man. The courses given are intense and specialized, their sole purpose being to crowd the maximum amount of concrete and definite and practical instruction into the short space of time. The general plan of conducting the work is by lectures and demonstrations allowing opportunity for discussion and recitation. The lectures will be supplemented by laboratory exercises in which all students take part. The winter short courses offered for this year are prepared especially for clay workers, cement users, and road makers although it is hoped that the related courses given in drainage, power plants, steam and gas engines and electricity will prove attractive to students other than those concerned with these three lines. The response met within the field of instruction undertaken will determine to no small extent the future development of the engineering short course. What is true of the short course is true of the entire development of engineering extension; for, as a state institution of education designed to serve the best interests of the people of the state, the college accomplishes its object of instruction in engineering and industrial subjects only in so far as it comprehends and meets the needs of the industries of the state, and the success of extension work of any kind is measured by the response from those industries.

In conclusion the author desires to express to the extension division of the University of Wisconsin his most sincere thanks for direct assistance and cooperation in the starting of the work in Iowa. The vision seen, the experience gained, the plans formulated, the courses written, aye, and the mistakes made, while a member of that organization are proving valuable assets in a new field.

The Secretary then announced the afternoon joint session at the New Willard at 2 o'clock, and a separate session Friday morning at 9 o'clock at the New Ebbitt.

CHAIRMAN REBER.-I regret that time will not permit of further discussion of extension at this hour, but the Secretary has assured me time will be given for that purpose to-morrow morning, and I hope that there may be further discussion on the subject.

Thereupon adjournment was taken at 12:30 to meet in joint session with the Association of American Agricultural Colleges and Experiment Stations, at 2 o'clock p. m.

In the joint session at the New Willard announcement was made of a meeting of the Land Grant College Engineering Association at 7 o'clock p. m., in the Red Parlor of the New Ebbitt.

At this joint session, Dean Edward Orton, Jr., of Ohio, presented the following paper:

THE STATUS OF THE MILITARY DEPARTMENT IN THE

LAND GRANT COLLEGES.*

DEAN EDWARD ORTON, JR., COLUMBUS, OHIO.

Of all the provisions made by governments or by private citizens for the education of the people, in this or any other country, in these days or those of the past, few, if any, can be compared in importance and far reaching effect to the Morrill Act of 1862. It has brought into existence a group of institutions without a parallel in the field of higher education, either in the breadth of choice of their educational menu, their accessibility to people of all classes, or in the extent to which they are patronized.

In the Morrill Act, as in all other documents of great import, every word and phrase has been studied and its various possible significations discussed. These matters are still under a more or less spirited discussion, which must continue until, sooner or later, the general consensus of opinion crystallizes.

There is one provision in this act, however, which is not ambiguous in its meaning, but which is subject to wider differences of interpretation than any of the really debatable clauses. I refer to the words, "and including military tactics." Everybody knows just what this means. There is nothing permissive or optional about it. It means that it was intended by the framers of the law that military instruction should be an integral part of the training given by every land grant college.

That there are very wide differences at present in the way that a military department is administered in the different land grant colleges is unquestionable. In some, the military discipline is like that at West Point, always in force, and the student lives in barracks, under a strictly controlled schedule. In others, the drill lasts one hour per day, but continues through five days a week for the entire four years of the college course. In most of the schools, the drill is three days a week for two years. In others, two days a week for two years, and in others three days a week for one year.

From this it appears, that while an equal obligation rests upon all institutions founded under the Morrill Act to maintain military instruction, there are really very great differences in the extent to which this obligation is felt or recognized in the different schools.

My purpose in calling attention to these conditions is partly to raise an objection to this lack of uniformity. I think that it is improper that schools which receive the same bounty, should requite this bounty in such very different measure.

But the more important part of my purpose is to call attention to a much more serious matter, viz., the wrong mental attitude which most of these schools assume toward military instruction, in the fact that they give as little of it as they think will pass muster. I deplore the loss to the students, and the schools, and the nation, from this faulty conception of what the military provisions of the Morrill Act are capable of accomplishing, if administered with sympathy and wisdom. It seems to me that many of us are not giving a good stewardship of the talent which has been put into our hands. Especially do I desire to convince this body that we, as executives of engineering schools, are failing seriously to take hold of and make effective use of one of the very best tools in our whole educational kit.

