DR. FRANK CRANE’S DAILY EDITORIAL

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 97, 15 July 1927, Page 14

DR. FRANK CRANE’S DAILY EDITORIAL

SPECIAL TRAINING CAMPS (Copyright, 7927 .) JF you have made no arrangements for your boy’s vacation this summer, 1 would recommend taking up the subject of sending him to a citizens’ training camp. You may not want your boy to be a soldier, and you may be opposed to militarism, but this should not blind you to, the fact that the army is the best training in the world for young people. There the boy learns obedience and discipline, things that will stand him in very good stead all through life. His physical condition is well looked after, and every care is taken that he should be trained in the manly arts that are the physical foundation for every kind of success. The training camp will get the boy out of doors, and that is what he needs. The training camp is a mighty school of democracy. It teaches the young man that he Is no better than anybody else; he has to toe the mark just like everybody does, and he gets a correct notion of the importance of the nation. There has been a good deal said and written about individualism and self-expression, but this does not do away with the importance of co-operation It is necessary for one to learn how to get along with his fellows, to restrain himself, and to exert his energies in the best way for the general good. He gets the idea drilled into him that the individual is of minor importance compared with the State, and he gets the right notion about his duties and obligations. There is no higher sense of honour and personal integrity than that found among army officers, and it is good for a boy to associate during his formative years with these people. Whatever other uses the army may have, there is no doubt that it. is most admirably equipped for training people, and to use the army as a school for boys is to employ It in the most valuable way. The citizens* training camps are not strongholds of militarism, but they are the best developers of civilisation, and too high praise cannot be accorded to their efforts.