The Army's Educational Program

By R. C. HOILES

I have just been reading three books issued by the United States Armed Forces Institute. They are what is called Courses in Foundations of American Government.

But they might better be called courses to destroy the American form of government as outlined by our founding fathers. They do not represent the principles on which this government was formed. In fact, they are books without principles. They are based on the euphonious theory that might makes right and the general welfare can be determined by might or by majorities.

It looks as if the army did not want these textbooks to get into the hands of the public. On the first page this statement is made: "This book is not available for sale in

by the Superintendent of Documents nor may it be sold or distributed in this form on the civilian market."

In the very first chapter the book discards the theory of Jefferson that “The best government is that which governs least." Then the editors of the book say, "The positive services of government were not obvious to the ordinary citizen."

The positive services of government are not today obvious to men who believe there are eternal principles that govern social relations. The whole book is clever propaganda for the government having the right to take away from the me individual his inherent God-given rights. It is simply propaganda in trying to feed the soldiers the doctrine of an enlarged government advocated by the New Deal and by Willkie and Dewey.

The authors use the usual words of all socialists and do not define their terms. One of the undefined words is "cooperation. But cooperation to them means obeying what the government says the citizen must do.

The editors and evidently the t heads of the army are so much collectivists that they seem actually to believe that it is necessary for the government to use force to make people "cooperate" for their own good. Listen to this: "It is difficult to get some people to cooperate even for their own good."

Of course those at the head of the government or those writing the books would be the ones who would want the authority to use force to make people comply with their idea of what was good for the citizens.

They express it here in another way: "We have come to realize that these things (enlarged government) are for the benefit of all, and since government is the one organization which includes us all, it is natural that we should turn to it to furnish these community services."

But we all are not the government. The government is the bureaucrats or the elected officers in the army. Their interests in many cases are not the same as those of the citizen who supports the government.

Here is what we may expect from the present administration, which is reflected by the army and by the books the army is issuing: "Today it (self-defense) may involve organizing the entire human and natural resources of a country." If that is not collectivism, if that is not Russia, then words have no meaning:

The subject is so hot I will have to handle further quotations later.