ELIOT ADVOCATES ARMY BASED ON SWISS PLAN

Three essential qualifications must govern our new army says President Eliot in an article in the Boston Herald, First, it should be clearly a national force, like the recently enlisted national army, and neither a class force like the national guard nor a body of professional soldiers like the former regular army. In the second place, the large military force which the United States must maintain should be a democratic as well as a national army. That the regular army never was. Thirdly, there is only one principle on which a force of this character can be constructed in a democracy, namely, the principle of universal military service as an obligation on the part of every able-bodied man of suitable age.

"This service," continues President Eliot, "should be recognized as due to his country from every able-bodied man without pay. Soldiers in the present national army of the United States receive one dollar a day as pay, in addition to being completely found by the government. Considering what the modern soldier has to do and bear in trench warfare, in bayonet and hand grenade assaults and in storming towns and cities from the air, the idea of a man's doing it for pay is absolutely revolting. No worthy soldier does it or would do it for pay. He does and endures the horrible things required of him from a sense of duty to country, home, friends, and the coming generation.

Swiss Methods Valuable.

"The Swiss method of training all able-bodied young men for the work of a soldier and keeping them in reserve but always ready for immediate mobilization interferes very little with the education of the people or with their industries and earning power. The cost of this system is also lower than that of any other European system, or of the present American system. There are two provisions in the Swiss military constitution which should be copied especially. by the American Commonwealth; first, the prescription of universal physical training in all schools on a program laid down by the national government; secondly, the cultivation, as a national sport, of shooting at a mark, through voluntary organizations aided by the government. These provisions have proved highly beneficial to the entire population of Switzerland--as much for industrial uses as for military.

"Whoever has had opportunity to compare the thousands of young Americans going into the military camps of the United States with the same young men coming out three months later, will have been convinced that the elements of military training and discipline have had a high value for both the physique and the morale of those young men. These values should be obtained in permanence for the American population