Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1945-03-01
Letters to The Star
An Army Mother Tells How
To Pass Service Law
To the Editor of The Star:

Apparently it is lot easier to tell
men that they must fight and die than
it, is to tell men that they must work
or fight. At least the men on Capitol
Hill seem to find it so. I wonder If I
may be permitted to offer few sug-
gestions. to the gentlemen trying to
write this legislation.
A national service law is not some
thing separate and apart from the Sc
lective Service Act Indeed, they are
really one and the same thing. They
should have been written together, at
the same time. Since they were not,
the legislation really is nothing more
than a supplement or a necessary
amendment to the Selective Service
Act
A nation which has the right to say
to 100000 of its citizens that they
must fight and die If need be to de-
fend their country certainly has, or
should have, the right to say to other
numbers of its citizens where and when
and how they must work or serve to
help those who have been committed
to the battle fronts.
Men cannot fight without proper
equipment. They must have food and
clothing, guns and ammunition, tanks,
ships and planes, and 1t is the duty OF
Congress to see that they have what
ever they need.
In writing this legislation, the legis-
lators should forget about the labor
oil
sure, worthy and important in their
proper places, but they have nothing
to do with the legislators Secondly,
the very ugly term slave labor" has
no meaning whatsoever in our democ-
racy and should not have been dragged
into this discussion.
Take a sheet of clean, white paper
and on it write these four words:
Equal Service-Equal Sacrifice" These
words are all the help needed to write
this little piece of legislation.
Last February municipal power work.
ers went on strike in Los Angeles; and
70 plants manufacturing vital aircraft
parts were forced to halt production
While this strike was in progress, Los
Angeles was hit by a storm and power
lines were blown down. The strikers
were appealed to by Undersecretary of
War Patterson, and to this appeal the
business manager of the International
Brotherhood of Electrical Workers
(AFL) is said to have replied that the
storm was an act of God that put the
power lines on the ground and they
would stay there.
Today, thousands of our young SOL
diers are in Army hospitals suffering
with frozen feet, due in part, we are
told, to lack of proper clothing. One of
these soldiers an 18-year-old boy who
few weeks before had been in the
warm, sunny climate of Florida, wrote
from Luxembourg, The snow is waist
deep here and we have to wear from
to pairs of socks and two pairs
of shoes in order to keep halfway
warm
1 wonder what would have happened
to that young soldier If he had re-
ported to his commanding officer, Sir,
this snow Is an act of GOD, refuse to
fight in It'll" AN ARMY MOTHER.
Involuntary Servitude' Opposed
To the Editor of The Star:
Do We need labor rationing or labor
draft? Neither.
If your readers forum is not closed
to expressions in opposition, please pub
lish this.
Human beings are not a commodity
for governmental disposal.
Not only does voluntary labor pro-
duce more than involuntary servitude,
but our Constitution forbids involun-
tary servitude except as a punishment
for crime
Involuntary servitude would destroy
the spirit of America. which constitutes
our greatest might Let us back up
our armed forces and not let them
down. GEO. E SULLIVAN