diff options
Diffstat (limited to '32608-8.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | 32608-8.txt | 2296 |
1 files changed, 2296 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/32608-8.txt b/32608-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2968b72 --- /dev/null +++ b/32608-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2296 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Some War-time Lessons, by Frederick P. +(Frederick Paul) Keppel + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Some War-time Lessons + The Soldier's Standards of Conduct; The War As a Practical Test of American Scholarship; What Have We Learned? + + +Author: Frederick P. (Frederick Paul) Keppel + + + +Release Date: May 30, 2010 [eBook #32608] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SOME WAR-TIME LESSONS*** + + +E-text prepared by Barbara Kosker and the Project Gutenberg Online +Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from page images +generously made available by Internet Archive/American Libraries +(http://www.archive.org/details/americana) + + + +Note: Images of the original pages are available through + Internet Archive/American Libraries. See + http://www.archive.org/details/somewartimelesso00kepprich + + + + + +SOME WAR-TIME LESSONS + + * * * * * + +COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS +SALES AGENTS + +NEW YORK +LEMCKE & BUECHNER +30-32 EAST 20TH STREET + +LONDON +HUMPHREY MILFORD +AMEN CORNER, E.C. + +SHANGHAI +EDWARD EVANS & SONS, LTD. +30 NORTH SZECHUEN ROAD + + * * * * * + + +SOME WAR-TIME LESSONS + +The Soldier's Standards of Conduct +The War As a Practical Test of American Scholarship +What Have We Learned? + +by + +FREDERICK PAUL KEPPEL + +Third Assistant Secretary of War + + + + + + + +[Illustration] + +New York +Columbia University Press +1920 + +All rights reserved + +Copyright, 1920 +By Columbia University Press + +Printed from type, January, 1920 + +Printed at +The·Plimpton·Press +Norwood·Mass·U·S·A + + + + +TO + +NEWTON D. BAKER + + + + +CONTENTS + + PAGE + + I. THE AMERICAN SOLDIER AND HIS STANDARDS + OF CONDUCT 9 + + II. THE WAR AS A PRACTICAL TEST OF AMERICAN + SCHOLARSHIP 36 + + III. WHAT HAVE WE LEARNED? 66 + + + + +SOME WAR-TIME LESSONS + +THE AMERICAN SOLDIER AND HIS STANDARDS OF CONDUCT[1] + + +Perhaps the greatest laboratory experiment in human conduct in the +history of the world has been the development of our Army during the +past two years. Under the provisions of the Selective Service Law, this +Army has represented a cross section of American male humanity--even +more representative indeed than was intended; for in the efforts of the +Local Boards to send men who could best be spared, many found their way +into the ranks who were handicapped from the start by low mentality or +disease. What were the guiding forces which operated upon this body of +nearly four million men? + +In the first place, our country entered the war with a great moral +purpose, untinged by any trace of national or individual selfishness. +We really have to go back to the Crusades to find the like. And, as +then, each man supplemented this great basal impulse with whatever was +to him the strongest incentive--religion, patriotism, pride of family or +state or regiment, the desire to excel in what all were attempting. + +In the second place, thanks primarily to the vision and determination of +one man, the individual appeal to each soldier as to his personal share +in the great enterprise was upon the highest plane. We were fortunate in +having at the head of the War Department a man peculiarly sensitive to +community problems and with no small experience in their solution. +Through the centuries men had come to the belief that if their soldiers +were only valiant and disciplined in arms, it would not do to inquire +too curiously into their personal standards of conduct in other +matters--that a considerable wastage in military strength from +drunkenness and disease was inevitable. And as we all know, this wastage +has in the past sapped, not only the strength of the Army, but +afterwards the very life of the nation to which the soldier must sooner +or later return. + +The Secretary of War and his lieutenants, chief among whom in this field +should be placed the Chairman of the Committee on Training Camp +Activities, Raymond B. Fosdick, approached this problem neither in the +fatalistic spirit that what has always been must continue to be, nor in +a spirit of what, for want of a better term, I may call doctrinaire +idealism. They faced the fact that among the hundreds of thousands of +young men who were to be called to the colors, there would be many whose +ears would be deaf to any abstract appeal, and many others to whom such +an appeal might be made under normal conditions, but who in fatigue or +the let-down following the strain of conflict, could not be depended +upon to stand in the hour of temptation. As a result the whole field of +preventive measures was thoroughly studied and vigorous treatment was +applied. The Army regulations as to prophylaxis and the introduction of +intoxicants into camps were strictly and honestly enforced. The Army saw +to it that state and local laws as to liquor and prostitution were +properly carried out, and if these were lacking, they were promptly +enacted. The so-called Zone Law was adopted for the purpose of placing +the immediate vicinity of camps under Federal control. In some cases +where the community showed signs of regarding the Army policy in this +regard as a _beau geste_ and nothing more, it was made to realize that +while the War Department could not compel the community to mend its +ways, it could and would move the camp in twenty-four hours to a more +wholesome environment. I am proud to say that it was necessary in only a +very few instances to bring forward this aspect of the situation, but +when it was necessary the Department spoke in no uncertain tone. + +As a result of this general policy, in which the Navy shared, many a +wide-open town received a thorough house cleaning for the first time in +its career; in all between 120 and 140 red light districts were closed +and kept closed; and the underlying sordidness of many a smug +self-satisfied village was brought to light and remedied. + +The men who came to the camps tainted with venereal disease or broken by +drink or morphine--and the number of these was great enough to shock our +national complacency (and incidentally to explode the national +assumption that the country is primarily the abode of virtue as the +city is of vice)--these men were salvaged by the tens of thousands and +turned into useful self-respecting soldiers and citizens. + +The lesson of clean living was taught by the spoken word, by the moving +picture, by the printed page, by the doctor with a scientific +thoroughness and by the layman with a frankness and sometimes a +colloquialism which would for once have rendered Mrs. Grundy speechless. +As an instrument of virtue, the tract is, of course, of time-honored +usage, but the name of George Ade in the list of tract writers is a new +and significant one. + +More important than all this, however, in my judgment, was the +realization by the Army of the great truth that the soldier--or any one +else for that matter--goes astray in only the rarest instances from +innate depravity. What he seeks primarily is relaxation and amusement. +And so wholesome relaxation and amusement were placed at his disposal to +take the place of the unwholesome. The whole nation rose to help in this +work of substituting the clean for the unclean. It poured its money by +the hundreds of millions into the coffers of the great welfare +societies, the Red Cross, The Young Men's Christian Association, Knights +of Columbus, Jewish Welfare Board, and later in recognition of its work +abroad, the Salvation Army. All of these vied with one another in a +rivalry which was sometimes embarrassing in its intensity. The American +Library Association supplied books and other reading matter, and the War +Camp Community Service made sure that, to the towns and villages +surrounding it, a cantonment presented an opportunity for service rather +than for exploitation. Not the least important factor in the superb +showing which our troops made in France was the spirit with which the +men and women of these same towns inspired the men from the training +camps whom they took into their homes and their hearts. + +Within the fabric of the Army the chaplains were doing their share, as +were the athletic leaders and song leaders and dramatic coaches. They +were seconded by the officers of the line, most of whom, it should be +said, saw the military usefulness of the whole program from the first, +many of the experienced regulars having always done what they could with +the limited means at their command along the same lines. Other officers, +however, had to be shown--and were shown--the military importance of +the truth that the merry heart goes all the day, and the sad one tires +in a mile. + +The work of planning and coördination was in the hands of the civilian +Commission on Training Camp Activities, of which Mr. Fosdick has been +from the first the Chairman. The work of this Commission has been +characterized from the outset by a courage and resourcefulness for which +no praise can be too high. The theatre for example has not always been +looked upon by the American people as a moral agency, but the Commission +saw its place in the scheme of things and no fewer than thirty-seven +great playhouses have been erected at the camps and the audiences have +run literally into the millions. Boxing likewise was encouraged, even +though some of the contests which resulted were not of the most gentle. +Cantonment towns were persuaded to open the "Movies" on Sunday, the only +day on which most soldiers could leave the Camp--the outcries of the +_unco guid_ to the contrary notwithstanding. + +For more than a year the Commission and the welfare organizations were +the only organized forces in this general field, but since last summer +their work has been supplemented by the establishment within the Army +itself of a Morale Branch of the General Staff, in the formation of +which the Department was not too proud to take a leaf--perhaps one +should say a Blatt--from the Germans, who had already developed this +type of organization to a high degree, under the direct supervision of +General Ludendorff. + + * * * * * + +I have spoken of the work of prevention, of the more important work of +substitution, and I now come to the most important of all--the spirit of +confidence which extended from top to bottom of the huge organization +that the great mass of our men would go straight for the sake of going +straight. We all instinctively couple the two words, "officer" and +"gentleman." In the great Army which is now being disbanded, its work +having been so gloriously done, we find a new and enlarged conception, +that of the soldier and gentleman. It was, I am certain, the preliminary +assumption that an American soldier was also an American gentleman in +all the fundamentals of that much-abused term, which was the great +factor in keeping down the number of those who proved the contrary to so +negligibly small a total. + +A few figures from the official records will show what the result of +this all has been. In 1909, for instance, there were in the Army, in +round numbers, 5500 court-martial convictions of enlisted men, out of a +total of 75,000. For the fifteen months ending July 1, 1918, there were +11,500 convictions out of a total of 2,200,000 enlisted men, the +percentage in the twelve months of peace being 7.3 and in the fifteen +months of war, .53, about one-fourteenth as great. The significance of +these later figures cannot be appreciated without some knowledge of the +underlying circumstances. One case I remember was that of a man who got +drunk, spent his money and that of some fellow soldiers, and stayed +absent without leave to earn money enough to repay his fellow soldiers +and then returned to camp to take his medicine. What on the surface +appears to be the cowardly crime of desertion was, in several instances +of which I have personal knowledge, a misguided effort to get to the +front, through enlistment under another name in some branch of the +service which seemed to have an earlier prospect of getting over. In +France there were many cases of desertion, but nearly all were from the +rear to the front. The progressive success of the policy of keeping the +soldier from strong drink, by the way, stands out in the figures, which +show that early in the war one out of every twelve offenses charged +included drunkenness, but that this proportion dropped until the final +figures were less than one in each thirty offenses, this including +soldiers in France, where the soldier had to stand on his own feet +unprotected by prohibition laws. + +The welfare program was, from the nature of the case, most effective +among the men of the National Army, where it was possible to take the +soldiers in hand from the first. If we analyze the court-martial +records, we find that the proportion of court-martials was distinctly +lowest in this group. The records as of June 30, 1918, show that the +number of court-martials among the Regular Army was a little less than +one per cent, to be accurate 8/10 of one per cent; in the National Guard +the proportion was about 9/10 of one per cent; and in the National Army +it was less than 2/10 of one per cent, the exact figure being .143 per +cent, one-fiftieth of the percentage ten years ago. + +Another check on the efficiency of the program is found in the records +as to venereal disease in the Surgeon General's Office. It is hard to +get comparative figures because of constantly changing conditions, but +it has been shown beyond all doubt that the health conditions in the +Army have been far, far better than in the community at large. While the +latter