"HYSTERIA SHOULD NOT DRIVE MEN TO ENLIST"

In an article to the Daily Princetonian; President Hibben, of Princeton, urges men who are prevented by one reason or another from entering the service of the Government, to view the national situation calmly and not allow the present military propaganda to urge them into work for which they are not adapted. President Hibben believes that there are many reasons to justify men holding steadily to their present tasks, whether by remaining in the university or by taking up other non-military work.

The article is also noteworthy in that it appears on the same day that the Emergency Council at Yale, through the Yale News, advises men to continue their physical and mental training for future service to the Government, rather than abandon the present training for immediate but less effectual service.

President Hibben says:

"I would ask an opportunity to say a personal word concerning a large number of students who are prevented by one reason or another from entering the military or naval branches of Government service. Age, physical disqualifications--often of a minor nature--the wishes of parents, the special obligations of some students to their parents the lack of an imperative call on such men for patriotic service--all these reasons fully justify many men in holding steadily to their present tasks, whether by remaining in the university or taking up other non-military work. I think we all must realize that a certain insidious form of silent pressure is brought to bear on such men to follow the crowd and enlist somewhere, somehow. A few men are anxious to enlist in order to avoid conscription. This attitude is in many ways reprehensible. It unjustly discredits conscription which, in reality ought to result in saving every man from the charge of being a slacker.

Ample Opportunities to Serve.

"Now this spirit of wanting to get in to Government service, may easily be come a kind of hysteria. It is hard to withstand the inclination to follow the line of least resistance. It will take real moral heroism for many men to hold steadily to their present duties. They owe it, however, to themselves, their parents, their friends and their country.

"This is likely to prove a long, hardwar. We will all probably have ample opportunities 'to do our bit.' I want to urge men who are convinced that they are prevented by perfectly valid reasons from rendering military service at this time to do their bit now by holding on."