The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1917-05-02
THE ME- MIN d TIMES.

changed, Congress has passed the
selective draft system, the only thing
to be worked out and agreed upon
being the ages to- be included.
! hear some little criticism Of the
selective draft plan, and it comes
mostly from that class of men who
have heretofore been proclaiming
with loud mouth as to what the Unit
ed States should do. They have been
shouting that the United States
should take Mexico, but the admins
tration did not see fit to take Mexico,
and the president knew what he was
doing, and has known all the time
just what he was doing.
1t now turns out, however, that our
country is in war, and it is much
bigger thing than the Mexican bust
ness ever was. We are properly in
the war. Our duty to ourselves, and
to the liberty loving people Of the
world demands that we should be in
it. But we are going to know some-
thing about war conditions before
we get through with it.
The selective draft system of rails
ing an army is the current plan. If
it were not then the president would
not have asked for it, and the war
college in Washington would not have
worked out the system. They have
worked out all the details, having the
experiences and mistakes of the other
nations now in war to profit by, and
they know it to be better plan than
the volunteer system.
l notice that some of our congress-
men, especially Byrnes and Dominick,
have opposed it, while our own con-
gresham from the first district,
Whaley, has supported the admins
tration fully. I think he is to be
entirely commended for his action,
and in an interview / notice that he
says the president and the war de-
partment and the war college, who
have studied the matter thoroughly,
and whose business it is to know,
know more about it than he does, and
for that reason he would support the
administration. notice also that the
leading republicans have supported
the administration. That is what I
would have done if I had been in
congress. When we are in war our
entire national strength must be con-
centrated in some central power, and
our constitution puts the duty on the
president to carry on the war.
There are many reasons why the
selective draft system is better than
the volunteer system, and why we
should support it cheerfully, even
though it may amount to compulsion.
When our country is in war the gov
ernment has right to use our per-
sons and our property in whatever
way it sees fit for the common de-
fense. If a man is producing nothing
at home, and is doing nothing, and
nobody dependent upon him, then it
is right for the government to call
him out, and let him do something
for the country which has granted
him so much liberty. On the other
hand if man is worth more at home
in the productive spheres of life than
he would be worth in the trenches,
the government has a perfect right to
refuse to accept his volunteering, and
use him at home where he can rem
der the most service to the common
nfrIy T,,t <>F
needs food produced at home just as
bad as it needs men in the trenches,
and if the draft system will have the
effect of driving the cowardly loafing
fellow who will not work, into the
field where he will make something to
feed himself, ~ though he does it
to keep out ,rvice, then it will
do a good thing.
There are enough men loafing
around the drug stores and restau-
rants and soda founts and pool rooms
in the towns in South Carolina, to
make up our states quota of soldiers.
And another thing, when the govern
ment begins to draft men it will also
have secret men in our midst, and
lot of this reasonable talk will stop.
There are hundreds of men guilty
of treason right here IN South Caro-
lima, and there are some few in Clar-
endon county. War is what Sherman
said it was. We are now in a state
of war, and are entering into the
real thing. So we are entering into