are not so bad as the alarmists have implied, they are serious +enough in all conscience, when in no fewer than seventeen of the states, +sixty or more of every thousand men who appeared at the mobilization +camps were found to be infected. Taking a typical month before the +signing of the armistice, we find that the proportion of cases coming to +the camps from the civil community was fifteen times as great as the +proportion among our soldiers in France, even including the soldiers in +the port towns, where most of our difficulties there were found. The +comparison with the records of the cantonments in this country is even +more striking. + + * * * * * + +As to the purely religious appeal and its influence on the men it is +hard to speak with any degree of certainty. A visiting British general +in Washington, shortly after our entry into the war, was asked as to +conditions in England, and is reported to have replied, "Upon my soul, +if you ask me, I should say that with us the dear old Church has rather +missed the bus." In this country the organized religious forces have by +no means missed the bus, but if we are honest with ourselves we must +face the fact that since the last great national test, the Civil War, +other appeals to higher standards of conduct have both actually and +relatively been tremendously strengthened, and our religious leaders +must address themselves, in the light of experience during these past +two years, to a clearer understanding of these other forces and to a +closer coöperation with them. We cannot to-day close our eyes to the +truth that many of our finest men played their splendid parts quite +untouched by a religious motive or appeal--or at least doctrinal appeal; +one hesitates to call their attitude a non-religious one. It must always +be remembered, however, that their standards, no matter how unconscious +they may have been of the fact, were fundamentally based upon the +development of a Christian civilization. + +If thus far I may have seemed to measure soldier conduct by two +standards only, by his relation to drink and to women, it is because the +results of the policy of the Army in these two matters are measurable, +the records are outstanding. The Army and its experience however would +furnish but a poor guide to the Churches and the other civilian forces +for righteousness if its lessons were limited to the negative virtues, +important as they are, of sobriety and continence. + +The real contribution, what we have learned as to the positive virtues, +is harder to describe and impossible to measure, but the lessons are +worth looking for and may be learned from the letters and from the lips +of our men. Perhaps I can best indicate what the men themselves regard +as vital by telling the experience of a friend who started one of the +customary practical talks before an audience of our men behind the lines +in France. His homily didn't seem to be "getting across" and he was +inspired to ascertain just what to their minds were the most serious +offenses. He asked each man to write down what he regarded as the three +very worst faults against which a soldier should be on his guard. When +the answers were collected, one word appeared on practically every slip +of paper, _cowardice_; the second was not so nearly unanimous, but +appears on a strong majority of the papers, _selfishness_; and the third +was evidently _conceitedness_, though the defect was worded in +different ways, as _big head_, _crust_, and the like. + +In other words, the virtues which the soldier most admires and regarding +which he had evidently learned the most valuable lessons, are courage, +unselfishness or coöperativeness, and modesty. + +The record of our soldiers has proved beyond a doubt that once you get +men into groups with a common and a worth-while purpose, courage--both +the reckless courage that comes by instinct and that higher type, the +courage of the man who recognizes his danger--can no longer be assumed +to be a rare virtue. It is a very common virtue. Cowardice is infinitely +rarer. The citations and the casualty records, for instance, have +completely rehabilitated the Jew as a fighting man, and the faithful +need no longer go back to Josephus for their war legends. + +Not all the courage and fortitude was shown on the field of battle. We +must not forget that last fall we suffered from by far the most serious +epidemic in the history of America, and, in the dark days in our +training camps, opportunities were offered, and gladly accepted, for a +display of heroism and devotion of the highest type. + +In the realm of fortitude, if not of physical courage, the war certainly +tapped new sources of determination and provided a kind of stimulus +which would keep a man to whom no personal glory or conspicuousness +could possibly come, some poor devil sentenced to a swivel chair, +laboring in that same chair day and night for the purpose of making some +single improvement in nut or bolt, or perhaps filing card. Given the +impetus of a great common purpose, our possibilities for industry are +limitless. + +One thing that mankind should have learned long since is that, broadly +speaking, selfishness as a guiding motive is essentially negative--the +absence of something better--the man is a rare exception who does not +lose himself and his self-interest in the conception or the ambition of +the group, the squad or battalion or regiment, the division, the army or +the nation. An interesting side-light upon this is the fact that +two-thirds of the men who get into trouble in the Army, or at any rate +who get into sufficiently serious trouble to land them in Fort +Leavenworth, are markedly of the ego-centric type; in other words, are +men for whom the group cannot overcome the individual bias. + +That our soldiers as a whole possess the virtue of modesty, though it is +often overlaid by a veneer of innocent swagger, is beyond dispute, as +any one who has had to do with them can testify. And underlying +and inspiring their whole conduct have been the qualities of +whole-souledness and determination and an indomitable cheerfulness. + + * * * * * + +We must learn the lessons which the soldiers have to teach us in the +large just as we must grasp their accomplishments in the large. There is +a morning after for nations as well as for individuals, and we seem just +now to be in danger of losing our conception of the greatness of the +enterprise, and its essential soundness, through the intrusion of the +instances, relatively very few, where things did not go right; where +human nature did not reach the heights, or having reached them, failed +to remain upon them. + +It has, I think, been definitely proved that the mixing up of the +so-called welfare work with the special function of the clergymen or +other religious adviser, in order that the latter may be made more +palatable to the soldier, has an effect exactly the reverse of what was +intended. The policy of interpolating a prayer meeting, or a +heart-to-heart talk, between the third and fourth reels of the moving +picture play, and I grieve to say that such a policy was actually +followed for a while, is of course a fantastic example, but it shows +exactly how we ought not to do it. + +The soldiers are peculiarly sensitive to any feeling that what is done +for them is done for some other purpose than the ostensible one, +entirely apart from how worthy such other purpose may be. Let me quote +from a letter written by an officer of the Army who had been visiting a +number of camps: + +"The Camp Library to my mind fulfills one of the most vital needs of the +camp. It is a place where our men can get relaxation and mental +stimulus, and where they can feel at ease without the 'God-bless-you' +atmosphere of the other welfare organizations."... "It is the one place +in camp where you can go and have a chance to meditate or read in peace +and quiet without a piano jangling in your ears or the imminent +possibility of a prayer meeting." + +The chaplain or the lay religious worker to whom a man instinctively +turned at the moment when he needed spiritual help was the one whom he +had learned to respect for courage and devotion and dignity, the man who +had helped to bury his dead friend, to comfort and amuse his wounded +friend, and to advise his misguided friend in the guard-house; not the +one whose ill-timed ministrations he had learned to avoid. I understand +that the story of the chaplain who entirely forgot that he was to appear +at a review for the purpose of receiving a medal and delayed the entire +proceedings while he was sought for and found in his customary post in +the connecting trench, is absolutely authentic. + +The man who could forget his denomination in his devotion to the great +common mission was the man whom the soldier learned to love and to trust +and who could do the most in the day of battle. The most popular tales +among the chaplains are the tales of unorthodoxy: The Catholic priest +who baptized a group of his men before action in a shell hole with water +which was not only unblessed, but I fear unsanitary, and who simply +referred to Philip and the Eunuch when reproved; the Methodist and +Baptist, and I think the Episcopalian, who in the absence of their +Presbyterian colleague, solemnly and quite illegally received a +youngster into the Presbyterian fold before he went overseas, and +confessed the next morning to the Presbyterian Board; the Wesleyan +chaplain in the British Army who carried a crucifix to comfort the dying +Catholics on the battlefield when no priest of their faith was near, and +who administered the last rites to them as best he could. There are +hundreds of such stories. + +The appeal of any denomination as such, or of the Y, or the +corresponding societies of other faiths, as such, was always mistaken. +It was the united appeal of all the doers of good deeds which counted. +If we never knew before, we know now the truth of the fable of the +bundle of fagots. Personally, I believe the united drive for welfare +work last fall, during which Protestant, Catholic and Jew, and men of no +formal religion whatever, appealed from the same platform for the same +great purpose, was an event of the greatest importance in our nation, +and it will go ill with us if we forget the lesson that it has to teach. + +The appeal must be not only disinterested, but it must be simple and +direct. This, and the careful selection of its personnel, had much, if +not most, to do with the extraordinary success of the Salvation Army. +There are times in a soldier's life when the sewing on of a button at +some vital spot will do more to "get" him than anything else in the +world. + +Out of this spirit of general helpfulness, there were developed at +almost every point the most beautiful and sympathetic adjustments to +immediate conditions. For example, take the plan of showing moving +pictures upon the ceilings of hospital wards, so that the very ill may +enjoy them without the strain even of raising their heads. This small +piece of thoughtfulness to me represents the standard of thinking a +problem through which we will have to maintain if we are to hold what we +have gained, and what we have gained includes, or should include, a +realization that active and willing loving-kindness furnishes the +keenest of all pleasures. + + * * * * * + +Thus far I have spoken mainly of the work of preparation in the United +States. Overseas our soldiers and their officers found new conditions +and were forced to make new adjustments. We no longer could control the +laws and ordinances, and we found different standards of conduct--not +necessarily lower standards, but different standards. We could no longer +enforce prohibition for example, but we did maintain a high average of +temperance. We showed our allies, some of whom I may say were honestly +sceptical on the subject, that with our soldiers continence was the +rule, and not the exception. When I was in France last year, I asked +those who were in a position to know upon this point and was told that, +comparatively speaking, very, very few of our men lowered in France the +standards of conduct which they held when they came into the Army, that +many more greatly improved those standards, either because of the +lessons they had learned in our training camps, or because of the +wholesome companionship of the women workers with whom they were daily +brought in contact, or because, and this was probably the most potent +factor of all, they were so desperately keen to get into the fighting +line that they were taking no chances of being put out of commission +beforehand. Their morality was the morality of the team in training for +the big game, and it kept tens of thousands of boys straight. Indeed, +until November 11, disciplinary problems may be said to have been +practically non-existent among combat troops and almost negligible among +the others. After the armistice was signed, there was a let-down, this +being after all a very human body of young men, and the first remedy +tried by some of the old-time regulars did not help a bit. This was to +"give 'em plenty of drill and make 'em so tired they won't have energy +to get into mischief," but as one returning artillery officer pointed +out to me, when a battery a month before has fired 50,000 rounds of +high-explosive at the Boche, and worked its guns over craters and +through thickets, a drill with dummy ammunition on a parade ground is +almost a justification for mutiny. Wiser counsel soon prevailed and the +welfare work, which had slumped with the rest, was again brought up to +concert pitch. It was for the first time in France, properly coördinated +under Army control. The misfits and the workers who had worn themselves +out were returned to this country and their places taken by fresh blood. +I remember in this connection a paragraph tucked in the middle of the +uncompromising officialdom of the daily departmental cable: "Send over +plenty of welfare workers and remember the best men you can send are the +women." + +Let me take this chance to say a word about the criticisms we have been +hearing of this welfare work abroad. In the first place, the success of +the work in this country among the men in training set up an expectation +which it was humanly impossible to meet under the conditions overseas; +in other words, the men who went over assumed standards as to the +minimum amount of attention which it was their right to expect, the like +of which had never been dreamed in the history of mankind. As a matter +of fact, and taken as a whole, the treatment which they received was +admirable and the comparatively few who now doubt the truth of this +statement will come to realize it as time goes on. They will see that +the misfits, the over-wrought, stood out in their minds like men out of +alignment at parade, that they simply did not notice the thousands of +men and women whose work for them was all that their own mothers could +have asked. + +The following official cablegram records the state of educational, +recreation and welfare work at the end of April, 1919. + +"Educational activities: Roughly there are 209,000 students embraced in +this scheme. Ten thousand are at A.E.F. University at Beaune, some 7,000 +are attending French universities. 