The Omaha guide., 1945-11-24
Released by Calvin's News Service

For 1853 years America has been conspicuous "a
mong all the nations for its deep repugnance for
militarism. DiStruSt of the professional soldier is
one of the best and noblest of American traditions.
and this tradition is unquestionably the most form
liable obstacle to the Administrations plans for
e~nacting peacetime consumption. The schemers III
the War Department know this, hence are making
a prodigious effort to "sell'' compulsory military
training and are making for it a variety OF exagger-
ated claims. Last week we examined three. Here
are three more:
1. That compulsory training tends to discipline
youth.
But America is a political democracy, and the
kind of discipline taught through military training
is alien to the exercise Of political democratic rights
Military training is unquestiOning and unthlnkil!g
obedience. This is the sort Of discipline expected
of a citizen Of a totalitarlan State. 1t IS at war with
and utterly r%ejugnant to, democratic principles.
2. Tha compulsory training enhances democrat
ic institutions.
On the contrary, because militarisn is, itself, au-
thoritarian, it has only contempt for democracy. In
every country where CONSUMPTION has been permit
ted to flourish, the militarlStS have sought by means
ranging from insidious pressure on educators and
legislators to forcible intervention, to create society
after its own image. Moreover, the training itself
exults anti-democratic methods. AS the quasi
official organ of the armed services, the ARMY and
NAVY REGISTER, put it:
'"-to speak of democracy of life in the ranks is
the most utter flap-dOOdle anyone ever enumerated
ILL. Any mass effort where one is endowed with
sole responsibility and given full authority. lis
hardly Democratic
Actually, capitalist militarism faithfully reflects
the most antl-demOcratic features OF capitalist con-
dltions. This is most conspicuous in the pattern of
race relations which have developed in American
military organizations Jim Crow rules officially
in only a few of the states of the United States. Yet
throughout the military establishment segregation
is the rule. Thus, the services become, in practice,
a machine for disseminating the racial dogma of
white SunrpmacV' 10 white VOuth drafted for
training under the proposed compulsory system,
the brand Of inferior that the services put upon
Negroes will inevitably have the effect Of swelling
racial pride and engendering arrogance.
Far from enhancing democratic Institutions, mil
itariSm is fated to destroy democracy.
3. That compulsory training is not a menace to
labor.
If Negroes, as Negroes, have reason to resist the
rise of militarism, they have even more reason to
resist it as workers. In every capitalist nation in
the world, miitarism, and the military caste it in
vitality creates, has repeatedly interviewed against
the workers in their struggle against their exploit
ers, supporting the tyranny Of capital directly and
indirectly. This is true even OF such 'tmOdel" mil
itary establishments as that Of Switzerland. Indeed,
the Swiss conscript army, which has not been called
upon In a hundred years to repel an invader, has
been used scores Of times to break strikes.
Of course armies recruited on a voluntary basis
have also interviewed on the side of employers in
economic conflicts. In countries which r%eDudiate
militarism, however, such ipterventions are check
ed by public opinion. On the other hand, the mill
tary-mindedness, which sooner or later infects a ma
ton that has adopted permanent military con-
%scription. insures the wider and more frequent use
OF the military III this manner. By the very nature
OF things, objections to even the violent interven-
ton Of troops in capital-labor disputes are less
strenuous among a people who are indoctrinated
with a military spirit.