THE ARTILLERY PROGRAM

In the announcement of the University's military program for next year one fact stands preeminent,--that the Field Artillery training, wherewith Harvard is to renew her active support of the maxim "in time of peace prepare for war," is to be no path of least resistance for seekers of easy courses, but an out-and-out business proposition. Coupled with an excellent course in the theory and practice of artillery the University offers a carefully selected field of study upon which men may draw for their necessary units allied to the military work. In permitting the training to replace the usual requirements for distribution throughout the four years of college, the Faculty has taken a radical step in furthering the interests of military work at Harvard. Men may gain experience and knowledge in the duties of an artillery officer that may some day, in spite of all the efforts of nations to the contrary, be of the utmost value in a crisis such as that of April 1917; and still find it unnecessary to sacrifice the great advantage of concentrating their studies in whatever line of civil endeavor interests them most.

Again the proposed Artillery School takes the lead in being the first course in the University to put forward physical exercise as an absolute requirement. The fact that Colonel Goetz intends to accept participation in any of the recognized forms of college athletics as a temporary substitute for compulsory physical drill, emphasizes the importance of sports in the eyes of a profession which requires the utmost in the powers of endurance, and mental stability.

There are undoubtedly a certain number of men who will take exception to the new program on the familiar grounds that it will "ruin Harvard as an academic institution by turning it into a veritable military college." The fallacy of this argument is very clear. In the first place as long as military work remains elective it cannot in any way effect the status of Harvard as an institution of learning. No one need take up the artillery training or other military courses during his undergraduate life in the future, any more than it is now compulsory for all to delve into the mysteries of chemistry, or engineering sciences. In a university such as this there is certainly room for a new branch of learning; and if we are to take up a subject, it is infinitely to our advantage to have it well taught. Secondly it is important to note that the advent of the Artillery School will in no way disrupt the progress of courses in the University through conflicts, inasmuch as the drills which have, in the past, come at most inopportune hours and necessitated constant changing from mufti to olive drab and back again, have now been relegated to the summer camps.

Colonel Goetz feels, and rightly so, that the course must be of the highest standard, and that those who enter it must be fit to do the work they undertake. With the advantage of every facility that the government can afford, with intensive and highly specific theoretical instruction during the college year leading to practical work in government camps in the summer, and under the command of an officer whose energy and ability may well exact the admiration and respect of all, Harvard intends to "carry on." Will the undergraduates provide the deciding factor?