3,000 attending British. There are +roughly 130,000 men at Post Schools, which correspond to our elementary +schools in United States. 55,000 are attending the Divisional +Educational Schools, which correspond to our High schools. In addition +there are approximately 58,000 men in specialized vocational schools +where they have full shop facilities of A.E.F. + +"Athletic activities: Athletic activities increasing daily in scope and +popularity. Figures for February show 6,500,000 individual participants +in games. In addition to mass athletics, unit championships are being +played in football, basketball, soccer, boxing, tennis, swimming, tug of +war, golf, track and field. + +"Entertainment activities: Reports of entertainment officers show +monthly attendance for A.E.F. of between eight and ten million. Moving +pictures, professional talent from United States and particularly +soldier shows being utilized in all parts of army and have done much to +take care of leisure hours of troops. Horse shows have been held in +nearly every division of A.E.F. and have proved very popular. Amount of +all this work now being carried on is little short of stupendous." + +The following paragraphs from a personal letter are particularly +significant as coming from an officer of the regular army, who when he +was in command of one of the cantonments in the United States was +genuinely alarmed lest the War Department had not lost its sense of +proportion, and was creating parlor ornaments instead of fighting men: + +"I served in the Army of Occupation in the Philippines and in China +after the Boxer campaign, and I want to tell you that the discipline and +_ésprit de corps_ of these troops in Germany is incomparably better than +anything I saw there. + +"I think nothing has so contributed to this result as the welfare work +and the educational work undertaken. We have every reason to be proud of +the fact that we had people in command of the army who had the vision to +see what result this work would bring. + +"I took command of the --th Division in the Army of Occupation in +December, and up until the present time I never worked with a happier or +more contented lot of men. Of course they all want to go home, and we +wouldn't have much use for them if they didn't, but an intensified +military course of training in the morning, schools and athletics in the +afternoon, and study and entertainment in the evening have made their +days so full that they have been perfectly contented to stay until their +boat comes in June. + +"This has been the experience of all the divisions up here in Germany, +and their enthusiasm, I fear, when they get home, may be taken for +pro-Germanism." + + * * * * * + +The War Department has learned so much in this great laboratory +experiment in human conduct that the impious wish sometimes arises in +one's mind that we might promptly try it all over again for the chance +of profiting by our mistakes. Thank God we can't do that, but in our +daily contact with these same men restored to their communities we can +to a certain degree carry on the work, and in so doing we can learn much +from the successes and failures of the Army. + +In planning for the immediate future, there are some things which we +mustn't forget. In the first place, we mustn't expect these young men +(or any humans for that matter) to be capable of remaining at concert +pitch indefinitely. + +For a while, in dealing with the soldier who has returned from overseas, +real ingenuity will be required to make much impression upon his mind. +Not only will ordinary life seem tame but, frankly, he is likely to have +been overhandled and overwelfared. If, however, we have erred in this +regard, it has been on the right side. + +May I venture still another suggestion, and that is to be careful and +considerate of the soldier who, despite his earnest desire, failed to +get across, and for the matter of that, of the young man who didn't get +into the Army at all. The morale of these two groups will need our +particular care. + +In closing, however, we should not end upon a note of warning, but +rather upon one of exultation; for the war has taught us, if it has +taught nothing else, that, given a great cause and a cross-section of +our heterogeneous American population, the resulting revelation of the +power of human endurance, human courage and human accomplishment comes +pretty near to proving objectively the divinity of man. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 1: An address delivered at the one hundredth anniversary of +the General Theological Seminary, New York, April 30, 1919.] + + + + +THE WAR AS A PRACTICAL TEST OF AMERICAN SCHOLARSHIP[2] + + +It is a difficult task to attempt to define the American scholar of +to-day. If any of you doubt it, let him try it as I have tried. +Scholarship, like many another broad term, has no sharply marked edges. +It is hard to define anything that lacks definiteness; and, after all, +the task is relatively profitless, because we all of us recognize what +is at the center of the concept. I think we all recognize that the +scholar is an expert in some particular field or fields; but he is more +than the expert as such, in that he knows enough of other matters to see +his particular specialty in its relation to things in general. He must, +to this degree at least, be a philosopher. This very general conception +of scholarship is fairly constant, but the fields which the conception +includes are broadening day by day and almost hour by hour. We cannot +to-day limit scholarship to the polite branches which were all that it +embodied when this Society was founded or even when this Chapter was +established. The scholar of the old-fashioned type must now accept as +his fellow the man who has helped to flatten the trajectory of the +16-inch shell, or to control the birth rate of the cootie. Later on I +shall suggest one other element which, in the light of the test which +American scholarship has undergone in the past two years, it seems to me +should now be included in our idea of the typical American scholar. + +We Americans are proud of being called a nation of inventors; and most +of us have made, or almost made, private discoveries of an inventional +nature which, for some reason, have never come to fruition. The +scientific boards in Washington during the war received more than sixty +thousand suggestions in some mechanical field; and I am told by those +who ought to know that of all these not more than five of those coming +from untrained minds were of any practical value. Even from the trained +minds there came, I am told, no fundamental discovery in science as a +direct result of the war conditions. Suggestions of improvements in +detail and valuable suggestions there were in plenty, new applications +of known principles, but application of a fundamentally new idea, no. +That is only to say what we already know, that discovery is not made to +order. In each case the idea had already been born in the mind of some +intellectual pioneer and worked out by him, and some man who had the +idea in the front of his mind was at hand to apply it to the new +condition. And that means, I think, that if we met the test, we met it +with our scholars. + +When the test came, certain fields of scholarship naturally afforded a +better chance for immediate service than others. The chemist, for +example, had a better chance a thousand-fold than the archæologist. It +is extraordinary, however, how many of the gifts which burned bright on +the national altar came from men with some out-of-the-way specialty. +Take archæology itself, if you will. The best trench helmet developed +during the war was designed by the expert in armor from our own academic +fellowship. I am told that a very important element in the length of +time which it took to control the submarine menace was the fact that +when war broke out the science of oceanography was almost wholly in the +hands of the Germans. When the world's supply of cocoanut husks was +taken up for gas masks and we still needed charcoal, we had to turn for +additional sources to the tropical botanist, who might have been +expected to remain reasonably undisturbed. It remained for a scholar in +perhaps the purest branch of pure science, astronomy, to recognize the +well known fact that it is the shape of the tail of any and every moving +object, motor car or boat or what you will, and not the shape of the +head, which is the factor of chief importance in design, and to apply +this recognition to artillery problems. The re-designing of our +artillery shells under the direction of this astronomer added miles to +their range. Another astronomer applied his experience in studying the +movement of comets to solving certain problems of long-range artillery +fire where the projectile in its flight rises into the circumambient +ether. + +In proving the case for the American scholar, as I think we can prove +it, we should not be beguiled into the pleasant task of recording the +deeds of scholars and gentlemen when the deeds were those of the gallant +gentleman rather than of the scholar _per se_. We have one here in our +own academic family whose lieutenant's bars I should be as proud to wear +as the stars of any of our generals. Nor need we, I think, cite the +instances where the rigorous training of the scholar clearly laid the +foundation for great accomplishment in some general field of +administration. The man whom we can thank perhaps more than any other +for the brilliant conduct of our war finance was seventeen years ago +editor-in-chief of the _Columbia Law Review_. We may well turn with +pride, but we don't need him to prove our point, to the scholar of this +university, formerly president of this Chapter, who, from his own +talents and experience and his alert sense of scholarship in others, has +earned the place which he now holds as educational director of the +largest university in the world, the A.E.F. University at Beaune. + + * * * * * + +Our case rests, as I say, upon the direct applications of scholarship, +and not only upon their quality, but on their range. A single division +of the National Research Council, in its report for 1918, showed work of +national significance by the scholars in physics, mathematics, and +allied fields toward the solution of no fewer than sixty-eight +different problems, every one of which needed for its solution men with +training and knowledge and vision. At the outset, who among us had the +slightest conception of the complexity of the adaptations to warfare of +what was known to modern scholarship? We knew that the war was mounting +into the air, but who had any realization of the adjustments which this +involved? Fifteen fundamental problems based on pure physics promptly +arose with reference to instruments for airplane operation. For example, +at night and in the clouds, the aviator must have before his eyes a dial +which will indicate the slightest deviation from his course. Seven +problems had to do with airplane photography. As the art of camouflage +advanced, for instance, color filters had to be devised for its +detection from above. Seven additional problems had to do with factors +of construction and maintenance, as fuel efficiency. Nine others +affected ballooning; and the balloon, as the war developed, came to be +of greater and greater importance. Eleven studies were in signalling: +one, for example, a device for secret daylight signalling, with a range +of five miles or more. And please remember that all these were the task +of one branch of one organization within the field of pure science. By +common consent, the dullest branch of physics was held to be acoustics, +but since 1914 the whole question of sound-ranging has been in the hands +of experts in acoustics. A device developed by American physicists gave +our men nineteen seconds in which to take cover from cannon fired four +miles away. The most brilliant work in this field was that of a former +student of the Columbia School of Mines. + +If I were to pick out one field in which the scholarly attitude has been +most brilliantly rewarded, it is that of medicine. If our army surgeons +and sanitarians had been confined to the practical family doctors, who +cannot be bothered with all this new-fangled stuff, our men would have +died like flies from disease, as they did in the Spanish-American War. +It was the laboratory man, the theorist, the highbrow if you like, who +made our health record a matter of national pride and congratulation. It +was the knowledge of a scholar, coupled with his instinctive +understanding of the human heart--neither could