PLATTSBURG-A TRIUMPH OF EFFICIENCY AND DEMOCRACY

The first sessions for the current year of the Plattsburg Training Camp and others modeled upon it have closed, and their graduates have gone forth to their tasks. It is timely to review their work and especially to appraise their contributions to the country's needs at two important points.

Under all surface moods of the nation since last April there have been two very serious questions, more often pondered in silence than openly discussed :—can we, after years of neglected preparation, effectively mass our resources, and strike blows which will measure up to our real strength? and will our type of democracy, in whose sacred name we go forth, prove equal to world-wide demands? We cannot easily forget certain chapters in the stories of former wars, filled with records of criminal carelessness and graft because those in. places of responsibility owed their positions not to demonstrated fitness but to political pull, and who so sadly proved themselves blind leaders of the blind. We are at last painfully compelled to appreciate the power of German thoroughness and skill, trained and directed for many decades to conscienceless world-conquest; and whern on the other hand we realize how long our conduct of affairs has been shaped by the theory that invincible troops can be led to the battlefields after a few days of preparation, we may be pardoned for some anxiety and even scepticism as to how long a time will be required for our reversed policies to deliver the goods.

Nor has a critical study of our boasted democracy, during these last few months, left us without serious misgivings as to whether in its present workings we can commend it as a world-wide panacea for misgoverned nations. Every wasted day now means multiplied sacrifice of lives and incalculable resources and it is not strange that the question is being raised and seriously discussed, "Will democracy be safe for the world if we succeed in making the world safe for democracy?"

For one who has shared such forebodings, a few days spent at Plattsburg in observing the details of its discipline and getting into touch with the incarnation of its spirit proved both illuminating and heartening, especially as regards the triumph there of both efficiency and democracy; a triumph that within its limited sphere is widely prophetic. The routine of this training school for officers is now familiar, as regards its strenuousness and intensity. As an educational institution, on which basis it must be judged, it was a marvellous combination of successful striving for sound bodies under the control of sound minds. If one tried to discriminate between these two endeavors, he found it difficult to say which element, intellectual attainment or physical fitness, predominated. The drills and calisthenics were the more spectacular; but the sight of numerous small groups at all hours of the day, sometimes in halls, but more often clustering with their camp chairs around a blackboard between the wooden shacks or in the woods or on the lake shore, emphasized the mental discipline.

It is perhaps worth while, at this point, to compare the atmosphere of studiousness at Plattsburg with conditions in modern college life, out of which a very large proportion of the candidates for commissions had recently come. The readers of this magazine need no characterization of the attitude of the average collegian, at Dartmouth or elsewhere, to exhortations and ingenious incentives toward high scholarship, and no reminder of the relative interest generally felt toward enrollment in the first honor group and the possession of an athletic "D". If any doubt existed at this point, it would be dispelled by a knowledge of the earnest and sometimes despondent discussions among educational leaders of the problem of how to make students study. Such a problem simply did not exist at Plattsburg; and its obliteration is a tribute to the educational efficiency of Plattsburg methods and ideals. It will probably be said that it is unfair to compare the scholastic results at the ordinary college with those at Plattsburg; but is that a self-evident proposition ? In this connection it is well to recall the high premium in late years put upon brains as well as brawn in athletics; and when there has been time to tabulate results, it will probably be demonstrated that Plattsburg's efficiency in developing physical endurance was fully equaled by the intellectual attainments of its graduates.

In spite of the strenuous standards set for securing the coveted service in the army, it is noteworthy that only 1257 out of 5683, or 22 per cent, failed completely in attaining some measure of success. It may still be more instructive to compare this percentage with the results gained by taking the records of New England colleges as a whole, and averaging for a period class enrollments and final degrees secured.

The following statistics, kindly furnished from the official records at Plattsburg, are highly significant testimony as to the efficiency of this system of education.

N.E. N.Y. Total Div. Div. Total enrollment 2915 2768 5683 Dismissed before close, for official, personal and physical reasons 373 233 606 Received commissions, Major, Captain, Ist Lieut., 2nd Lieut. 1692 1644 3336 Sent to aviation schools and coast artillery 447 337 784 Sent to second camps 117 189 306 Failed to receive commissions 286 365 651

If Plattsburg has thus shown a triumph for efficiency in respect to the intellectual and physical fitness of our coming leaders, it is equally apparent that genuine democratic principles have been dominant in the training and selection of these new officers, upon whom so much depends in the prosecution of this war. Collegians, clerks, mechanics, bankers, architects, lawyers, many of them sons of millionaires, who have never known a binding schedule or imagined the feel of a spade handle, have mingled with national guardsmen who spent a winter with Pershing in Mexico; and these men have shared without favor or discrimination all the rigors of these months of strenuous work. The attitude of the commander, Colonel Wolf, has been faithfully reflected by all his subordinates; it is worth while repeating his remarks to a reporter who was trying to learn the names of some of the celebrities in the ranks:—"I don't know who any of these men are; I mean I don't know their civil or social status, and I don't want to know. I know they are trying to become officers in our army, and we are all trying to help them. I know their moral and physical caliber, and that's enough. They are all alike to me; there's no such thing as caste here." It was in accordance with this principle that it was permitted to take group pictures of the students, but forbidden to feature individuals.

Whether justly or not, there has been a widespread impression that officialdom in the army and navy, as represented by the graduates of West Point and Annapolis, has been too much tinged by the spirit of aristocracy, not to say autocracy ; that a class-consciousness has grown up in opposition to the spirit of true democracy. If such be the case, it is certain that the Plattsburg idea, as worked out at its fountain head and in other training camps, will prove a strong corrective to any such regrettable tendencies. That such training schools for officers will lead to universal military training seems an unwarrantable inference. We have good reason to hope that the present world-conflict will reach the goal of freedom from the strain of competitive armaments both on land and on sea, as an integral part of security for democracy, in which event there will no longer be need to teach the youth of America the detail of bayonet drill and trench warfare; but when one measures in any broad way the achievements of three months at Plattsburg, it is easy to regard them as a symbol and assurance that our choicest citizenship is ready and able to meet whatever tests of unselfish devotion and service the future may hold in store.