The Case For A Voluntary Army

...Emergencies must be met with forces in being, however they are recruited...

...This implicit tax in kind should be added to the explicit taxes imposed on the rest of us to get the real cost of our armed forces...

...The essence of freedom, and the essence between the compulsion of the liberal position and the voluntary nature of the conservative position is to be found in this draft situation...

...This approach does not meet the student as a student instead it tries to take him away from the university community to "protect his faith" by reproducing the familiar religious atmosphere of his childhood...

...There would then be an excess of volunteers — queues...

...Liberals favor it but either want to make it random in its selection or extend it to social as well as military service...

...There are still other offsets...

...The popularity or unpopularity of the activities for which the armed forces are used will clearly affect the ease of recruiting men...

...competing for souls against an intellectual and organizational giant that is far more impressive than the hymn singing, irrelevant scripture quoting and readymade answers of the churches...

...The Christian Establishment And The University The most awkward appendage to any university campus is that of established Christianity...

...For the political gain, we should be willing to bear the higher financial costs involved in fairly high turnover 7 and rather short average terms of service for officers...

...Isn't a doctor a mercenary...

...We do not need precise and accurate knowledge of the levels of pay and amenities that will be required...

...Our free institutions would certainly be safer if the conditions of the world permitted us to maintain far smaller armed forces...

...No matter how avant — garde the building might be it is a dead center because the Church has tied itself to one spot, and isolated itself in limestone walls...

...b) Would a voluntary army be racially unbalanced...

...Yet that is what our present pay scales plus conscription amount to...

...It means that, at least for a time, the administration and the military services can proceed fairly arbitrarily in committing U. S. forces...

...Moreover, better pay at the time to volunteers might lessen the political appeal of veteran's benefits that we now grant after the event...

...The military services no less than the civil service need and will benefit from in-and-outers...

...It has been estimated that even if every qualified Negro who does not now serve were to serve whites would still constitute a substantial majority of the armed forces...

...It is hard to find any relation historically between the method of recruiting enlisted men and the political threat from the armed forces...

...Hence the draft bears disproportionately on the upper lower classes...

...This is clearly true on the level of individual equity: the soldier no less than the rest of us is worth his hire...

...It is evidence rather that we are now grossly underpaying our armed forces...

...Under present conditions, the number of persons who volunteer for armed service is inadequate to man the armed forces, and even so, many who volunteer do so only because they anticipate being drafted...

...The key question is how much flexibility is required...

...Napoleon and Franco both rose to power at the head of conscripts...

...College and universities would be saved the cost of housing, seating, and entertaining hundreds of thousands of young men...

...The voluntary method provides a continuing referendum of the public at large...

...At most, something like one-third will have seen military service by the time they reach age 26...

...This is surely not an unreasonable sum...

...This is a consideration that will be regarded by some as an advantage of conscription, by others, including myself, as a disadvantage...

...A smaller, but more highly skilled, technically competent, and better armed force could provide the same or greater military strength...

...b) Individual freedom...

...The draft is an inefficient way to get and train men in this day of highly technological warfare, where even a foot soldier is a highly skilled man who must have long, careful training...

...It is evidence of no such thing...

...The case for abolishing conscription and recruiting our armed forces by voluntary methods seems to me overwhelming...

...Not the least of the advantages of a voluntary army is that the military would have to improve their personnel policies and pay more attention to meeting the needs of the enlisted men...

...When he is forced to serve, we are in effect imposing on him a tax in kind equal in value to the difference between what it would take to attract him and the military pay he actually receives...

...Just think about it...

...To put it differently and in terms that will become fully clear to non-economists only later, it might turn out that the implicit tax of forced service is less bad than the alternative taxes that would have to be used to finance a voluntary army...

...They sympathize with the aims of the system, but they cannot and do not sympathize with the method, no matter its motive...

...They now need pay little attention to them, since they can fill their ranks with conscripts serving under compulsion...

