Glacier County chief., 1940-07-19
ENERAL
HUGH S.
JOH N SON
....,.6!!!'!!Hc:'
Washington, d. C.

A group of 240 distinguished edu-
Gators, clergymen, writers and bust
ness leaders have Just declared
against any "peacetime" conscrip-
ton. They say it is un-American,
totalitarian, un-democratic and that
1t would disrupt business and in
dustry.
They say that highly skilled men
needed for any new mechanical,
motorized war can be had by volun-
tary enlistment under pay sched-
ules sufficiently attractive" This
protest springs from incomplete un-
Outstanding of the principle of selec-
tive service.
There are three steps in the selec-
tive process-registration, classical
ton and induction. Only the last is
IN any sense CONSUMPTION. Regis
tration is universal enrolment of
the manpower of the nation. Clas-
sification is an examination of them
all to see what are the special educa-
ton, skills and aptitudes of each
man, and which can be classified
for military or other service with
the least possible inconvenience TO
himself, the greatest consideration
for his own wishes, the slightest dis
turbance to our economic system
industry, commerce, agriculture ed
ucation-and, above all, domestic
relations and the dependency Of
others.
Class LA, at the beginning at
least, should comprise all men who
could serve with none or the very
slightest impairment Of any of these
standards. When that class is de-
termined, the order of their going
or induction" is determined by a
national lottery or drawing" al
ready conducted in Washington COW
ering all men registered. At this
point, and especially during peace,
or before the drain of war has Gre
ated any real manpower problem, a
provision used during the latter part
Of the 1918 draft preserves all the
virtues of the volunteer system, with
none of its descriptive and sometimes
hateful consequences. We called it
volunteering within call AL"
Class AL, in our present situa-
ton would contain many times the
number we need. 1t would be made
up of the most available men of this
nation-men who are best fitted for
service and who, in the balance of
responsibilities between national and
private obligations have the least of
the latter. Regardless of the ulti-
mate compulsion of their "oroer-
number" those who want to go first
should be permitted to volunteer.
The Involvement of topping high
current civilian competitive rates of
pay for voluntary enlistment, won't
work. 1t carries hint of the stig-
ma of the old mercenary armies
which is worse than that of the old
'press-gang" conscript armies-and
it would make defensive costs pro-
hibitive. Major Eliot's recent sug-
gestion of few extra dollars added
to $2l monthly base pay, wouldn't
induce the kind of men we need to
quit their jobs.
A principal deterrent to voluntary
enlistment is that the term is long
and rigid. It should be one year or
for duration of the emergency.
Few men want to mortgage away
three years of their lives in this rap
idly changing world on any ground
except patriotism.
We seem to be galloping in all di-
rections on this manpower problem.
Under the federal bureau of educa-
ton and WPA we have begun train
ing men as mechanics who have
assumed no obligation to serve. I'm
der the volunteer plan, we are en-
listing men regardless of their me-
chanical training. The whole effort
is hit-or-miss and haywire. If the
true principles of selective service
could be expertly applied on the ba-
sis of experience, we would have the
most fair, flexible, efficient man.
power system in the world.
RUBBER AND TIN
Some of its esteemed contempt
raries do not agree with this col
umn's rebuttal of the constant
claims that we are dependent on the
British and Dutch East Indies for
rubber and tin and that it was only
the concurrence of England that has
enabled US to maintain the Monroe
Doctrine.
Nobody has contested the facts
that we could make better rubber
than we buy or, that by using
conservation, substitution and Boliv-
ian tin, we could get by without East
Indian tin. But 1t is said that it
would be inconvenient, take
long time and cost too much.
challenge all Of this. As to rub
Der, the fact il that Il we, who use
IS per cent Of all the worlds rubber,
turned to mass production on that
vast tonnage, Il would cost no more