Evening star., 1941-05-13
SeIective Service
Seen as Educational
Opportunity for U. 5.
Senator Ebert Thomas
Urges Fair Trial Before
Amending Act

Senator Thomas, Democrat, of
Utah, discussed the advisability of
amending the Selective Service Act
In an address last night in the Ma
tional Radio Forum, arranged by
The Star
The talk was broadcast over ma
tional hookup of the National
Broadcasting Co., and was heard
locally over Station WMAL.
The text of the speech follows:
Does the Selective Service Act
need amendment? 1t is, of course,
In its administration being modified
from day to day. The act also has
had one or two corrective amend
mentS suggested. Does it need gen.
eral amendment? I will answer that
question by first stating the purpose
ence at a time of great national pres
sure for military preparedness and
national defense. The President had
already suggested that our industries
should be expanded to the place
where they could produce $4,000 air
planes year. The foreign nations
at war were ordering our output.
The Neutrality Act had been amend
ed so that these nations could pur-
chase military equipment. The fall
of France brought CONSERVATION to
our people. The responsibilities which
rested upon our Government to
maintain the law and the policy of
the Government in regard to the
protection of the American states
and the expansion of the Monroe
Doctrine all contributed to the de-
sire for increasing our national de-
fense. A bill was introduced which
would have provided for almost COM
plete compulsory training and the
registration of all males in the
United States between the ages of
18 and 65, most drastic law from
the standpoint of our military his
tory. If we had planned gradually
for the great emergency which seems
to be facing us we, of course, would
have started years ago with the
building up of man power for indus
try, for education, for military serv-
ice and for the intensified national
activity in general.
Basically Educational Act.
The theory of the Selective Service
Act is based upon the fundamental
notion that persons should serve in
those capacities of national emer-
gency when the endeavor of all is
being stressed for a single objective;
that each person should serve in
that capacity he can serve the best,
and the judgment as to where he
can serve the best is to be decided in
the light of circumstances and by
local boards in local communities.
The Selective Service Act which
finally became law is basically an
educational act. 1t deals with the
training of men. 1t does not pro-
vide for universal military training
1t provides for the training of an
extremely comparatively small, Sc
lect group, each persons selection
having been determined on the basis
Of actual need. In working out what
should be the policy of the Nation
In regard to registration of names
from which to make this selection,
compromise was reached after days
OF debate and after disagreement
between the two houses of Con-
gress, which compromise was de-
cided primarily because 1t was in
keeping with the habits of the Army
In receiving enlisted men with just
q slight modification. The Army
will recruit persons between the
ages Of 18 and 25. Both houses had
already decided that persons under
81 should not be registered. The
theory behind that decision was that
a person should be free from break
in his schooling and that the Army
took those who wished to enlist at
18 and that such organizations as
the Civilian Conservation Corps and
the National Youth Administration,
which are giving splendid training,
should not be interfered with
The compromise reached made it
possible to register those persons be-
tween 81 and IS. This would give
names covering a great variety of
occupations, calling for great va
riety of deferments and exemptions,
and would allow better administra-
tive experimentation in the initia-
ton of the act. We were told as a
result of study of the best available
information furnished by the War
Department and our Census Bureau,
that male persons between the ages
of 81 and 35 would supply 13,500,000
names. This would be over IA or
Is times as many persons as would
ever be called in given year. AS
q result of the registration we dis
covered that instead of only 1914
million persons being registered,
nearly II million were registered.
This fact should make it possible
for us to make three general deduc-
tions: First, we did not know exactly