...Oi estimates that the total extra 5 payroll costs (after allowing for the savings in turnover and men employed in training) would be around $3 billion to $4 billion a year for armed forces equivalent to 2.7 million men under present methods of recruitment and not more than $8 billion a year for armed forces equivalent to the present higher number of men (around 3.1 or 3.2 million men...

...It is the amount for which he would be willing to serve...

...Whatever happens to the apparent monetary cost, the real cost of a voluntary army would almost surely be less than of the present system and it is not clear that the apparent monetary cost would be higher — if it is correctly measured for the community as a whole...

...Moreover, there are some important offsets even to the increase in apparent money cost...

...They will be tempted to procrastinate, relying on the crutch of conscription...

...Both are very different from the use of conscription to man the standing army in time of peace or brush-fire wars or wars like that in Vietnam, which require recruiting only a minority of young men...

...I. The disadvantages of compulsion and ADVANTAGES OF A VOLUNTARY ARMY (a) Military effectiveness...

...This line-up is of deep concern to anyone who recognizes the increased political importance of Americans under 25...

...c) Would a voluntary army have sufficient flexibility...

...Isn't the heart of a free society the "mercenary" notion that men may hire one another to do jobs in a free exchange...

...The answer is partly inertia — a carryover from a total war situation when the case for a voluntary army is far weaker (section 2...

...The size of each category would be determined by estimates of future military needs...

...This disadvantage could be avoided under a compulsory system by, for example, a universal lottery that at age 16, say, assigned youngsters categories such as: certain to be called, likely to be called, possibly will be called, unlikely to be called, certain not to be called...

...It would permit also intensive training and a higher average level of skill of the men in the service...

...This would involve serious political and administrative problems...

...That is certainly true — and equally certainly irrelevant...

...have maintained freedom while relying primarily on volunteers...

...Manning our military forces currently requires the services of only a minority of young men...

...It is past time that we regain our heritage...

...III...

...Few students are hostile toward religion, they simply greet its presence with indifference...

...The number of "true" volunteers is clearly much too small to man armed forces of our present size...

...As the number of volunteers increased, the lash of compulsion could fade away...

...early everyone who is physically capable will serve a. yway, there is little room for free choice, the avoidi^ice of uncertainty, and so on...

...Imaginative policies designed to make the armed forces attractive to the kind of men the armed forces would like to have — plus the elimination of compulsion which now makes military service synonymous with enforced incarceration — could change drastically the whole image that the armed services present to young men...

...The agents of the established churches are too busy paying for and maintaining the plant, their time is consumed within the walls of the church buildings in endless meetings and programs that attempt to compete with the University and lure students into religious activities and into the buildings...

...The fraction of highschool graduates who serve is vastly higher than either those who have gone to college or those who dropped out before finishing high school...

...What we need, and what conservatives back to the hilt, is a fully professional military service, paid well enough to attract all the men needed and so managed that they will want to remain on their job...

...It would still be technically possible to have a voluntary army, and there would still be some advantages, since it is doubtful that literally 100 per cent of the potential cardidates will in fact be drawn into the army...

...If the military judgment is that, in such a contingency, there would be time and reason to expand the armed forces manyfold, either universal military training (to provide a trained reserve force) or standby provisions for conscription could be justified...

...Let military needs suddenly increase, and draft calls can be rapidly stepped up, and conversely...

...They are just against the fact, it seems to me, that the compulsion in this case is being used as part of an effort against their current heroes, the Viet Cong...

...Substitution of a voluntary army (or of a lottery) for the present draft would permit colleges and universities to pursue their proper educational function, freed alike from the incubus of young men — probably numbering in the hundreds of thousands — who would prefer to be at work rather than in school but who now continue their schooling in the hope of avoiding the draft and from controversy about issues strictly irrelevant to their educational function...

...And representatives of all parts of the political spectrum have urged that conscription be abolished — including John K. Galbraith and Barry Goldwater...