* A paper read before a joint meeting of the Association of American Agricultural Colleges and Experiment Stations and the Land Grant College Engineering Association, at Washington, D. O., November 14, 1913.

The chief motive for the insertion of the military drill requirement in the Morrill Act was probably to strengthen our feeble military preparedness by the creation of a body of educated citizen soldiery, which in time of war, would become an asset of great importance to us. It was evidently inspired by the serious shortage of persons fit to become officers in the Civil War, which was then in progress, and the terrible suffering of our troops, due to the incompetence and inexperience of their officers.

This motive is still the most important one which can be bought forward from the government's side to justify the expenditure which the military drill feature of the Morrill Act specifically occasions.

But, while I thoroughly believe in this reason for exacting drill in land grant colleges, still from the standpoint of the schools, I consider it of secondary importance, compared to the intrinsic value of the military drill as an element in the education of any young college graduate. It is for the benefit of the schools themselves, rather than for the improvement of our national military preparedness, that I am urging that the military drill be treated with more seriousness and consideration.

Respects in Which Military Instruction is of Value in a School.

(1) Disciplinary Value. Military drill supplies a conception of authority, and respect for authority, which nothing else does or can furnish. It is needed more now than half a century ago, and will be needed increasingly as time goes on. In your administration as deans, how many of the young men that come before you for advice or reproof give evidence of being reared in a well ordered and well disciplined home? How many cases come before your notice of young men who are lawless and disobedient at college because they have never been controlled at home? Or worse still, in how many cases, where discipline by the university is inflicted upon a young man for infraction of the rules, do his parents show their incapacity for government by siding with the offender and encourage him in his folly, by misplaced sympathy and by appeals for the waiving of the university's regulations in his behalf?

With our colleges full of young men of such undisciplined antecedents, and the proportion of such growing instead of decreasing, the need of a discipline fundamental, vigorous and absolutely impartial is apparent. No greater kindness can be shown an undisciplined, spoiled boy, whose mother is too weak and whose father is too busy to control him, than to put him under military control, where he learns to obey first and ask why second, and where punctuality, self-control, neatness, and absolute truthfulness are the first requisites. No military discipline can ever give a boy what he ought to get at home, but for the boy who doesn't get discipline at home, the military training is of inestimable worth.

Obedience does not come from precept or from intellectual conviction solely, or even chiefly. It comes from the knowledge of power and authority, and while intellectual conviction should always be used to its limit in securing obedience, there must always be the shadow of the big stick in the background, whether one deals with savages, or boys, or college professors. That is why a good military department in any college is invaluable. It is the one branch of college work where authority visibly rests upon its actual source of power.

(2) Physical Advantage. Young men who come to college may be divided into two classes-those who are in earnest and those who are not. Happily the first class greatly predominates. But both

classes make the same error, though from different reasons. The dig does not want to drill because it takes too much time. He has a convenient chance to get a laboratory section, or something else, and he does not want to quit, and put on his uniform, just when an hour more would finish an experiment or complete a problem. The idler on the other hand finds that drill interferes with his watching or tak ing part in the college sports or something else, and hence he would like to be excused.

An hour of brisk marching in the open air, with head up, and shoulders square, and with every sense alert, under the inspiring influence of mass action, team work, and military music, is a grand finish for the day of a college student, and a grand preface to the evening meal. In college or out, humankind are prone to neglect the simple laws of health and fail to take exercise. The drill would be worth while ten times over, if it did no other thing than to force students to exercise regularly in the open air. One of its great merits is that it catches the very fellow who would not get the exercise except upon compulsion.

(3) Intellectual Benefit. As a purely intellectual exercise, military drill is in one respect the equal of any course in college, viz., power of concentration. It keeps a constant demand upon the attention of every man in the company every minute that it lasts. It is memory exercise at first, but as soon as familiarity and practice bring a certain degree of automaticity to the common movements, the nature of the demand changes and the strategical phase of the subject is developed. The handling of troops, even in a simple military ceremony, requires not only concentration but constructive ability, and the moment that the work leaves the field of ceremony and takes up real military maneuvering, such as skirmish drill, out-post duty, etc., the constructive element becomes predominant. No one, officer or private, can acquit himself well in a spirited, snappy drill without giving a high degree of concentration to the task. The more advanced the work becomes, the more broad and diversified demand does the work make upon the intelligence of the student.

