R. O. T. C. Trouble

To hundreds of U. S. college students, the Reserve Officers Training Corps, compulsory in most land grant colleges, means the preparation of young men for death on a battlefield. For thousands more, the R. O. T. C. means an itchy uniform, tedious target practice, tiresome drills. Whether through idealism or indolence, opponents of the R. O. T. C. last week made trouble on both coasts:

At Pennsylvania State College last winter, when several members of the R. 0. T. C. unit scored low in rifle practice, the deficient ran the gauntlet between their fellows who flogged an with cartridge belts. In Manhattan last week, when this news reached the Committee on Militarism in Education, the Committee's Secretary publicly complained to the Secretary of War, who turned the matter over to Chief of Staff Malin Craig, who ordered a thorough investigation. Explained the unit's Major Arthur Bowen: "A prank."

At the University of California resentment against compulsory R. 0. T. C. bubbled up embarrassingly while the University was solemnly holding its annual Charter Day Exercises on the Berkeley campus. Armed with a plebiscite in which 70% of the students voted for voluntary rather than compulsory R. O. T. C. drill, an undergraduate delegation marched before the Board of Regents to debate the point. Twenty minutes after the hearing closed the Board issued a neatly typed announcement that its hands were tied by the terms of the University trust, that in any case compulsory R. O. T. C. training was "a sound expression of academic policy."

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