THE NEW PREPAREDNESS.

Recent events in Paris have brought even more clearly to our attention an essential fact that the probable formation of a League of Nations tempts us constantly to forget: namely, that though war may be restricted, reduced in intensity, limited in size and scope, it can never be forever eradicated from this planet as long as man remains warm-blooded, and ideals and principles of right endure for him to defend.

The reaction against all things military produced in our minds by months of wartime service, coupled with the present diminished need of armed force, is hard for the moment to overcome. Nevertheless, the time now seems at hand for us to swing back again to a normally balanced viewpoint on the subject. In other colleges the tide is already turning toward a renewed preparedness for possible war. At Princeton men are already signing up, though slowly at first, for the Field Artillery Unit to be formed there this summer. Columbia has established a form of military department, in which Government instructors will give courses designed to fit men for eventual commissions in the Infantry, Artillery, and Signal Service, College authorities all over the country are accepting one or the other of these alternate plans.

At the University a Field Artillery School, comprising summer camps and military class-room courses throughout the year, as at Princeton, will be established by Colonel Goetz. The Harvard Aeronautical Society is circulating a petition to the Faculty, asking for the installation of an aviation course at Harvard. Other agencies are at work among us at the University, asking of us a return to the spirit in which we helped win the war, but as yet they have received scant attention from the undergraduate body.

Our attitude of apathy, fostered by a new appreciation of the freedom of civil life was for a time natural. But as summer approaches, with its fresh opportunities for military training, our normal responsibilities as citizens again appear in their true light. In meeting those responsibilities we may well turn our minds back to the national situation two years ago. April 7th, 1917, was our first full day at war with Germany, and though ultimately all was well, we entered that war unready.