All of this could be accomplished on a voluntary basis, but it would not be. My main reason for believing that it is important to have this year of service compulsory is that I believe so much in the value of knowing many sides of our national life. While I know quite well that there are a good many of our young people who would gladly volunteer for this year of service, I also know that there are a considerable number who would not volunteer. They constitute the very group who force the majority of the nation to make the opportunity for training and education compulsory. Another important reason why girls should give a year of service to our country is that through so many years we have been constantly increasing our placid acceptance of what the men in our country provided, and that frequently includes their participation in government and their defense of us in wars.
Wars today are back where they used to be, and women stand side by side with the men.
Our forefathers fought a daily fight for the preservation of their hard-won liberty. The women of the pioneer days stood side by side with their husbands, shared every hardship, and were often left to fight the battle of life all alone. We accepted our freedom as a gift from the pioneers and from heaven, and yet it is more than evident today that there are constant assaults on our liberty, perhaps not the least of which is our own apathy. If we wish democracy to survive we must be constantly alive to the many-sided battle we wage. Take the question of freedom of religion.