have accomplished the +purpose alone--which sent hundreds of shell-shocks, as they came to be +called (people used to call the condition by an uglier, if not a +shorter, term) back into the lines with self-respect and nerve renewed. + +To turn to another field, it was a real scholar, even if he were also a +dean, who, in spite of the best efforts of his practical associates to +deter him, brought order out of chaos in the most important of our war +boards through the collection and skillful presentation of statistical +data. + +In many cases it was the scholar whom we must thank for the pointing out +of the obvious. The early drafts rejected thousands of excellent +potential soldiers because our existing height regulations were drawn +for men of the northern European races; and the minimum height limit was +well within the normal variation of the men of southern European +ancestry, which has been so large an element in our recent immigration. +Similarly, men of science have pointed out that the length of the +marching step depends not alone on the length of the legs, but even more +on the width of the hips, a simple fact which is of real military +significance. The scholars in the Forest Products laboratories knew how +to make boxes that would not break and spill their contents on the +wharves at Hoboken or St. Nazaire, and, equally important, they knew +how to educate the quartermasters to use them. + +The fact that in many fields we reached the limits of available +man-power meant a wonderful stimulation to the study of certain problems +affecting human welfare. Take for example the physiological aspects of +industrial fatigue. In this field an excellent theoretical start had +been made before the war, but the appeal was limited to those interested +in the individual worker. With the war, however, and the shortage of +labor, came a new and, I fear, a more potent appeal--the interest in the +product and its prompt production. The worker who collapsed could not be +replaced. Long hours or unsanitary surroundings meant spoiled material +and broken-down machinery and resultant delay. And when there was a +scholar at hand to show why this was so, you may be sure he had his day +in court. + +The work of the scholar has not wholly been in getting things done. +Perhaps an equally important side was in keeping impossible or +unprofitable things from being attempted. When time was of the very +essence of the whole program, the man who could say "No" and prove the +validity of his objection, performed a positive work of great value. +One of our associates at Columbia had a leading share in devising tests +for candidates for the flying school, which, by rejecting the unfit at +the outset, saved many lives from the time of their adoption and many, +many thousands of dollars; for the training of a flyer who cannot be +used when the time comes is a very costly piece of national extravagance +in both money and men. + +Our scholars did not confine their activities to the battle of +Washington. Not only as engineers and doctors, but as geologists and +geographers, as meteorologists and sanitarians, they went with the +troops to the front, and their counsel as to actual military operations +was welcomed and followed. One of them, a bachelor and doctor of this +University, died in the service in France. The scholar, like the +soldier, stood ready to step forward to fill the gap in the ranks as he +saw it, regardless of whether something more dignified might be found +for him to do. Our own Barnard, Professor of Education, took what he was +pleased to call his vacation in applying his scholarship to organizing +an educational program for the wounded men in our hospitals, as a +therapeutic measure. Being a scholar and not merely an expert, he saw +the broad human aspect of his specialty; that the first thing to do with +the man who is blinded, or otherwise maimed, is to make him realize that +it is worth while to get well; that he can have a life which is worth +living; that if his old job is no longer possible, there are others for +which he can be trained. One of America's most distinguished +philosophical chemists settled down to the humble but very essential +problem of making mixed flours rise and bake with a crust--and solved +it. The war services of a past President of this Chapter, now, alas, no +longer with us, and those of our present President have been as useful +as they have been inconspicuous. + +The need for the scholar was not only qualitative, but quantitative. But +for the general distribution of chemical knowledge in France and +England, and the presence of men capable of promptly applying that +knowledge to combat the gas attacks launched by the Germans, the war +would have been lost before we could possibly have rendered the +slightest assistance; and on our side of the Atlantic when the armistice +was signed, there were two thousand trained chemists engaged in the +problems of gas warfare alone. Our country, in a word, needed not only +to have some men with the requisite training, but men enough to meet +simultaneously many needs in many fields, and these men were drawn in +large measure from our academic faculties. While one must not press the +identity between the scholar and the professor too hard--for a number of +reasons--the fact remains that the teaching profession provided the main +reservoir from which the country drew. One of my friends in the Chemical +Warfare Service has summarized the relation between the academic scholar +and that branch of the army activity. Both chiefs of the Chemical +Service Station were college professors, one of them a member of this +Chapter of Phi Beta Kappa. Of the fourteen heads of the Research +Division, eight were college professors. It was the college professors +who made fundamental improvements in gas masks on the one hand, and who +devised new gases to test the German masks on the other. + + * * * * * + +As a nation, we did not realize at the outset, as Germany did, the +importance of the man who knows, and of knowing who he is and where he +is; and here, perhaps, lay our most fundamental unpreparedness. What +this cost us may be judged from a single instance. A code message from +Germany directing the dismantling of the German ships lying in our ports +was intercepted. If we had known that there was a professor of English +in the University of Chicago who, in the pursuit of his medieval +researches, had developed the power of reading ciphers almost at sight, +that cable from Germany could have been promptly deciphered, we could +have forestalled the sabotage, and something like six months in the use +of these ships for the transport of our troops and munitions could have +been gained. + +The job of getting the man who knew into the right niche was not an easy +one. The scholars could not all be spared; for, after all, education and +research are essential industries, and, fortunately for our institutions +of learning, for our reviews and scientific agencies, and fortunately +for the country as a whole, all of our scholars did not rush immediately +into government work. The less thrilling task of keeping the lamps +burning in our lighthouses was never more important than during the +stormy days which we have just gone through. Furthermore, the scholar is +a modest person, though he has his human vanities, as we all know who +have seen our colleagues in uniform; but usually some one had to know +about him and invite him to his place, a very sharp contrast to the +business men and lawyers who came down to Washington by the trainload to +impress us with their capacity to do any job which involved a commission +of properly high degree. + +In general, I should say that the individuals in the universities met +the test better than the institutions themselves. The latter did not, it +seems to me, as institutions, grasp the situation. Very few studied the +question of the assignment of their specialists as a problem in +conservation as well as in publicity; and as far as the use of their +facilities in the training of soldiers and sailors is concerned, the War +Department and the Navy Department had literally to teach them how to +meet the war conditions. Such help as came from organized bodies of +scholars came rather from the learned societies than from the academic +groups. + +Then there was a further difficulty, particularly among the younger men, +though not wholly among them. The expert's job, and hence inclusively +the scholar's job, is relatively safe so far as the immediate risk of +death is concerned, though not the risk of shortening life through +overwork. One Columbia man, well over the draft age, told me frankly +that he would gladly give up an important public office he held for the +privilege of fighting with his hands, but he could not be tempted by an +opportunity to fight with his head. Through this same impulse many and +many a man attempted to conceal his special knowledge in order that he +might fight in the line. The Army Committee on Classification of +Personnel, which was in itself a beautiful example of scholarship in +practical application, was able, however, in most instances to pluck out +the expert from the line and set him, whether he was willing or not, at +the task for which he was particularly adapted and particularly needed. + + * * * * * + +What, from the point of view of the non-scholar, can be said as to the +general usefulness of the men and women (for the women did their share) +who came forward or were brought forward to take this trial by fire on +behalf of American scholarship? First of all, the scholar must be a real +scholar; he must have the natural ability and the long and rigorous +training necessary for accurate observation, and observation of the kind +which, if I may be forgiven a most unscholarly metaphor, includes the +ability to distinguish the blue chips from the white; his deductions +must be relentless, and his inductions must be luminous. That is asking +a good deal, and it would be enough if his dealings were to be with +other scholars or with scholars in the making. The papers of a leisurely +recluse can be dug out by others from the even more deliberately +published proceedings of learned societies, even as the author has dug +out those of his predecessors, and ultimately the practical application +of his discoveries will be made. In national emergency, however, this +process will not suffice. The scholar must descend from his tower; he +must, if he is to serve effectively, learn to think to order and to do +it rapidly, to deal with all sorts and conditions of men; he must bear +with their amazing ignorances and profit by their equally amazing +knowledge of things of which he is ignorant. He must know the art of +team play. The war has brought out a new type of scholarship, or at any +rate has developed it to such an extent that its implications are new, +and that is the unselfish coöperation of experts to meet a given and +usually an immediately pressing need. The development of the Liberty +motor furnishes a good example of the results of such coöperative +effort. It seems to me that the most important single lesson which our +scholars can learn from the experience of the two past years is the +importance of this team play in scholarship, and not only team play with +other scholars, but team play with those who have the equally valuable +and perhaps even rarer gift of getting things done, who perhaps deserve +the title of scholars in the control of time and space. The scholars who +made good were those who had had not only the training and temperament +for research, but the training and temperament for working with other +people. The scholarship of the man who from self-centeredness or from a +mistaken absorption in his specialty lacked the art of dealing with his +fellow men was likely to prove a sterile scholarship, and in most cases +a useless scholarship in the day of national need. + +One of the most dramatic things about the war was the speeding up of +supply and transport under the strong hand of the man who had brought +the Panama Canal to completion. General Goethals was no administrative +theorist. He was willing to try anything and anybody once, but he was +prompt in rejecting what did not promptly accomplish his purpose. An +engineer of General Goethals' distinction can be regarded as a scholar +in his particular field; but the point I want to make is that during his +service as Quartermaster-General, when officers of the regular army and +over-night majors, as they were called, presidents of manufacturing +plants, bankers and lawyers, were passing in what seemed to be an almost +unbroken procession through his office, he retained just two men in his +inner circle from first to last, and both were academic persons. Herbert +Hoover surrounded himself with scholars, entomologists, statisticians +and public health men. He did not always use them for their specialties, +but he evidently liked the type. The great welfare societies did the +same, and the list of academic men whom they used makes an impressive +total. + +These instances are typical of a very general success among scholars in +coöperating effectively and helpfully with eminently practical men. This +may be because the scholar has been trained in a form of competition +which the so-called practical man lacked. He is used to having his work +wiped out by some discovery of a rival, and having to begin afresh. He +is used to a checking of his work by his fellows which, if of a +different nature, is no less relentless than the war-time check in the +toll of human lives. The man of high reputation in business often failed +because he had learned to measure success and his own competence only in +terms of dividends, and in the new test he found his measuring-rod worse +than useless. + +Our scholars of the coöperative type not only pursued their researches, +but they got their military associates into the habit of thinking in +terms of