Page:Jean Jaurès socialist and humanitarian 1917.djvu/119

 have to serve for two whole years in barracks, and the army thus constituted is alone called the "active" army. This ought all to be changed.

From many examples, taken from other countries, especially the smaller countries, Jaurès showed that two years is far too long for the young soldier to remain in the unnatural atmosphere of the barracks. In fact even now, he says, the young French soldier acquires all his training in five months, after which he is merely wasting time. According to Jaurès, the young Frenchman should not remain more than six months in barracks, and even this short training might be taken at two different periods within the same year. Even during those periods he would be more in touch with the general life than he now is, since one of the main reforms advocated by Jaures was that the young soldier should be trained at the local barracks, the nearest possible to his home.

It has been already said that L'Armée Nouvelle was published in 1910. In 1905 a law had been passed reducing the period of training to two years. Jaures was anxious that the reduction should be carried much further. His protest, however, was in vain. Far from decreasing the time spent in the "active" army, France increased the amount of time to three years in 1913. On this occasion Jaures resisted the proposal with all his strength.