Compulsory education is a form of national defence without which a republic cannot continue to exist through the centuries. This form of compulsion serves a recognized need and Americans would not tolerate its abolition.

Military training for national defence is a form of education important to the individual as well as to the nation. As an extension of the country's system of compulsory education it should meet with universal favor in a democracy which is proud of its free institutions and is well convinced that those institutions must be preserved for the good of humanity.

Where is the hardship in the compulsory education system as Americans know it and submit to it? Upon that system as it is now applied rests the country's safety from internal foes. The time has come to extend it in such a manner that it will protect the nation from external attack. Shall we Americans be less alert in protecting our institutions from foreign enemies than we are in guarding those institutions from ourselves?

Compulsion intelligently applied in a good cause is a blessing. For example, a youth of 19, with a normal desire to perform his duties as a citizen, finds the incentive toward service in the regular military establishment or in the militia somewhat weaker than the incentive to take his ease, avoiding all discipline. The country's need that he shall know how to defend it is not brought to his attention. If, however, there were a law requiring his service with the colors for a given time at a particular period of his life, he would perform the service as a matter of course, as he accepts the fact of compulsory education in more conventional but not more important branches of learning. --Cleveland Daily News.