scholarship. One of their most useful accomplishments, +initiated by a Doctor of Philosophy of this University, was the +organization of Thursday evening conferences for the discussion of the +new scientific and technical problems facing the Army and Navy. This +furnished a nucleus for the exchange of ideas between the different +research groups, both here and abroad; for scholarship was mobilized and +utilized in France, England, and Italy, as well as here, and our Allies +laid their scientific discoveries before us with the greatest loyalty. +At these conferences their reports were discussed and digested and +applied, instead of being pigeon-holed at the War College, as I fear +might have been otherwise the case. It was as a result of one of these +conferences that a member of this Chapter, acting on a hint which came +from a French report, was largely instrumental in developing a method of +submarine detection through sound-waves of a particular type, which, +though it came too late to be of service in the war, may serve in peace +to relieve the greatest terror of the mariner, the danger of collision +in darkness or fog with sister vessel or iceberg or derelict. A potent +factor in breaking down the barriers and delays of departmental +jealousies and bureaucratic tradition all along the line was the +free-masonry of the company of scholars in Washington. + +It must not be forgotten that our scholar in war worked under two +powerful stimuli, neither of them operative under ordinary conditions. +Although he was out of his accustomed setting, working with strange +people and at strange tasks, nevertheless the realization of the +national need and the joy of feeling an identification with the forces +facing the adversary tended to produce that fine frenzy which enables a +man to do better than he knows how. Then, for the first time in history, +the scholar had unlimited funds. It is an interesting subject for +speculation as to how he can ever go back to the limits of academic +appropriations. It is to be feared that in many cases he will not, but +will turn to industrial enterprises instead. If, however, there was an +unlimited supply of funds, there was a corresponding deficiency in time, +and the scholar who could not speed up to meet the new conditions had +little chance to make his mark. The men who failed in war because they +could not grasp the significance of the time factor may, however, still +be eminently useful in peace. On the other hand, the training which some +of our scholars received in meeting another war-time condition is likely +to have an important influence upon the relation of scholarship to +industry. Many a scholar found for the first time that to meet a given +condition a beautiful laboratory solution may be no solution at all, +that the answer, to be effective, must meet the peculiar condition of +quantity production. + +The merit of the Liberty engine, of which I have already spoken, lies +not alone in the excellence of its design, admirable as that is, but in +the fact that it is so constructed that we could produce fifteen hundred +of them in a single week. Or, to take another example, in 1914 we made +all together eighteen hundred field glasses in this country. Last +winter, thanks to the coöperation of the scholars in the chemistry of +glass and in the field of optics on the one hand, and of the experts in +quantity production on the other, we were making thirty-five hundred +pairs of field glasses each week. There are many other adaptations of +scholarship to industry that are awaiting similar practical solutions. +One of our most distinguished scholars in physics has said publicly that +the day is past when one can defend any distinction between pure and +applied science. One might as well try to distinguish between pure and +applied virtue. + +I said at the outset that I would venture later on an enlargement of the +conception of the American scholar, in the light of what the past two +years have made so clear. The scholar himself as well as those of us who +are not scholars, needs, I think, to get a somewhat broader conception +of the term; to develop it from its present popular connotation so that +the attributes which come to one's mind will no longer be the static and +selfish, but rather the dynamic and social. Emerson, in his essay on the +American Scholar, seems to have some prophetic glimpse of this broader +conception. He says, for example, that "action is with the scholar +subordinate, but it is essential; that without it, he is not yet man; +that the true scholar grudges every opportunity of action passed by, as +a loss of power"; and elsewhere, "that a great soul will be strong to +live, as well as strong to think." The old idea of the scholar was the +recluse, the individual; the new, it seems to me, should be one of a +company of builders, each bringing to the common task, for the general +welfare, his training and craft, his knowledge and ideas, to combine +them with the gifts which his fellows are bringing. + + * * * * * + +Thus far almost all my modern instances have been taken from the realms +of natural science. I need not remind you, however, that although +science has tremendously broadened the range of scholarship, +nevertheless the scholarship which is a practical asset is not and never +will be limited to natural science. The record of the past two years has +many an example of the essentially important work of scholars in other +fields. The records are not so clear-cut, the results are perhaps more +often negative; but the work was done and it counted. In the field of +public information our American scholars in the political sciences did +excellent work under the direction of a Doctor of Philosophy of this +University, and their record for fairness and sanity makes an enviable +contrast with the pathetic propaganda of the German intellectuals. +Similarly, the work of our Columbia scholars of the Legislative Drafting +Bureau proved of great value in formulating and, perhaps more important, +in discouraging legislation. + +In general, however, I think we ought to face the fact squarely that our +scholarship in man's relations with his fellow men, in his understanding +of himself and his fellows as contrasted with his mastery of physical +things, cannot claim so clear-cut a decision. Even in science we should +not set too great store by ourselves. Professor, late Colonel, Millikan +writes: "The contribution of the United States in research and +development lines was less, far less in proportion to our resources and +population, than that of England or France, and this in spite of the far +heavier strain under which they were laboring." And yet, with us, +science was better mobilized, better equipped, and can make a better +showing than the humanities. Part of this can be readily explained by +the statement that preparation for war is after all engineering on a +huge scale. But we must not prove too much if we are to profit by the +lesson. For example, the war found us utterly unprepared in +foreign-language knowledge; and we are still unprepared. How many real +Americans, I don't mean recent immigrants, but men and women with our +traditions and our point of view, can speak Russian? How many can speak +the languages of the Near East or Far East? + +Excellent work has been done by individual philosophers, economists, and +sociologists in labor questions, in welfare work, on the war-time trade +and industrial boards; but as a whole our scholars in these fields did +not dominate the situation as did the men of science in theirs. Of +course, their task was infinitely harder. For one thing, though we may +be ready to confess our ignorance of calculus or colloidal chemistry or +thermo-dynamics, we all believe in the validity of our off-hand +judgments in politics and morals, and indeed in all the springs of human +conduct. Yet when all allowances are made, the fact remains that there +is a scholarship in these matters and we have American scholars in them, +but that with distinguished exceptions these professionals permitted the +man in the street or the man in the editor's chair, or in Congress, or +in the Cabinet, to proclaim his amateur pronouncement and to get away +with it. Indeed, I will go further and say that not a few who know or +ought to know that it is not necessary to be intolerant in order to be +patriotic seemed to set their knowledge upon this point at one side. In +war time it is a matter for the scholar's judgment and conscience to +decide whether it is wise to attempt a leadership which at the moment +will be misunderstood and probably ineffective, possibly even dangerous, +because of the reaction, to the cause he has at heart; or to bide his +time in silence, awaiting a more suitable time to be heard. But I submit +that he is sinning against the light when he joins in the hue and cry of +the untrained and the half-trained. The war has given the natural +scientist his chance, and he has profited thereby. In the years to come +the test will, I think, shift to the scholars in the human sciences. The +crises of the future will have to do with problems of human conduct +rather than of the control of physical things; and, as these crises +come, our scholars in human relations should be more ready for the call +to mobilize. + +In practically every case the instances that I have given of the +successful tests of our scholarship involve the work of a member of Phi +Beta Kappa or of the sister society, Sigma Xi; and I therefore may be +permitted to say a word more directly to our younger members of the +society of those seeking the philosophy of life, to our Columbia +scholars in the making. In my time, which, by the way, was just +twenty-one years ago, a man who wanted to live the life of a scholar was +practically limited to teaching as the means of making his living. The +result in the way of incompetent and halfhearted teaching we all know. +Let me say to you of to-day that unless you want to teach, there is no +reason under heaven why you should do so. There are plenty of other +means of earning an honest living. The scholar is not nowadays limited +to the academic halls. We have scholars of the first quality not only in +special research institutions, but in government bureaus and in +industrial organizations. The men in government service who could be +spared from their other responsibilities for war work made an excellent +war record. On the other hand, we want to remember that the real +teacher, whether in the faculty or out of it, has a tremendous +advantage in the art of presentation. During the war the effectiveness +of our scholar teachers was well tested by an entirely new set of +pupils, pupils sometimes with eagles or stars on their shoulders, or in +the civil field, captains of industry, clad in the glittering armor of a +big business reputation. + +Nowadays one cannot be a scholar in general. One has to have some +specialty. As to what that specialty shall be in terms of usefulness to +the community, I think I have given you examples enough to show that the +range is almost unlimited. I had planned to sum up this by a brief +record of the discovery and application to war purposes of helium; but I +find that one of my own students in Columbia College, now a member of +the Geological Survey, has beaten me out; and you can find the whole +story in the May issue of the _National Geographic Magazine_. I cannot +resist, however, a summary of the steps. First, the astronomer, just +about the time this chapter was established, finds a new line in the +solar spectrum. Thirty years later, the geologist comes upon an unusual +stone and turns to a great chemist for its analysis, with the consequent +recognition of helium as a mundane element. About the same time comes +its identification as one of the newly recognized ingredients of the +air, and the study of its properties. Then a Kansas chemist discovers +its presence in some natural gas about which he was consulted because it +would not burn properly. Then comes the war with its incendiary bullet +and the need of a non-inflammable content for balloons and dirigibles. +Then the coöperation of physicist, engineer, and geologist--Canadian and +American--makes helium available for this purpose. Before these +researches helium cost $1700 a cubic foot and was obtainable only in +Germany. The present price is 10 cents a cubic foot, and it is falling. +The importance of all this for peace is very great. In these days of +airplane hops we are forgetting that a Zeppelin made the trip from +Bulgaria to what should have been German East Africa with medicines and +ammunition. The Germans having disappeared in the meantime, the Zeppelin +turned around and came back, making a continuous voyage of several +thousand miles. + +But do not forget that not all scholars made good in the great test. Let +me sum up what I have already said. In the first place, to be useful the +scholarship must be sound. The near-scholar, the man who took the +short-cut in preparation, proved to be a positive danger. The mere +expert in some narrow field, the man who did not realize the +implications of what he knew, was relatively useless. A man to succeed +had to be intense without being narrow. Even among the sound scholars, +the men who really knew, the isolated and insulated individual could +very rarely make much headway. It was the open-minded scholar, the maker +and keeper of friends, who got his chance, the scholar whose learning +was to him a living thing, not necessarily to be displayed in the market +place, and never for the sake of the display, but on the other hand +never wrapped in a napkin and buried in the earth. + +Will the scholar, now that his practical worth has been tested and +proved, be content to slip back into relative obscurity; or will he, on +the other hand, be tempted too far into the limelight and thereby lose +those very qualities which gave him his value? Will he be satisfied with +positions of leadership rather than leadership itself, which may be a +very different thing? It is largely for you young men and young women of +the rising generation of scholars to say. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 2: An address delivered before the New York Delta of Phi Beta +Kappa at Columbia University upon the fiftieth anniversary of the +establishment of the Chapter, June 3, 1919.] + + + + +WHAT HAVE WE LEARNED?[3] + + +I am going to try to select three or four general fields in which we +Americans have had a chance to learn lessons of permanent value as the +result of our war experience. Then I shall try to apply these to what +seems to me the most typical specimen of the best in American life, a +great American University; and finally, I shall try to apply them to the +situation which faces you young men and women of the graduating class as +you step out to take your places in the world. And in so doing I'm going +to look deliberately on the bright side. There are troubles enough in +the world to worry and depress us, and we have to face them, but let us +face them with a confidence that is justified in the light of the +examples of man's endurance, of his courage, of his possibilities of +accomplishment, which it has been our privilege to witness within the +lifetime of this academic generation. + +What have we learned? In the first place, we have learned that as a +nation we possess the power to see a big job through, and we possess it +because we have the qualities of youth--enthusiasm, learning capacity, +energy, elasticity, initiative--the pioneering spirit. We have the +shortcomings of youth also--impatience, superficiality, improvidence, +cock-sureness--but when the test came we managed to strengthen our +virtues and to a large extent to overcome our failings. + +The various stocks that have emigrated to our shores have come as +successive waves of pioneers, of men to whom new and unfamiliar +conditions serve as an incentive rather than a discouragement, and it is +the persistence of this pioneering spirit, essentially a youthful +spirit, which has had much to do with our success. + +What single group made the finest impression in the great war? I think +we will agree that it was the American doughboy. As one saw him in +France he was absolutely youth incarnate, and he is a cross section of +our complex population. If anyone still doubts that all of these stocks, +the Teutonic included, have been willing to do their share even at the +risk or cost of life, let him read any of the lists of battle +casualties or the list of honors for heroic conduct and he will have the +best kind of proof. Let us remember in this connection that nearly +one-fourth of our drafted men couldn't speak and write English +adequately when they entered the Army. In spite of a number of unsightly +pieces of slag, which are either floating on the surface or have sunk to +the bottom, the great national melting pot has evidently done its work +well. + +Our heterogeneous immigration, our enormous national resources, which +have tempted us to live on capital rather than on interest, our +prosperity, have made us neither fat nor flabby. We now know that as a +people we don't really care about money or the money game if we are +shown some other game better worth playing; that selfishness and luxury +drop away as if by magic when they interfere with the keener +satisfactions of giving one's self. Even for us stay-at-homes, the +Liberty Loan people, Mr. Hoover, the Red Cross and other welfare workers +were on hand to show us how to play the better game. I don't need to +remind you of the details, nor that in spite of human grumbling and talk +of sacrifice, in the bottom of our hearts we all enjoyed the process. + +In the second place, we have learned that to see the job through we need +all of the nation, men and women, not merely the profession of arms and +the mysterious powers of finance--we need all of everyone. We need them +not as individuals but as a team, and we have learned that we can +develop team play. + +Our easiest jobs were the raising of our men and our money; our hardest, +the moulding of the whole into an organic unity. Just as our young men +by the millions took their place in the line when the bugle blew, older +men by the tens of thousands left their private affairs to get along as +best they might, and regardless of political affiliations or personal +convenience, found place for themselves in the administrative army. And +they were ably seconded by the women. Hundreds of men in key positions +have gladly borne witness to the share which their secretaries and their +other women associates played in bringing about the needed results. + +The first days of the war were days of whirling confusion, colored by +glowing forecasts. Then followed months of experimentation, by trial and +error, of hope deferred by long delays, of well meant but none the less +embarrassing internal rivalries, of sudden spurts. Later came the days +of last autumn, when the whole great machine was throbbing rhythmically +and steadily, with only a minor "knock" here and there--a sure +indication to the watchful enemy, who had had more than a taste of what +the machine could produce, that the game was up; and finally the +eleventh of November and the order to reverse the engines. + +It ought to be evident from our experience that for any great enterprise +we need all the young men and the young women, and all the older ones +who are still young in heart. We need to know who they are, where they +are, what they can do, and we need to touch them at every point; for not +only do we need them all, but we need all of each one of them. We should +never again face a great national crisis with nearly one-third of our +men of military age unfit for hard physical work. We need campaigns of +physical education and social hygiene, and we need to apply the lessons +in human salvage which the army has learned during the war. But we need +more than each individual and all of him. We must see to it that the +individual star, of whatever magnitude, is subordinated to the team play +of the group. And team play means more than energy and "pep." It means +a marshalling of the old fashioned and homely virtues of courtesy, +deference and consideration. + + * * * * * + +In the third place, we have learned that to accomplish a great result we +need the leadership of those who know and who know vividly and +constructively. Our experience has been that in certain fields, finance, +science, manufacturing in quantity production, medicine, we had a supply +of those who knew. In other fields, in intimate knowledge of foreign +conditions and foreign languages for example, we had not. + +At first we didn't know where our leaders were, and in many cases we +began by following false prophets. The value of one man with training, +brains and persistence can be shown by a single example: There was a man +who answered these qualifications connected with the Council of National +Defence, not in a very exalted position. He was the first in all this +country to see that the army program and the shipping program did not +fit. It took him a long time to convince the two groups of overworked, +harried officials that neither could play the game alone; that the +closest coöperation was necessary. He had no access to the records, but +he finally managed to build up a convincing statement out of the shreds +of information which he gathered here and there, and at last he +succeeded in getting everyone concerned into the attitude of wanting to +face the facts. Everyone would have had to face them sooner or later, +but without the devotion and leadership of this one man, it would have +been only as the result of a very serious dislocation of function. + +One field in which the right leadership has been most brilliantly +rewarded is that of medicine. Just consider what we have done in this +field: The success of the anti-typhoid injections; the reduction in +dysenteric diseases due to chlorination of drinking water; the +encouraging fight against cerebro-spinal meningitis and pneumonia; the +identification of trench fever, and the practical freedom from typhus. +As to wounds, a tetanus antitoxin which has made lock-jaw almost a +negligible disease; a serum against gas gangrene; the Carrel-Dakin +method of chemical sterilization of wounds; the splinting of fractures +on the battle field and overhead extension apparatus in the hospital. To +quote Simon Flexner, "The entire psychology of the wounded men was +altered, the wards made cheerful and happy, pain abolished, infection +controlled, and recovery hastened by means of the new or improved +surgical and mechanical measures put into common use." + + * * * * * + +The fourth lesson of which I wish to speak is that a high aim and ideal +is what counts most of all, what lifts the individual up from +selfishness and sloth. To bind the country together and to make the +transformation which still seems miraculous, we had a noble national +aim, a complete dedication to the task before us, an utter absence of +any selfish or self-seeking factor in the whole enterprise. The conduct +of our soldiers, their submission to a discipline to which most of them +were completely unused was, I think, in a very large measure due to the +recognition of this aim. We recognized it as a nation and we recognized +it in one another. The standard of contact set by our soldiers during +the days of conflict is unique in military history. Whole divisions went +for months without a single court-martial. The reason was, more than +anything else, the national assumption that they would give a good +account of themselves and the fact that they felt themselves in +training for the championship, and no man wanted to miss his chance on +the battlefield for the sake of a selfish indulgence. + +Some of the experiments in conduct tried in the American Expeditionary +Forces were extraordinary in their success. The leave areas, an immense +enterprise, were run on the basis of absolute freedom to the enlisted +man. He lived in the best hotels in Europe and amused himself in casinos +where crowned heads had been in the habit of gambling away the money of +their subjects. He had no roll calls, no taps, no officers in sight, no +military machinery whatever. He arose when he pleased, either before or +after his breakfast; he ate and drank when he pleased, and he stayed out +as late as he pleased. The physical and moral effect of this absolute +change from the military régime was a very interesting and instructive +phenomenon, but that is not the point I wish to make. Out of the +thousands and thousands of men who were sent to these leave areas, there +was hardly a single case in which a man abused the trust which was put +upon him or failed to turn up on time to go back to the grind of +military duty. This could never have been done with soldiers of another +type, with soldiers lacking an ideal. + +Someone has recently written that fine minds have been finely touched by +the war, and base minds basely. He might have added that wise minds have +been wisely touched, and foolish minds foolishly. In general, I think it +may fairly be said that when the appeal was to the finest in a man's +character, the result was correspondingly fine. + + * * * * * + +These, it seems to me, are the four main things we have learned, or at +any rate we have had a chance to learn. First, that we are a real +nation, potentially strong with the strength of youth. Second, that to +fulfill our mission, every man and woman and all of every such +individual is an object of national concern; that we must be mobilized +and we must continue our lessons in team play. We have still plenty to +learn in this field. Third, that we must have and must recognize the +leadership of those who know, which, after all, is the great test of a +democracy. Fourth, that to bring out the best that is in us, as +individuals and as a nation, we must have an aim, high, clear-cut and +clearly understood. If, now, I attempt to apply these four lessons which +we have had a chance to learn, to educational conditions, and +particularly to university conditions, it will be for three reasons: The +first is the general wisdom of confining one's remarks to things he +knows something about. The second, that there is no single institution +more characteristic of the best in our American life than a great +American University. And there is this third reason, that if we had not +had a supply of young men with the stamp of the American college upon +them, we could never have met the call for officers, for nearly a +quarter of a million of them. I am told that the Germans were prepared +to admit and to discount our wealth in money, in materials and in man +power, but they looked forward confidently to a complete failure on our +part in training officers to lead our men in battle. Of course, all the +citizen officers who made good records were not college men, but the +college trained citizens were the men who set the pace and made the +standard. + +It was Pitt who said, "The atrocious crime of being a young man I shall +attempt neither to palliate nor to deny." Nor should a university seek +to palliate or to deny the charge of being a place of resort for youth. +A university, it seems to me, should be a place where the primary object +is not the repression of youthful exuberance nor the correction of +youthful failings (though both may be necessary on occasion), but +rather, a place for the encouragement of the great and vital qualities +of youth--enthusiasm, energy, power of acquisition, sensitiveness of +impression. It is the place where the older members of the community +have the best chance to stay young. The university should be essentially +a company of enthusiasts, of pioneers. There is a frontier for every +worker to clear--no matter how narrow or how wide his horizon may be. In +a university there is no proper place, among faculty or students, for +the disillusioned, the cynical, the defeatist. + + * * * * * + +Now we come to the application of the second lesson, the lesson of +mobilization, of team play. In the first place, no university is alive +where mobilization is limited to the Recorder's office. In a live +institution, regent, professor, student, janitor, each is a part of the +game and must feel that he is. He must feel that in its administration +the institution has learned the great lesson of direct and human +personal contact. Science, among all its triumphs, cannot include any +device for conveying a message from mind to mind or from heart to heart +half so good as the human voice and the human eye. Within the faculty, +this element of human coöperation should be reflected by the vitality of +the organism rather than by the complexity of the organization, which +may not be vital at all. Each member must feel that the general repute +is safeguarded by honest and intelligent standards, honestly and +intelligently administered. The university, like the country at large, +must make itself responsible for all of each and every student, his +bodily condition, for example, just as directly as his mental. + +It will be recalled that one of my justifications for applying war +experiences to university conditions was the share which the college and +university men had in building up our supply of officers. If we study +why the college men made good officers, and make allowance for the fact +that it is the kind of man who goes to college who is likely to make a +good officer anyway, and all the other allowances we can think of, we +can't dodge the conclusion that there is something outside of the +college curriculum which has been an important factor in bringing about +the results. On the other hand, important as the other factors are, the +curriculum has had its share, and it is in my judgment a leading and +not always an adequately recognized share. The comfortable theory that +once he has settled down to something important the college +ne'er-do-well will suddenly blossom forth into a competent leader of men +didn't work out in practice. It may have happened here and there, but it +didn't happen as a general rule. In the fighting line, it was very +generally the man with a sound academic record, not necessarily the Phi +Beta Kappa lad, but the good scholar and active college citizen, the man +who had taken the trouble to learn things and learn people, who made the +best record. I naturally watched with particular interest the records of +my own old students at Columbia, and I know that this is so. + + * * * * * + +It is a significant fact, however, for those of us who are interested in +the welfare of college boys and girls, that the United States government +deliberately built up what was to all intents and purposes an +undergraduate college life for the young men of the army, with +athletics, dances, dramatics, singing, and all the rest, even including +opportunities for reading and study. Even the most hardened of regular +officers, who at the first, I fear, regarded this as some of the +civilian foolishness with which all soldiers have to contend, came to +see that the program was a vital factor in building up such a body of +fighting men as they had never seen. And this is only another way of +saying that if you want to use the human machine for any purpose, you +must concern yourself with the whole of it. Human nature does not come +in air-tight compartments. + +President Wilson coined a phrase which has thoroughly gone the rounds +when he said that the side-shows of college life should not overshadow +nor distract from the entertainment in the main tent. We all agree to +this. But I think we are more inclined than when the words were spoken +to urge that the side-shows, properly and intelligently subordinated, +should be under the same management as the main tent. The army has tried +the experiment on a large scale and it has worked well. In February last +there were in France and on the Rhine six million and a half individual +participants in athletic games, ten million attendants on +entertainments, nearly a quarter of a million students. + + * * * * * + +None of the lessons which the Army has learned are more significant +than those which have to do with mobilization and classification. The +activities of the Provost Marshal General, of the Committee on +Classification and Personnel, in coöperation with the Committee on +Education, furnish the best record of large scale human engineering in +the new science of personnel of which we have any record, either in this +country or, I think, elsewhere. + +A university like this one is an army, and not such a small army either, +judging by peacetime standards. The United States found that it was +worth while, indeed that it was absolutely necessary in organizing its +forces, to find out everything it could about every man in the army, +what he needed physically to increase his efficiency; what he needed to +keep him interested and out of mischief; what he should have in the way +of training--based on what he knew already and based on careful mental +tests--to make him of the greatest usefulness; whether he had the will +to win, and if not, whether anything could be done to get it into him. + +In a word, the United States wanted to know just what each man's +possibilities were. Was he officer material or non-com material? Should +he go into the line or one of the special corps--or to the labor +battalion? As a result of this program, the Army succeeded in finding a +place that counted for 98 per cent of the drafted men. + +Now I realize that a university can't do all these things with its army +in just the way the government can. It can't casually transfer a man +from engineering to psychology, nor a girl from philosophy to +cookery--or _vice versa_--no matter how desirable such a transfer might +be for the individual and the community. But it can do a great deal more +than it now does in finding out about all its members, informing them of +their strength and weaknesses, in seeing that every student gets a +chance to enjoy in so far as possible the high privileges of youth, and +to get a helping hand over the bumps in the road, which also come with +youth. Every student ought to have the opportunity to round out his +character and his capacities. It ought not to be left to chance that any +student gets the best personal contacts for him or her with faculty and +fellow-students, the best opportunities for learning team play. Every +student ought to leave with some definite aim in life, and if possible +an aim high enough to be an ideal that is worth working for. + +A university is not doing its full duty if its athletics and social life +are limited to those who need these the least; if its alumni are +regarded merely as fillers of the grandstands or recipients of oratory, +and possible sources of pecuniary support. The alumni are the best +possible sources of keeping the faculty informed as to what the world +really wants in the way of trained men and women, and, for the students, +of information, suggestions, and jobs, both temporary and permanent. + +I realize that many of these things are now done here and elsewhere, but +in the light of what we have learned from the experience of the +University of Uncle Sam, I am sure that our American universities and +colleges have hardly scratched the surface of what they might do and +what, I think, they will ultimately do in the realm of human +engineering. Nearly all educational institutions merely follow what they +find the leaders are doing, and in this field there is an opportunity, I +am sure, for real leadership. + +We know now that men and women can be measured by impersonal tests and +that it is practicable to put aside the material which it is either +impossible to fashion in the academic mould, or for which, even if the +job is possible, the expense in wear and tear is entirely beyond the +value of the result to be obtained. To be specific, why shouldn't we +have an intelligence test of candidates for the degree of Doctor of +Philosophy, just as we had a physical and psychological examination for +candidates for the flying schools? + +I don't mean that we should leap from one illogical position clear +across the road into another. Mental measurements are not yet an exact +science, and a man of moderate ability, with a will to succeed, may be a +better academic investment than his more brilliant brother who lacks +that quality; but, by pruning very sparingly (one does not have to chop +down a tree to prune it) the saving in time and energy will be enormous. + +Fundamentally the human relationships are what count, the qualities +leading to team play and coöperation, and away from isolation and its +ills. This means that if a faculty is to exercise its leadership, it +must know the student body, it must maintain and develop points of human +touch. Impersonal tests, impersonal records, all that modern practice +and modern science can teach us we must have, but these must be used +only as the framework for what is after all the fundamental thing, +direct human contact between teacher and teacher, teacher and student, +and student and student. + + * * * * * + +Now as to leadership, and in a university we can identify the leaders +with the teachers, there is no doubt, I think, that the teachers' +profession comes out of the war in a higher place than it went in, and +the scholar goes back to his work with a feeling of confidence in +himself in view of his record in competition and comparison with men in +other callings. I venture to predict that we shall hear a good deal less +frequently in the future the old gibe that the man who could do things +did them and the man who couldn't, taught them. The teachers made good, +not only because of their scholarship, but because of their personality. +I think this experience of the last two years is going to accelerate +greatly the movement which had already started of turning to the +academic world for the man who can do things and do them with other +people. Entirely apart from the contrasts in income, the sheer fun of +executive work, with plenty of money to spend on what you want to get +done, is a pretty strong temptation for a man with a heavy teaching +schedule and an annual department appropriation of say $75. Both the +regular army officers who have made conspicuously good, and the scholars +of the coöperative type who have made conspicuously good, are being +actively bidden for by bankers and manufacturers and all sorts of +people. Neither profession can compete on the purely financial side with +these tempters and, in order to hold their first-rate men, they will +each have to make some greater contribution in the things that money +alone can't buy. + +Both in the nation and in our republics of letters and science, we must +learn to distinguish more clearly between the power that comes with +knowledge, and the ability to talk about things. It was very interesting +to watch in Washington the gradual substitution of the man with the +latter quality by the man with the former in positions of +responsibility, and I am going to confess that, in the early days, some +of the conferences which it was my privilege or my duty to attend, +reminded me for all the world of certain faculty meetings, in which +gentlemen without definite knowledge of the matter in hand were +discussing at considerable length what they were pleased to call +principles, but which were really off-hand impressions. + +I think that in their service to the university and to the nation, the +scholars may well profit by the demonstration that it was not only the +man who knew his subject, but the man who knew how to deal with his +fellow men, who was likely to make his impression. Isn't there such a +thing as academic provincialism, even within the walls of a man's own +university, certainly as between institution and institution, which can +be remedied by the encouragement of these social and coöperative sides +of the scholar's character? It seems to me that we all should face a +fundamental extension in the definition of a scholar, away from the +individual, the selfish, out to the social and constructive. + +In our educational institutions scholarship has three functions: To +broaden the field of existing knowledge, and the war has shown us that +every field has its valuable practical applications; to train the coming +generation of experts, and any country needs not only a handful of +distinguished leaders but a great body of well-trained men and women +who, when the emergency arises, stand ready to meet it; and last but not +least, to inspire a recognition of what scholarship is and a respect for +it in the minds of the general students, few of whom, by the most +generous stretch of the imagination, can be regarded as scholars +themselves, but whose influence in their generation throughout the +country is a very important factor. Our nation needs a respect for +expert knowledge and it needs a respect for intelligence, and our +college graduates can do more than any other group to develop this +respect. + + * * * * * + +We have taken up three of our four lessons as these affect the +university: the emphasis on youth, the need of mobilization and team +play, and the need of leadership. There remains the fourth factor, a +high, clear-cut aim. + +The most serious charge against the American undergraduate in the past +has been the lack of a sense of responsibility. We now know from their +war records that the sense of responsibility lay latent in thousands of +these boys and was only awaiting an impulse sufficiently strong to +arouse it. + +President Hibben of Princeton, who ought to know the American +undergraduate if anybody does, said recently: "Young men are capable of +far greater amounts of intensive work day in and day out than we had +dreamed of; capable of greater concentration of mind upon their tasks. +They respond more