The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1940-09-26

Happenings That Affect the Dinner
Pals, Dividend Checks and Tax
Bills of Every Individual. National
and International Problems Insep-
arabic from Local Welfare.

Wnen the draft blll-Oftlclally called
the selective military service act
came before Congress, it was known
that the great majority of the Amer
ican people favored it. So did all the
leading commentators. So did most
public men, including both President
Roosevelt and Contender Willkie. The
country looked in wondering amaze
ment at what the totalitarian powers
were doing to ce-democratic Europe,
and was grimly determined that every
possible step should be taken to make
sure that nothing of that kind would
happen here at home. Under those
it would have been a
reasonable forecast that the draft
measure would go through in jig time.
But it didn't-Congress has seldom
|given more time to debating any
measure. And there is very good
reason for that. Congress did not
want the draft bill-the great ma
jority of the Senators and Representa-
|tives voting for it did so with deep
regrets. They supported it, in brief,
because they felt that dire necessity
demanded it. And they knew that,
once the bill became law, great and
as yet unrealized change would have
|come over the American scene.
This country has always been dead
set against compulsory military SER
vice in peace-time. 1t has always
felt that forcing men to take up arms
when we were not at war was in di-
rect violation Of the democratic pro-
cess and the democratic tradition. It
has looked with a mixture of pity and
contempt on those European nations
where for centuries every able-bodied
man has been required to give year
or two Of his life, war or no war, to
learning something about the craft of
|arms. And yet, despite that, once the
menace of dictatorship became clear,
the country reversed it's previous
stand and decided that the peace time
draft was the lesser of the evils.
The mechanics Of the law are simple
Ienough. Next month every man in
the nation between the ages of 81 and
I35, inclusive, will go to a place of
Registration and fill out blank. Some
|16,5 100000 men will be involved, and
by early next year it is estimated
that 100000 of them will be called
ito the colors. The men chosen will
serve for year, and will be paid $50
la month. There is nothing in the
law granting deferment to men with
dependents and families-deferment is
specifically granted only to those who,
in the opinion q ,tnf President, are
filling important Jobs in industries and
callings which are essential to de-
fense. 1t is believed certain, however,
that men with dependents will not be
called unless war comes.
What will be the effect of the draft
on our economic order? Only time can
answer that question fully, but some
of the results can be easily foreseen.
The bulk of healthy, single young men
will be temporarily taken away from
the society they are used to. They
won't be marrying and building homes.
They won't be earning good wages and
spending them. Their places will be
taken by older men, or by men whose
physical status makes them unfit for
military life. And when, the years
training over, these young men are
released, another dislocation will take
place. The draft law provides that
every employer who is able to, must
take the conscripts back, and put them
in the same jobs at the same wages.
! That will mean that men taken on in
the meantime to do the work must be
discharged. In some cases, men who
have spent year in the army will
be slow to get back again into the
routine of their Jobs, and that will in
volve loss of time and money. All in
all, the draft law will unquestionably
create many problem for industry no
less than the individual.
1t doesn't make a pleasant picture.
And certainly, peace-time draft is,
in principle, opposed to what this kind
of q country and government stands
for. But few oppose the action of
Congress in adopting it. Ill-trained
soldiers, in modern war, become easily
Slaughtered soldiers.
| One pyceedinr irpnortant rhanpe