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Show Conscription a Noble Word if It Can Be Made Synonymous With Citizenship By DR. JOHN H. FINLEY Commissioner of Education, State of New York I am wishing that everybody might be conscripted to give some service serv-ice to the state, under a plan of national constructive preparedness; that every selfish luxury and waste and indulgence be commandeered, every useful skill and science and art and industry be called to the colors periodically, and a general mobilization for the common defense of our ideals be compelled by our vision of an America that has a mission beyond commercialized supremacy. I would make "conscript" a noble word by making it synonymous with "citizen" in a republic with a mission and an ideal worth figtiting for. Till that time comes, may every American man do what every Cambridge student has done, conscript himself, and each one offer to his country the best that he has to give. And may American institutions do wliat Cambridge has done, not await government mobilization but mobilize themselves. |