Evening star., 1944-03-17

makes a better soldier than a man
of IS or over, and yet for many
months the Army was inducing men
in their late thirties.
The waste presented by this in
difference to age classifications has
repeatedly been called to the at
tention of the War Department,
and finally Gen Marshall himself
publicly said the older men were
not standing the physical strain.
First Major Mistake.
But this is only one of several
blunders. The first major mistake
was the misleading claim made on
behalf Of "selective SERVICE" that
citizens would be selected on the
basis of their usefulness and that
this was better than volunteer
system. It was assumed that key
men would not be allowed to vol
unteeer from industry but would be
selected.
The Navy and War Departments,
however, for a long time failed to
keep this promise--tne volunteer
system was permitted to operate
along with the selective service
method. Executives of aircraft COM
panies told the Government re-
peatedly, but in vain, that they
were more troubled by the tendency
OF their valuable workers for vol
unteer and thus disrupt industrial
organizations than the denial of
requests for occupational defer
ments.
Another mistake, of course, was
the blanket deferment of agricul-
tural workers, and for this the Con-
gress and political pressure are re-
sponsible. 1t is impossible to raise
an Army If whole groups are de-
ferred for any reason disconnected
from the war. Thus the question
as between fathers and nonfathers
has a sentimental argument back of
1t, but not a military justification.
Selection by Strength.
AS a matter of fact, in many re-
spects married men make better
officers and soldiers than unmarried
men-they are more settled and
better poised and take their respon-
sibilities and duties more seriously
than do the unmarried. Pressure
from Congress brought up the father
and nonfather distinction. It never
would have been raised by the War
Department itself because there is
only one way to select troops and
that's on the basis of their physical
strength and temperament.
Unfortunately, this was not the
basis used. Indeed, boys under go
were permitted occupational defer
ments in the early months of the
war, when employers should have
been forced to employ older persons.
Only now, after the war is two years
and three months under way and
the draft law is more than three
years old, the instructions are going
forth to local draft boards to re-
strict deferments of boys from 18
to 26 years of age.
Gen. Hershey has said he didn't
have the authority to make age
classiflcations. But he is doing it
now. He has really had all the
authority he needed, but somebody's
faulty theory as to how to select
an army influenced Gen. Hershey.
Indeed, it is a mysterious fact that
no congressional committee has ever
delved deeply enough into the whole
selective service problem to find out
who actually made the haphazard
rules and policies under which man
power has been selected.
Buck Passed Around.
The buck has been passed all
around. For a time the alibi was
that the War Manpower Commission
and the Selective Service system
had divided authority; the Rresi-
dent transferred Selective Service
to VINO; then Congress stepped in
and gave Gen. Hershey the full
power. To what extent was he
hamstrung by others? To what
extent did he or his staff ignore
past experience?
The subject presents an interest
Ing basis for careful examination
Even if it revealed situations nou,