Princeton and Cornell have organized Field Artillery units. Brigadier-General Robert M. Danford adds: "During the coming week Colonel R. C. F. Goetz will go to Cambridge to organize a Harvard battery, . . . . It is hoped and expected that about twelve or fifteen of our largest universities will accept the invitation to undertake Field Artillery courses."
General Danford speaks of a combined summer camp in which there may be a "spirit of healthy rivalry in developing esprit, skill, and efficiency," and anticipates keen competition among Harvard, Princeton, and Yale when firing records are being kept.
The General is not alone in his conception of Field Artillery as a sport alluring. One prominent New York sporting editor queries:
"Is there a possibility of placing the Eli's behind the hills of Kingston and the Tigers somewhere out along the old-town trolley line and having the two units pot at each other with tear gas shells, spectators properly protected? Or a marksmanship meet over a ten-mile range? The possibilities, indeed, are only limited by the range of one's imagination--not to say of the guns."
That there at present exists a decided collegiate reaction against all things military hardly touches on the case. General Danford himself admits it but advocates "a furlough for the rest of the year" and "a real start in the fall."
With the passing of Field Artillery as a profession, the development of Field Artillery as a pastime among the colleges will be interesting to watch. Yale News.
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