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Image provided by: South Dakota State Historical Society – State Archives
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undertaking bothered more or less with cadets who fail to realize what they are at our school for. I am firmly convinced that we should have the au thority to weed out the undesirables from our ranks, and their places filled by those earnestly seeking an educatian. Military Training is coming to be recognized more and more as the ideal training for beys and young men we might also include girls and young women. Objections to it are invariably founded on ignorance. I see coming in the no distant future, a national law for compulsory military training and also a national law for compulsory education. "We need both right now, and we need them badly. Mississippi and Georgia have no compulsory education. Laws, and the illiteracy percentages are 22. 4 and 20.7 respectively. The worthless laws of the following states are equally reflected in the census returns: Louisiana 29 South Carolina 25.7 North Carolina 18.5 Alabama 22.9 and Virginia 15.2 per cent. According to other census reports, 7.7 per cent of the population over ten is illiterate which means that in a democracy, where every voice may come to share in important national decisions, 5,516,163 persons are utterly lacking in any education whatever. Of this number, over three million are whites, and a million and a half of those are native born. Education is no less vital a concern than national defense itself, for illiteracy may breed dangers within as menacing as any peril from without. In this important regard, state control has broken down, permitting stagnancy in the very well-springs of American life. In view of this breakdown, such federalization of the system as may be necessary to install compulsory military training is seen as a sen sible demanded by the needs of education itself. Under federal control, with poverty-sticken or indifferent States either helped or made to help themselves, one wise compulsory edu cation law, to which should be added compulsory military training, may hold in force from coast to coast. It would be a blessing to both adults and children and by putting emphasis upon preparedness for the business of life, as well as the cultural values, it would make our millions fit for every exigency of defense, and fit for the peace that 18.