AN ENVIABLE SHOWING

The long campaign for enrolments in the R. O. T. C. closed last night. Fortunately the seriousness of the task was enlivened by heated arguments, impassioned sallies on the part of the opposition and semi-humorous retorts by the frenzied militarists who have suddenly appeared in our midst. The response of the members of the University to the imperative call for trained officers has been splendid. The final enrolment in the training unit is well over a thousand men which means that the same number have been willing to give double the amount of time required for the Regiment of last year to the work of training themselves to be officers of a reserve army. The very first drills have proved that the men this year do not regard the instruction as a pas-time or a compulsory measure to escape from by means of any excuse. The attitude of the men is one of keen desire to learn the elementary lessons as quickly and thoroughly as possible. If this spirit continues, as we may be assured it will, the Harvard Unit of the R. O. T. C. will have a reputation second to no other in the country.

Although there are over a thousand men engaged in infantry training, there are also nearly a hundred men signed up for the aviation school, a hundred in the naval reserve course, and many more still enrolled in some militia organization. Considering these facts, it may be conservatively estimated that fifteen hundred Harvard men are active in the great preparedness movement to give our country adequate military and naval organizations. These figures cannot lie. Harvard is in the van and can justly point with pride to her patriotic showing in this period of national danger.