quickly than we have conceived to the call of duty. +The sense of responsibility is there latent, and we teachers must +endeavor to quicken and to appeal to it. We have seen that when the +occasion comes these young men rise to meet it." + +We can't very well stage a world war for the purpose, and I don't think +we need wait for any such crisis to bring it out. There is in every +normal, wholesome-minded student some motor nerve that can be touched in +such a way as to release that type of coördinated energy which we call a +sense of responsibility. This all goes back to knowing our men and women +and establishing human contacts and human confidences. + +In spite of individual disappointments, and as a college dean, I have +had my share, I am confident that the normal young American either +already possesses as a motive force some worth-while aim or that he can +be guided toward such an aim if approached in the right way. + +Let me quote a paragraph or so from the report of the War Department +Committee on Education: + +"Because the war did completely organize the nation for a united drive +and thus did expose a magnificent national morale, many are inclined to +believe that war is necessary to call forth such consecration and +self-forgetful service. Analysis of the war training, however, reveals a +point of view and a method of procedure that is definitely designed to +develop team-play and to enhance morale whether there be war or not. If +these methods are applied to education in times of peace, they certainly +will produce some effect even though the result is not as profoundly +striking as it was during the war. Among the many significant features +of war training, the following are mentioned as worthy of particular +consideration for transfer to school practice: + +"As a primary policy, a nation at war is obliged to recognize that every +individual is an asset capable of useful service in some particular line +of work of direct benefit to the country. In order to make the most +efficient use of all its resources, it is necessary to make strenuous +exertions to discover what each individual is best qualified to do and +to train each to use his abilities in the most effective manner. Applied +to education this fundamental attitude produces two results that are of +importance in the development of morale. The teacher's point of view +shifts from a critical one, with attention focused on discovering +whether the individual measures up to the academic standards fixed by +school authorities, to one of friendly, not to say eager interest to +discover what each individual really can do well. The student's spirit +also changes from one of discouragement and doubt of his ability ever to +make good, to one of interest and desire for achievement. Both of these +results are of large importance in releasing energy for both the teacher +and the student. They also have an immediate bearing on the enhancement +of morale." + +In any place of campaign to this end within a college or university, the +first thing to do is to build around that vague but very real emotion +called college spirit, to supplement this by guiding our young people to +enlist in worth-while, nation-wide or world-wide causes (we are +singularly provincial about this in America), and by ensuring better +teaching and supervision and better coördination of work. + +There is no question that we have underestimated both the American +undergraduate's capacity for intellectual work and his real pleasure in +it when he feels it worth while. One of my friends was telling me of +his experiences as commanding officer of one of the ground schools for +aviators, where a large proportion of the candidates were college +undergraduates, and I asked him if he had had any troubles as to +discipline. "Yes indeed," he replied, "night after night we'd catch some +fellows studying with a peep-light under their blankets, after taps had +sounded." + +Any doubts as to the instinctive reaction of the normal, healthy young +American toward educational opportunities were dispelled by the +experiences of the army in France after the armistice. The let-down, +after the terrific physical and emotional strain, the impatience +regarding any delay as to return home, combined to make a pretty serious +situation as to the morale of our troops. After some misguided and +nearly disastrous experiments as to the curative properties of heavy +drill and strict discipline, the A.E.F. recognized the necessity for a +prompt and thorough stimulation of all the welfare activities, and a +real educational program; and it was straight, old-fashioned book-work +more than it was the movies, or athletics, more even than Miss Elsie +Janis, which turned the corner for us. In all, more than 200,000 men +volunteered for the privilege of studying. The military order was often +reversed and majors sat at the feet of the corporals or privates who had +been selected as teachers. The reports as to the intensity of the work +of teachers and students alike should put any of us professionals to +shame. + + * * * * * + +Just now we are hearing a great deal about the benefits of discipline. I +think what the speakers are really talking about, though they don't +recognize it themselves, is the benefit of the state of mind which +accepts and welcomes discipline. We are not, even as the result of the +war, a disciplined people in the sense that Germany is, or was, and we +can thank God for it. We shall never want in this country a general +subordination of the individual will and initiative to external control. +Discipline is a means and not an end. If discipline, as such, externally +imposed, were so important a factor in success as many people seem to +think to-day, we could look through a list of ex-enlisted men in the +army and navy--I mean the men enlisted and discharged during peace +time--and find a relatively large number who made conspicuously good +records after returning to civil life. As a matter of fact, we find +nothing of the kind. + +What we do find is that not a few enlisted men who chose the army or the +navy as their permanent career have won commissions and made fine +records. There were no better general officers in the war than men like +Harbord of our army and Robertson of the British, both of whom rose from +the ranks. But isn't it fair to say that the discipline imposed on these +men was accepted gladly and accepted in the terms of their fundamental +interest, and that these men are not really exceptions to what I have +said? + +I venture to predict that there will be a very different record to tell +as to the success in civil life of those men now leaving the Army, who, +because they believed in the cause and wished to participate to the full +in the great enterprise, gladly submitted themselves to the discipline +for the purpose of increasing their efficiency. + +In a month or so you can teach an enthusiastic man, who is fired by a +big idea, all the discipline he needs for carrying out his duties and +profiting by his opportunities, but you can't reverse the process and +incite enthusiasms as a result of the application of discipline. + +Don't think that I want to minimize the merits of military discipline +for military purposes. Of course, coördination and subordination are +absolutely necessary in the handling of large bodies of men. Even the +men in France who deserted to the front, as many of them did, no matter +how much we may sympathize with their desire to get into the game, had +to be disciplined. Someone had to stay behind and see to the supplies. +The point we are discussing is the carrying over of this principle of +military discipline intact into civilian life. So far as discipline +brings about regularity of life, of exercise, so long as it ministers to +alertness, we can use it, but as between discipline on the one hand, and +initiative and team play on the other, to meet our academic or our +national needs, I am for initiative and team play. + +Please don't misunderstand me. By reducing the present emphasis on +external discipline, after childhood has been passed, I don't mean a +lowering of standards. External discipline, it seems to me, is often +really imposed as a substitute for high standards; something supposed to +be just as good and more easy to keep in stock. The standards of the +worth-while organization, and these are the outward expression of its +aims, its ideals, ought to be high enough and intelligently enough +administered to make sure that the men and women who are unable to +provide their own discipline, should in the general interest be +painlessly but promptly removed from the group. + +Here is a _credo_ for the American people, from the pen of a regular +army officer. It's a pretty good one for an American University: "To +foster individual talent, imagination and initiative, to couple with +this a high degree of coöperation, and to subject these to a not too +minute direction; the whole vitalized by a supreme purpose, which serves +as the magic key to unlock the upper strata of the energies of men." + + * * * * * + +Finally, let me try to apply these lessons to you young men and women of +the graduating class. + +Keep in good physical shape. Overwork is usually a combination of bad +air, bad feeding, and lack of exercise and sleep. See that you don't go +stale. If you lack the zest of life, find out what the trouble is; +whether it is your teeth or your liver or your soul. Picture to yourself +what Theodore Roosevelt got out of life. + +Be honest with yourself. Do your own thinking and do it straight. This, +strangely enough, is perhaps the thing which you will find hardest to do +after the undergraduate atmosphere. A student body is, or at any rate +was before the war, the most convention ridden group of which I have any +knowledge. I am all for conventions, because they save a great deal of +time and worry, but only so far as we recognize them as conventions and +do not exalt them into principles or philosophical truths. Remember that +the public opinion of America is an infinitely more important thing to +the world than ever before, and that you are each to be a part of it. + +Keep your intellectual interests and your interest in your _alma mater_, +not in her athletics and her fraternities alone. Remember that as alumni +of this University you are citizens of no mean city. Recruit men and +women whom she ought to have and who ought to have her, remembering that +the danger to this country from the inside, and it is no inconsiderable +danger, is mainly due to the misdirected zeal of sincere people who lack +knowledge and background. Take for example the employer who can't see +beyond the point of telling his men to "take it or leave it," and the +workman whose sense of real or fancied injustice has brought him to what +with our children we know as the kicking and biting stage. It is too +late to do much with the present adult generation except by main +strength and awkwardness, but a recruit for higher education from either +of these groups is a good national investment. + +Keep your human contacts. Don't be a "glad-hander" but do at least your +share. It takes two to make and keep alive a friendship, just as it does +a quarrel. There is something worth while in everyone. Give yourself a +chance to find what it is. Practice following and, as the chance comes +to you, practice leading, but above all, practice team play. Keep +yourself ready to take the next step, whatever it may be. There is a +story of Marshal Joffre, of which I can at least say that it is good +enough to be true. After the first battle of the Marne some enthusiast +was proclaiming him as a second Napoleon and laying it on pretty thick. +The old gentleman stood it as long as he could and then said: "No, +Napoleon would have known what to do next, and I don't." + +Keep your enthusiasms and your ideals. In other words, keep your youth. +In choosing your life work, get into something in which the policy and +practice are such that you can throw your whole soul into the job. Don't +take yourself seriously, but take your opportunities for usefulness +seriously. Find out the callings in which America is short. There are +plenty of them, as the war has shown. Think over whether it isn't +possible for you to be one of the men or one of the women who, from your +training and momentum and vision, will be selected ten or fifteen or +twenty years hence, to take on some important job, with the nation as +your client, as the one person best qualified to fill it. + +We no longer have to prove that it pays to know, to really know almost +anything that is worth while. It pays in money, if that is what one +wants; it pays in the more enduring satisfactions of life, in the +pleasure that comes from exact knowledge and intellectual pioneering, in +the almost unique joy of creation without the responsibilities of +possession, and in the feeling of individual readiness to be of use in +meeting the problems which the years allotted to your generation will +surely bring forth. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 3: Commencement address delivered at the University of +Michigan, June 26, 1919.] + + + + ++-----------------------------------------------+ +| Transcriber's Note: | +| | +| Typographical error corrected in the text: | +| | +| Page 52 centerdness changed to centeredness | ++-----------------------------------------------+ + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SOME WAR-TIME LESSONS*** + + +******* This file should be named 32608-8.txt or 32608-8.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/3/2/6/0/32608 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +http://www.gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/pglaf. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at http://www.gutenberg.org/about/contact + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. +To donate, please visit: +http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + |