Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1951-02-15
The Times Demand 1t

In both an immediate and long-term sense,
the military manpower bill just approved by the
Senate Armed Services Committee is so well
tailored to these dangerously uncertain and
explosive times that Congress as whole should
feel impelled to adopt it, or something very much
like it, by an overwhelming vote.
Formally entitled the Universal Military
Training and Service Act, the bill is the end
result of more than month of intensive and
painstaking effort by the committees Prepared
ness Subcommittee headed by Senator Johnson
of Texas. Although its authors do not claim
perfection for it, it's critics will be hard put to
show how any of its essentials can be cut away
without leaving the security of the Nation on a
woefully weak foundation
For the BILL as explained in an admirably
lucid and convincing statement by Senator john
son, provides for two things that are absolutely
indispensable to the safety of the United States
in the kind of world we have now and the kind
of world we are likely to have for years to come.
The first is the manpower that is needed i'm
mediately to cope with the present crisis. And
the second is the reservoir of trained strength
that we must build up if we are to be adequately
pfepared'to avert grave perils in the future.
Accordingly, to meet the immediate need for
a minimum of $780, 900 men in the armed forces
by next June, the bill would lower the present
induction age and authorize Selective Service to
take 18-year-olds, but with this important pro-
viso: That they would be called after, and only
after, the manpower supply in the older groups
had been exhausted. The first to go would be
all the unmarried and physically fit aged 10
through Is. Next in line would be all the 49,
through-25 single youths with physical defects
not serious enough to disqualfy them from lin
tied duty. Finally, before any 18-year-od were
drafted, all married individuals in the eligible
bracket would be called, except fathers and
veterans
AS for the long-range security objective, the
bill would provide as follows: 1Upon complet-
ing his tour of active duty (26 months including
two months of leave), each man trained for
service would move into the reserve for six
years-an arrangement insuring the retention of
soldiery skills and creating what Senator
Johnson has called a practicable, dependable,
constant ever-ready force of militarily seasoned
manpoWer serving as a base for strategic plan
ming against future dangers. And ca when the
need for rapid mobilization ceases lin which case
authority would exist to end the draft and
shorten the 26-month service period, there
would be established a program of Universal
Training to guarantee the continued mainte-
nance of adequate reserves-a system which we
should have long since put into operation.
Everything considered, the major provisions
of this bill-under which most of the men
affected would serve in the Army, because the
Navy and Air Force are built on long-term
enlistees-seem definitely to be quite as sound
and as fair as they are essential. AS far as the
current situation is concerned, who can doubt
that prompt affirmative action on just such
legislation is sorely needed? After ALL in Senator
Johnson's words, we have suffered about $4,000
casualties in Korea, we have only one ready divi-
sion available for the defense of our country,
and we are engaged in an unacceptable struggle
for survival struggle whose end is not in sight.
And so-whether we like it or Motive must
build up our military manpower and we must
do it as quickly as we can.
Of course, there is always the possibility
that world tensions will suddenly ease and that
the size of our armed forces in being will be out
of proportion to our security needs. At the
moment, however, no possibility could seem more
remote than that, and what we must keep in
mind, in any event, is that the sooner we
develop military strength of the sort envisioned
in the proposed BILL the better chance there will
be to avert new Koreas and the catastrophe of
a global war.
Clearly, this is no time for half measures
AS Senator Johnson has said, "It is better for a
need and not have Too often, the strength
of American arms has been paper strength?
Our greatest peril has been our own lack of
preparation for hours of peril" Let us profit
therefore from our past mistakes and do all
that the present hour requires.