World War, 1914-1918 -- Personal narratives, American
"Ted, I have decided to make a speech to-morrow in favor of universal
service," father said to me. "My good friends here, who believe in it as
much as I do, feel that the time is not ripe, that the country would not
understand it, and that it will merely provoke a storm of adverse
criticism. I have told them that although the country may criticize, and
although unquestionably a storm of attacks will be directed against me,
it must be done, because the country must begin thinking on the
subject."
He spoke next day before the assembled students. The ring of serious
khaki-clad men seated on the parade ground, father speaking very
earnestly in the center, speaking until after dark, when he had to
finish by a lantern, is a clear picture to me.
To many of them this exposition was the first they had ever heard on the
subject. Most of them up to this time had not been interested in it,
and had felt vaguely that compulsory military training and service was
synonymous with the German system and was not democratic. When France
and Switzerland were brought to their attention as democracies, as
efficient democracies, and as countries which had a thoroughly developed
system of universal military training, their eyes were opened and they
saw the matter in a new light. From this camp, directed in a large part
by my father's and General Wood's inspiration and ideas, grew a
nation-wide group of young men who felt the seriousness of the
situation, young men who realized we must take our part and who wished,
as one of my private soldiers put it to me, "At least to have a show for
their white alley" when the war broke.
During the ensuing winter and summer in many parts of the country
enthusiasts were working, and many more camps were founded and carried
to a successful completion. Recognition of a mild sort was obtained
from the National Government. Not recognition which permitted men to go
as men should go in a democracy, to learn to serve their country, as
pupils of the country, at the country's expense, but at least as men
doing something which was not unrecognized and frowned on by their
government.
Toward the winter of 1917 father talked ever increasingly to all of us
concerning his chance of being permitted to take a division or unit of
some sort to Europe. When war was declared he took this matter up
directly with the President. What happened is now history. He took his
disappointment as he took many other disappointments in his life. Often
after he had worked with all that was in him for something, when all
that could be done was done, he would say, "We have done all we can; the
result is now on the knees of the gods."
Meanwhile he was constantly interested in and constantly talked with all
of us about what we were doing. At last, two months after we severed
diplomatic relations, training camps for officers were called into
being with enormous waste and inefficiency, and we ambled slowly toward
the training of an army and its commanding personnel.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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