...Two Worlds Between the liberal and conservative positions lies the world of difference that marks the two philosophies...

...The starting pay for young men who enter the armed forces is now about $45 a week — including not only cash pay and allotments but also the value of clothing, food, housing, and other items furnished in kind...

...It seems to me that every young American should consider it carefully before he takes a political side...

...Those who are attracted to the religious foundations are often social misfits looking for escape and solace in a familiar atmosphere...

...We should follow personnel policies that will continue to make at least a period of military service as an officer attractive to young men from many walks of life...

...There is first a question of fact...

...4 Similarly, the community at large would benefit from the reduction of unwise earlier marriages contracted at least partly under the whip of the draft and from the probable associated reduction in the birth rate...

...Clearly, it is a good thing, not a bad thing, to offer better alternatives to the currently disadvantaged...

...My own inclination is to regard it as the reddest of red herrings...

...The transition to a volunteer army Given the will, there is no reason why the transition to volunteer armed forces cannot begin at once and proceed gradually by a process of trial and error...

...Both might have the same attitudes toward the army and like — or dislike — a military career equally...

...e) Effect on rest of community...

...In part this argument involves invalid extrapolation from the present conscripted army to a voluntary army...

...The fallacy in this argument is that the danger comes primarily from the officers, who are now and always have been a professional corps of volunteers...

...As it was, the easiest thing to do when military needs for manpower rose was to reactivate the recent wartime technique...

...6 They have always appealed to people of varied classes and backgrounds and they will continue to do so...

...It has been argued that a military career would be so much more attractive to the poor than to the wellto-do that volunteer armed services would be staffed disproportionately by the poor...

...But it can be minimized as readily with a volunteer as with a conscription army...

...A few examples from history will show that the danger to political stability is largely unrelated to the method of recruiting enlisted men...

...The natural tendency of an administrator of a large, complex, and ongoing 3 activity is to regard the present method of administering it as the only feasible way to do so and to object strenuously that any proposed alternative is visionary and unfeasible — even though the same man, once the change is made and it becomes the existing method, will argue just as strenuously that it is the only feasible method...

...There is no reason why we cannot move to volunteer forces gradually — by making conditions of service more and more attractive until the whip of compulsion fades away (section 4...

...While the problems referred to are real, the first and third are in no way connected with the use of voluntary or compulsory means to recruit enlisted men and do not constitute valid arguments against abolishing the draft...

...If the number of men required increased, the queues could be shortened and conversely...

...The atmosphere of freedom, openness and toler8...

...The relatively well-to-do are in an especially good position to take advantage of the possibilities of deferment offered by continuing their schooling...

...Adequate pay alone may not attract, but inadequate pay can certainly deter...

...They could be offered and could accept jobs requiring considerable training instead of having to take stop-gap jobs while awaiting a possible call to service...

...The disadvantages of our present system of compulsion and the advantages of a voluntary army are so widely recognized that we can deal with them very briefly (section 1...

...The churches always manage to give the impression that they are at war with the "godless" university...

...But ii...

...This tendency is present today in exaggerated form — the present levels of pay are comparatively more attractive to Negroes than the higher levels of pay in voluntary armed forces would be...

...Particularly if pay and amenities were made more attractive, there is every reason to expect that they would draw from all segments of the community...

...I can hear the liberals and radicals screaming that this would mean an army of mercenaries...

...This, in my opinion is the direction in which we should move and the sooner the better...

...The real life of the University is going on in the lounges and libraries, in the apartments, dorms and bars, but the Church hardly knows where these places are...

...And it would encourage the use of more and better equipment...

...This is the extra cost to him that must be added to the cost borne by the rest of us...

...Conservatives want to end the draft—period...

...Even the highest of these estimates is not in any way unfeasible in the context of total federal government expenditures of more than $175 billion a year...

...Perhaps there are some effects in the opposite direction, but I have not been able to find any...

...f) Defects unavoidable under compulsion...

...We have reverted to a barbarous custom...

...A volunteer army would be manned by people who had chosen a military career rather than at least partly by reluctant conscripts anxious only to serve out their term...

...c) Arbitrary discrimination...

...Beyond this question of fact, there is the more basic question of principle...

...The real cost of conscripting a soldier who would not voluntarily serve on present terms is not his pay and the cost of his keep...

...Based on the same evidence the Defense Department has come up with estimates as high as $17.5 billion...

...One of the advantages cited for conscription is that it permits great flexibility in the size of the armed services...

...This percentage is scheduled to decline still further as the youngsters bom in the postwar baby boom come of age...

...Yet the fraction of persons in the armed forces who are Negro is roughly the same as in the population at large...

...The recent military takeover in Argentina was by armed forces recruiting enlisted men by conscription...

...The change in scale involved in a shift from conditions like present to a total war is a very different matter...

...Fortunately, we have so far largely avoided this danger...

...The freedom of young men to emigrate or to travel abroad has been limited by the need to get permission of a draft board if the young man is not to put himself in the position of inadvertently being a lawbreaker...

...The other disadvantages that have been attributed to a voluntary army are that it might be racially unbalanced (section 3b), would not provide sufficient flexibility in size of forces (section 3c), and would enhance the political danger of undue military influence (section 3d...

...In spite of "college-type" clergy, the "intellectual" approach, lavish buildings and busy programs, the influence of the Church on the campus is almost non-existent...

...Fortunately, the military considerations of this argument may easily be resolved...

...Being conscripted has been used as a weapon — or thought by young men to be so used — to discourage freedom of speech, assembly, and protest...

...The religious foundations can never be a force within the life of the University as long as they remain transplants of the home town parish church clustered on the fringe of the campus...

...For the future, we need to follow policies that will foster lateral recruitment into the officer corps from civilian activities — rather than primarily promotion from within...

...d) Removal of uncertainly for individuals subject to draft...

...The conservative position is based solidly upon the notion that man's most fundamental right and responsibility is to live his own life...

...But because the one has so much better alternatives than the other, it would take a much higher sum to attract him...

...Milton Friedman is professor of economics at the University of Chicago, former president of the American Economic Association, and a columnist for Newsweek...

...It will be replied that money is not the only factor young men consider in choosing their careers...

...When the bulk of young men can command at least twice this sum in civilian jobs, it is a little wonder that volunteers are so few...

...This article is a revised draft of his speech at the University of Chicago Conference on the Draft, held last December...

...As it is, the uncertainty about the draft affects every decision they make and often leads them to behave differently than they otherwise would in the correct or mistaken belief that they will thereby reduce the chance of being drafted...

...The flexibility provided by conscription has another side...

...This is a real advantage — but can easily be overvalued...

...A voluntary army would preserve the freedom of individuals to serve or not to serve...

...Our government should discriminate neither in the civil nor in the military services...

...And to rely on volunteers under such conditions would then require very high pay in the armed services and very high burdens on those who do not serve, in order to attract a sufficient number into the armed forces...

...THE CASE FOR A VOLUNTEER ARMY By Milton Friedman An eminent economist shows why a voluntary army not only is more consistent with a free society than conscription, but makes better economic sense...

...d) 7s a "professional army" a political danger...

...In 1964 he served as an adviser on economics to GOP presidential candidate Barry Goldwater...

...The Secretary of Defense, meantime, in keeping with his general efforts to turn the military into a political tool, wants to use the draft to "rehabilitate underprivileged" youths...

...Total output of the community would be higher both because these men would be at work and because the young men who now go to work could be used more effectively...

...The situation in time of major war If a very large fraction of the young men of the relevant age groups are required — or will be used whether required or not — in the military services, the advantages of a voluntary army become very small...

...The more puzzling question is why we have continued to use compulsion...