It may be objected that the real intellectual labor falls upon the officers, indeed upon the one officer in command. It is undoubtedly true that the leader does the most work, and gets the most benefit, but in a student organization, the procedure differs from the army, in that every effort is made to vary the leadership, and to give the opportunity of leadership to as large a number as possible. The modern formations favor this, for every eighth man is a corporal, and responsible for his seven men, and every sergeant has his squad or platoon, etc.

(4) Development of Character. The old adage that "no one can properly control others who cannot first control himself" is one of those eternal verities which cannot be too often driven into the minds of the young college man. Any young engineer looks forward to controlling others. In a sense every young college man does, whether he is an engineer or not, but in law and medicine and agriculture, the future direct control of a force of men does not loom up on as it does to one who expects to play a leading part in the railroad, mine, or factory. But how shall we get this power of leadership? How shall we learn to impose our will upon others and still keep their respect and regard? I believe in the laboratory method in most things, and I believe in it here. To give a young man power to control others, let him first learn how to obey and to take orders from others. Next, give him a minor responsibility to direct others, and coach him on

his faults when he begins. Give him increasing chances to command, as fast as he develops ability to use power.

The military organization in a large college offers an ideal method of giving just exactly this opportunity. In a college regiment, the size of the companies is usually cut down materially, and the number of officers can be increased considerably over the statutory proportion, without diminishing the prestige of the officers' position to any degree. In this way, large numbers of the men get the experience of commanding troops-in fact, every one who develops the least facility or promise in that direction. A young man who cannot develop leadership in a military organization is a young man whose attributes for an engineer need investigation.

Another factor in leadership is the ability to read character. No better place exists in the world to practice this art than in the selection of men for office. Every company captain must study his men, and in making his selections for promotion, under the watchful care of his superior officer, he himself takes a most important lesson.

Another factor in character building is the high standard of personal honor which must go with any effective military control. A soldier is taught a very simple but a very severe code of behavior. He must tell the truth, and hate a lie. He must enforce respect for his own rights, and must show equal respect for the rights of others. As he wears the uniform of his organization, he must be a gentleman, first, last, and all the time, or he will disgrace his friends as well as himself. He must love his country and serve it with a single mind, even to death. Not a bad platform for a young college man to learn, is it?

(5) Technical Training of Engineering Value. Every intelligent man knows that the losses in the wars of the past have been chiefly caused by disease that those actually killed or incapacitated by wounds are only a small percentage of the whole. Every one knows, or should know, that the life of an army officer is very largely spent in taking care of the physique, strength and health of his men. For a few moments or a few hours of his life, he may be in battle, where a bullet, or a shell, or a poisoned arrow may rudely interrupt his career, but more than 99 per cent. of his life is spent in getting ready and keeping ready for this crucial moment. His task is to live right, to conserve and develop his own physical powers, in order to set a good example, and to be able to see that his men do the same. It involves knowledge of the elements of dietetics, the use of water for drinking, the care of one's own person, keeping clean, keeping a whole skin, and treating wounds and minor injuries. It involves the much more difficult task of seeing that others, who do not know or comprehend the danger, or who lack the self-control to suffer privation, are not allowed to take direct sanitary risks.

Every manufacturing or engineering enterprise is like an army in the fact that its effectiveness is dependent on the physical effectiveness of its men. And, how often on the frontiers in industry, as on the frontiers of war, does the success of an enterprise depend on the ability of the engineer or superintendent to make his men live as they should? How many of our railroad camps, drainage camps, highway camps, and factories are decimated by typhoid, cholera, diphtheria, yellow fever, tuberculosis, syphilis, etc., while work is delayed or stopped, and time, money and life are lost because the engineer in charge did not know that it was his business to protect his men from sickness, as well as from accident?

There is no other school so effective in such matters as a well managed camp, where every detail of the sanitation is carefully