Essays; Great Britain -- Social conditions -- 20th century; World War, 1914-1918 -- Great Britain
If I thought such a scheme of boy-training would bolster up privilege,
foster a dangerous docility, put power into the hands of our Junkers,
and generally convert our country into a kind of Germany, I would shun
it like the devil. To keep boys of that age at it all the time would be
dangerous; to train them for civil and military life four months in the
year, with one short final period of military service—harmless. After
the war—perhaps not at once, but within a few years—there will almost
certainly be serious civil troubles, and any such scheme of boy training
would need to be inaugurated under the most solemn engagements not to
employ the youth of the nation in the quelling of strikes, civil riot,
or what-not. It would be for Labour to fix those guarantees before they
gave adherence to the plan. Having secured themselves, I believe they
might look forward to nothing but benefit, after the first rubs and
jolts.
Consider, too, that except under some such scheme there is practically
no chance of putting into practice another national dream—the
resettlement of the land. By attaching farm lands to those camps, town
boys could be instructed in the difficult work of modern agriculture.
Farm workers do not grow on thorn-trees, or even spring full-fledged
from the brains of ardent reformers. They are made, not born, and made
in youth. It is time to begin making them, if indeed it is not already
too late. No adequate land scheme will flourish without machinery on a
large scale for educating boys in modern farm work.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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