Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1917-04-24
The Presidents Appeal
For the SeIectipe Draft.

PRESIDENT wilson states the underlying primer
pie of the selective draft bill clearly and points
out so convincingly the necessity for its adoption
that it is difficult see how any reasonable
patriotic member OF Congress persist in oppos-
ing the Administration this supremely impor-
tant measure
r"Our object" says the President in his
letter TO Representative delivering, of Kan
sas. lis mobilization OF all the productive
and active forces of the nation, and their de-
velopment to the highest point of cooperation
and efficiency. The idea of the selective draft
is that those should be chosen for service in
the army who be most readily spared
from the prosecution of the other activities
which the country must engage in and to
which il must devote great deal of its best
energy and capacity. The volunteer system
does not do this When men choose them
selves they sometimes choose without due
gard 10 their other responsibilities. Men may
come from the farm from the mines from
the factories or centers of business who ought
not 10 come but who ought to stand back
of.rhe army in the field and see that it gets
everything it needs and that the people of the
country are sustained in the meantime"
The fatal defect of the volunteer system for
war like that in which we are now involved is not
that il would fail TO produce the needed number
of recruits but that il would fail utterly in the
fundamental task OF modelling all the productive
and active forces of the nation and developing them
to the highest point of cooperation and efficiency.
Partisans OF the volunteer system seem to forget
that the raising of army is but of the great
responsibilities to be met and that military service
but one of the numerous and varied fields of duty
TO which patriotic Americans called. Ii is i'm
perative of course that we muster and train
adequate military force with the least possible de-
Law a force which eventually should number at
least three million But il is no less impera-
tive that We keep the country's basic industries
going at full speed-its factories and farms and
mines and all the machinery essential to its eco
nomic efficiency II we fail in this essential,
shall fan wholly and irretrievably. matter how
many troops muster.
II is easily conceivable that Germany could be
brought to terms without the presence of Ameri-
can army on the European front, but it is vr-
tuaIIy inconceivabe that Germany could be brought
70 such terms as the worlds freedom and security
demand unless American supplies are kept pouring
into England and France. Whatever else we MAJ
, do or fail to do, dare not neglect the funds
mental need of keeping our productive forces in
tact and our productive output undiminished This
consideration in no wise lessons the Importance
the urgency of recruiting great army. No
can foresee the full responsibilities of this the
emergencies II NAV thrust upon US, the dangers
near or far il may develop. AS value our safety
and the principles for which stand must be
prepared TO exert the utmost our man power
well as our financial and industrial power.
Bur we cannot make our man power count until
we have made our industrial power sure. and
therein lies the fatal defect of the volunteer
TEN and the necessity for the seective draft sys-
tenn If begin our military preparations by
stripping farms and munition plants and foundries
and transportation service Of men needed for their
operation. We shall be doing the very thing which
the HohenzolIerns wish us to do. We shall be
crippling our allies and Gripping ourselves, for
without an abundant output of foodstuffs and mill
itary supplies should find it impossible to main
tain our own armies much less to succor those OF
the Entente. No one who has looked into the rec
ords of indiscrimnate volunteering in the present
war can doubt what its effect upon our industrial
efficiency would be- In battalion of English
troops recruited under the impulsive system of
volunteering there were two hundred expert NUM-
ton workers who were invaluable to their nation
in the Industry which they abandoned in Jealous
but misdirected patriotism. The indiscriminate
withdrawal OF labor from English farms proved
weII-nigh disastrous to the countrys agricultural
interests Indeed, many fields of production on
which the successful conduct OF the war depended,
the volunteer system brought such confusion and
downright distress, that England was forced to
undertake at a critical juncture of the war com
plete reorganization of the military industries.
Those members of Congress who stubboruly ignore
the warnings OF such experience and who blindly
would commit their country to plan filled with
periI and doomed to failure either incompetent
or unworthy OF their trust
The seIective draft system when once fairly in
affect would bring all the energies of the country
into efficient cooperation and at the same time
would inspire the whole nation with broader and
5eeper sense OF service. The system has at its
raart as the President says. this idea:
That there is universal obligation to
serve and that a public authority should
CHOOSE those upon whom the obligation of mil