Rensselaer Republican, Volume 13, Number 25, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 March 1881 — Military Drill. [ARTICLE]

Military Drill.

Wendell Phillips, who is on the off side of every subject, has now devoted hiluseif to the question of military drill in schools, and embodies his views in a contribution to the Boston Advertiser, wherein he pronounces it to be a harmful and unchristian innovation. “Exercise is one thing; training every child for military service and inoculating him with military taste and longings is entirely another,” says the dyspeptic Mr. Phillips. As Mr. Phillips’ utterances are apt to carry great weight with them, notwithstanding that ho usually enrolls himself on the contrary ‘ side of tiuestions, his declarations are worthy of some consideration.

It has always been the policy of this Government to maintain a standing army. At present, through the prejudices and hatred of the democratic party, the standing army is so insignificant in size that it barely avails to keep the strggling bands of Indians on the western plains in anything liko order. Tke littlo band is broken up into so many small detachments, and so widely scattered, that in case of anything like a dangerous riot In tlio larger cities or a general uprising of the turbulent classes where the militia is powerless, it would take days, if not weeks, to accumulate a sufficient force at a given point to have auy effect. In case of war with any foreign Power or another civil outbreak like the war of the rebellion, their numbers would be ludicrously insignificant. The main reliance *of the country, therefore, in trouble at home or In case of a foreign complication, is the National Guard or militia composed of the young men of the country and increased sufficiently to cope with the trouble. Every man, under certain conditions, is liable to be called upon to do his duty in the militia service. A well-trained militia is the safety of the country. As this is a duty which every man owes ids country, and as in a volunteer militia system, so radically differing from the system in foreign countries, where service is compulsory, drill and training are rarely attained, what better place is there in which to commence the system than the public school? Very few scholars may ever be called to put their training to practical use, but the elementary knowledge of military science will stand them in good stead should such atime come. In that emergency we should have skilled men instead of awkward squads and raw recruits. Mr. Phillips has little occasion to fear that because scholars in publio schools are drilled in the evolutions of infantry and the manuel of arms therefore they are all to become soldiers and lose tli ir relish for the practical duties of life. In cose of danger, the Americas people have always been ready to spring to arms, bilt this is due to their patriotic impulses and not to their love of military life. They are not a military people but a commercial people. Their predilection is for business, literature, and the professions, and were every scholar in the public schools to be compelled to drill, not one in a hundrea of them would choose the-career of the soldier, even if it were open to him.

There is another view of military training which is of the highest importance. The great defect of our public school system is the systdln of cramming knowledge i into pupils’ heads without paying sufficient attention to their physical development The mens sanci in corpore sano is a maxim rarely heeded in our schools. All sorts of studies, are crammed into them with such rapidity that it becomes difficult to find room for new ones without ejecting the old, so that no one thing is loarned thoroughly. Meanwhile, as the mind develops the body dwindles, and pale faces, disordered stomachs, ana stooping forms are common attributes of our scnolars. Military training is a splendid physical exercise. It gives the boy an upright carriage and firm step, strong arms and legs, and well-developed chest, besides enkindling in the boy a feeling of self-respect and personal honor. There is no branch of the public service that develops the gentleman more rapidly than the military, not alone in personal self-respect, but in respect for superiors, and in all the manly qualities. It would make the boy more healthy, more manly, and a better citizen every way. It is not too late for Mr. Phillips himself to test the truth of these remarks. Gentle exercise in evolutions and in carrying a musket would improvo his own health and unquestionably cure him of that dyspeptio tendency of stomach which makes him take the off side and regularly oppose every project which does not originate with himself. Mr. Phillips was a strenuous opposerof slavery, but where would the cause of anti-slavery .be now if it had been left to talk alone and the militia of the country had not rescued the negro from that servitude in which ho would still have remained if his rescue liad depended upon Mr. Phillips’ talking. —Chicago limes.