DRILL IN SWISS ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE " SPELTATOR.1
SID,—Will you allow me to corroborate what a correspondent writes in the Spectator of April 5th about the healthy influence of the Swiss "compulsory volunteering" system on physical training in schools ? I gave this point only passing notice in my pamphlet, because I was then chiefly concerned, as a Liberal, to persuade my fellow-Liberals that a small minimum of compulsory service for all able-bodied men spells, not slavery, but freedom. But the stimulus given to gymnastics, drill, and shooting in Swiss schools by the fact that each boy looks forward to spending some, six months of his life under strict military training is enormous ; we all know in our own lives the difference between exercise with a real definite object, and " constitutionals " taken only under moral compulsion. What is more, it is precisely the strongest Liberals in Switzerland who are most keenly alive to this healthy reaction of the Army upon the schools. Among other public men who kindly allowed me to interview them on this subject was Herr Hermann Greulich, of Zfirich, the Labour Secretary, or official representative of the working classes. Apart from minor questions of expenditure, the only fault this gentleman found with the Swiss Army system was this: that whereas the present system, by indirect pressure and encouragement alone, forces the enormous majority of the schools to pay serious attention to physical training, the Government ought now to go one step further and make such serious training compulsory in every school in the country. No doubt this will some day be done ; but the Swiss prefer to test things first by a voluntary system, and then, on the strength of the experience thus obtained, to impose upon the whole nation duties which thinking men can at last plainly see to be for the good of all. It is encouraging to see how many Englishmen are already convinced that nothing but good could come of compelling all able-bodied men in these islands to go through the training which is found to be so healthy in every way for our Volunteers.—I am, Sir, &c.,
Previous page
