work of the British In building up their immense citizen armies. If he can do so, he will note at once that they did not “play at war.” —— The driving earnestness of their training in England—which reached fruition in France against the Hlndenberg dine-—differs entirely from the spirit In which such training has been undertaken by a nation at peace. And so In every duty which Is now assigned to the young soldier, however trivial it may at first seem to him, he must remind himself that his country Is actually at war—-that he must leam these things for early application In the battle zone. It Is true that details of his training may be altered or modified to suit the new conditions of warfare, hut the fundamentals will remain the same. And these fundamentals —obedience, Ylisclpttne,intelligence, Initiative, teamwork, esprit de corps—have always w’on battles and wars, and will continue to win battles and wars, whether against the bow and arrow, the flintlock or the 42-centlmeter gun.

If the young soldier will return to the first articles of the.series, treating of these fundamentals, he will see that the same principles have run "throughout. He will see that his discipline was as necessary—more necessary—when he was breaking through brush on a patrol than when on parade; that his sense of Identification with his unit prevailed on sentinel duty as fully as in the school of the squad. Otherwise, he does not have in him the makings of a soldier. He will observe that drills are repeated again and again not alone to perfect the men In marching and the manual of arms, but because the repetition is more and more Illuminating as to the reasons why, as well as the methods how, such things are to be done. In short, the man who has once been put through the , school of the company, then has twice the comprehension of the meaning of the school of the squad and the school of the soldier. The young soldier who hasproperly progressed in his duties will find that his mind has been “bucked up" as much as his body. Just as he has discarded slack and shiftless habits of walking or standing, he will discard shiftless habits of thinking. Physically and mentally, he w’ill come to the scratch. He will remember that he is a representative as well as a defender of his country, and he will strive to his utmost at ’all times to do her credit. “Young soldier, attention —Salute the (Dolors!”