Methodist v. "Militarist"

Having financed 51 land-grant colleges, the U. S. Government requires that they provide military training (R. O. T. C.) for their students. Most of the 51 colleges make that training compulsory. Other institutions have R. O. T. C. units, too, some compulsory, some not. Last year 114,545 students were given R. O. T. C. training. Those who disliked it made more noise this year than ever before. At Northwestern University last month 30 pacifists, with banners, heckled an R. O. T. C. dress parade. At the College of the City of New York, students attempted to gang their President Frederick Bertram! Robinson at an R. O. T. C. parade while he belabored them with an umbrella. At Wisconsin and Missouri pacifists were bitter.

Ennis H. Coale, 20; is a good Methodist and a member of the Epworth League. When he entered the University of Maryland last autumn, he declined to join the R. O. T. C. Quaker students at Maryland are exempt from military training. Student Coale claimed the same exemption on the grounds that the Methodist Church is against war. He was promptly suspended by Maryland's President Raymond Allen Pearson. Aided by his father, Ennis Coale took his case to court. A circuit judge granted him a writ of mandamus to force the University to reinstate him.

Last week the Maryland Court of Appeals unanimously reversed the prior ruling, on the grounds that the University was acting with authority lawfully conferred upon it.

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