OCR Text |
Show MILITARY PUNISHMENTS. A civilian investigating the question ques-tion of military punishments approaches approa-ches the subject with a point of view-utterly view-utterly different from Mat of the military man. An infraction of discipline dis-cipline which seems to one a trifling matter appears to the other of great importance and deserving or severe punishment. The soldier must learn to obey instinctively. in-stinctively. He must subordinate his own thoughts and wishes and personality person-ality to the word of command. An army moves as a unite, and it cannot can-not do so unless every individual composing it is absolutely subject to discipline. If your son refuses to pare potatoes pota-toes when you ask him, you can reprimand re-primand him and refuse to serve him with potatoes at dinner, and the matter mat-ter practically ends there. If your employee will not pare potatoes at your command you have only to discharge dis-charge him and hire some one else who will be more accomodating, and the matter ends there. But the soldier's refusal to pare potatoes may be the little end of a wedge whose large end is the "sacrifice "sacri-fice of the lives of ten thousand men. The example of breach of discipline spreads rapidly. So the punishment must be far heavier in proportion than in civilian life. |