Evening star., 1943-03-07
The Forrest Remedy

Will QaSS tllc 0CIldtc IL Vic ldNO1 dOIC
vote by which it was reported from
the Senate Military Affairs Commit
tee and the co-sponsorship of some
forty Senators are indications of its
support.
These measures, If enacted into
law, undoubtedly will make more
difficult the operation Of selective
service and the raising and training
Of a powerful Army. Yet they reflect
no hostility to the Army on the part
Of the legislative committees most
responsible for It's proper develop
ment. What they do reflect is a
growing and widespread dissatisfac-
ton, in the one case, with the opera
ton of local draft boards, and, in
the second place, with the failure
to handle adequately the problem
of farm labor supply.
The Kilday bill represents an at
tempt to implement what already is
the established policy of Congress
in considering dependency factor in
deferment. According to Mr.. Kilday,
that policy has failed, for one rea-
son because of the lack of uniformity
in local draft board practice-illus-
trated by the draft board on one
side of the street which may be call
ing married men while the draft
board across the street still has a
reserve Of unmarried men on its
lists. seective service, authorities,
on the other hand. say the Kilday
bill will create perplexing admins
trative difaculties, and that, speak
ing nationally. I'VE are already
scraping the bottom Of the barrel
for single men. At most, its oppo-
nents say, the bills enactment
would merely mean a slight delay in
the inevitable draft Of fathers.
In the case of the Bankhead bill,
support is furnished in the form of
the very powerful and compelling
argument that the shortage Of labor
on the farms will reduce our food
supply, perhaps to the danger point.
Under the Tydings amendment,
however, already part Of the selec-
tive Service Act, "any person neces-
sary to and regularly engaged In an
agricultural occupation essential to
the war effort" may be deferred from
military service as long as he is so
engaged, and the War Department
estimates that before the end Of the
year 8 1000, 900 persons will have been
so deferred. More farm labor has
quit the farm for higher-paying jobs
In industry than has been drafted
into military service.
But under terms Of the Bankhead
bill, no attempt Is made even to
measure the Importance to agricul-.
ture. in individual cases. Of defer
ments. II the man is farming, he is
deferred. That is unfair to the men
who have been drafted and are serv-
ing now on the battle fronts. It is
unfair to non-farmers. who can ex-
pect no such preferential treatment.
It Is unfair to Thousands Of fine
young men who. because OF their
work on the farm. are to be denied
an opportunity to serve in the armed
forces. It Is unfair to those charged
with building and training an Army
to win the war. And 1t repudiates
the sound principle, written into the
selective Service Act, that there
shall be no deferments by occupa-
tional groups. Each case must be
considered on its merits.
It Is unfortunate that Congress,
faced as it is with the prospect Of
serious manpower shortages in many
areas as well as on the farms, does
not proceed first to an attempt to
remedy that shortage by treating
the problem as a whole. and not
piecemeal The method of treating
it as a whole is outlined in the Wads-
worth-Austin bill for universal Sc
lective service, placing the labor of
every able-bodied man and woman
at the disposition of the Government
for use, where it is most needed. until
this war is won. That is the method
we have followed to select the men
for military service. It is the method
that eventually must be followed in
selecting men, and women, for es-
sential civilian services. It Is the
only fair method to accomplish what
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