will be celebrated at 10
morning by the Sunday
Christian Tabernacle in
other things, he said:
"There are features of this measure
which tend to broaden our usefulness
as a military institution, if we avail
us ourselves of certain of its provisions.
On the other hand, these very provisions may prove a source of embarrassment and may cripple us seriously along the lines of our past usefulness to our patrons.
"It should be borne in mind that the object of this measure is 'national defense,' and the means to that end is the training of officers and soldiers, its tendency is toward the formation of State military agencies, and it poses conditions on the military schools and colleges which they can afford to ignore, conditions which, some of them at least, can equally ill afford to accept. And it should be remembered, particularly by those of us who are confronted with the problems that the bill presents, and who are charged with the destinies of the institution temporarily entrusted to our care, that the Virginia Military Institute has been not long throughout its history as a disciplinary institution for young men in the formative period of their lives, that it never has been its purpose to train and develop the professional soldier, that scarcely one in a hundred of our patrons sends his son to us with a view to the profession of arms as the ultimate results of his training. Our training system pre-emprehens our graduates for civic vocations and for the military life as an avocation only."  . 