ARMED FORCES: The Vanishing Draftee

Something would have to be done, and quickly, about the draft, which was conceived in peacetime and dedicated to the proposition that all young men should get an even chance to escape it.

Thus administered, the draft threw the load onto the reserves and National Guard, predominantly veterans, who had to go when their country called. The reserves couldn’t fall back on the mollycoddle collection of exemptions that a softheaded Congress had written into the draft law, and that softhearted draft boards had been ready to apply.

The draft law exempted, among others, married draft-age men with children, and nearly everyone who served in World War II (most of the reservists had families, and more war service than many of the draft eligibles who got such exemptions). In the draft, high mental standards and easy medical exemptions released close to 50% of the first 435,000 men ordered to report for examination. Many physically fit draftees had escaped active service for the time being by going off to college, and some were trying to rivet down their exemptions by specializing in science. As a result, draft boards had smaller pools to draw from. Most men in their 20s who had no previous war service were the culls of World War II draft lists. And the new draft eligibles — the 19-year-olds — were children of Depression years when the birth rate fell.

Of all the anxious voices crying for an end to the inadequacies of the draft law, the clearest and most realistic answer came from the nation’s educators. Such men as Harvard’s President James Bryant Conant and North Carolina’s Gordon Gray had asked for two years’ military service for all young men reaching the age of 18. The influential, 37-member Association of American Universities last week added its weight to the proposal.

Under the association’s program, there would be no exemptions. The physically unfit could be given useful jobs in noncombat branches of the armed forces. After two years’ service, every man should be assigned automatically to a reserve unit. To get started immediately, the association urged a ten-year extension of the Selective Service Act.

It was not necessarily the answer the country would adopt, but one thing was certain. The present draft procedures would be tightened, and many of the nice exemptions, particularly those that shielded college students, would be dropped. And probably that law would be changed to make 18-year-olds subject to the draft. It would be a bitter pill for youngsters and their parents, but the nation had no other choice.