...Aside from the effect on fighting spirit, this would produce a lower turnover in the armed services saving precious man-hours that are now wasted in training or being trained...

...Christianity approaches the University with attitudes and methods that are no longer appropriate...

...Britain and the U.S...

...There is no way of avoiding the political danger altogether...

...We must handle our domestic problems as best we can and not use them as an excuse for denying Negroes opportunities in the military service...

...Radicals want to end it or turn it to social service...

...The personnel policies of the armed forces have been repeatedly criticized and, with no spur, repeatedly left unreformed...

...Since Negroes constitute a high proportion of the poor, it is further argued that volunteer armed forces would be largely Negro...

...One of the great gains in the progress of civilization was the elimination of the power of the noble or the sovereign to exact compulsory servitude...

...Based on a variety of evidence collected in that study, Walter Oi estimates in his paper that a starting pay (again including pay in kind as well as in cash) of something like $4,000 to $5,500 a year—about $80 to $100 a week — would suffice...

...Abandoning the draft might raise the apparent money cost to the government but only because it would substitute taxes in money for taxes in kind...

...The Church imperiously summons the University to its audience chamber but no one hears or cares...

...He is paying the difference...

...Even most supporters of a draft like the present one regard it as at best a necessary evil...

...And isn't that the direct opposite of an authoritarian society...

...A voluntary army would permit young men, both those who serve and those who do not, to plan their schooling, their careers, their marriages, and their families in accordance with their own long-run interests...

...A large fraction of the poor are rejected on physical or mental grounds...

...Recruitment by voluntary means could provide considerable flexibility — at a cost...

...One of the greatest advances in human freedom was the commutation of taxes in kind to taxes in money...

...Or, put the other way, it would avoid the arbitrary power that now resides in draft boards to decide how a young man shall spend several of the most important years of his life — let alone whether his life shall be risked in warfare...

...The confusion has made it appear that a voluntary army would be much more expensive to the country and hence might not be feasible for fiscal reasons...

...They do not want to extend it to any other form of service...

...How can we justify paying him less than the amount for which he is willing to serve...

...To man our armed forces with volunteers would require making conditions of service more attractive — not only higher pay but also better housing facilities and improved amenities in other respects...

...This picture is overdrawn in one important respect...

...Switzerland and Sweden, while using conscription...

...If we started rectifying this injustice, the number of "real" volunteers would increase, even while conscription continued...

...Hence, it would be highly desirable to have a definite termination date set for conscription...

...The broad basis of recruitment to the military academies, by geography as well as social and economic factors, the ROTC programs in the colleges, the recruitment of officers from enlisted men, and similar measures, have all conrtibuted to this result...

...A lottery would only make the arbitrary element in the present system overt...

...This valid fear has been converted into an invalid argument against voluntary armed forces...

...Many months now elapse between an increase in draft calls, and the availability of additional trained men...

...Education is a secular function and the University is a secular institution, but the Church insists on trying to maintain an authoritarian and parential position in the University...

...Because manpower is cheap to the military, they now tend to waste it, using enlisted men for tasks that could be performed by civilians or machines, or eliminated entirely...

...Whatever may be the exact figure, it is a highly misleading indication of the cost incurred in shifting from compulsion to a voluntary army...

...Many of them attach themselves to political parties or causes without actually understanding what they stand for...

...Isn't a welder who is hired for a special job...

...The way to do so would be to make pay and conditions of service more attractive than is required to recruit the number of men that it is anticipated will be needed...

...The question how much more we would have to pay to attract sufficient volunteers has been studied intensively in the Department of Defense study of military recruitment...

...A conspicuous example of the effect on freedom of a voluntary army is that it would completely eliminate the tormenting and insoluble problem now posed by the conscientious objector — real or pretended...

...The liberal position is based solidly upon the notion that every form of compulsion and every sacrifice of the individual may be justified and demanded in the name of "society...

...And indeed, compulsory service has been introduced in the United States only under such conditions — in the Civil War, World War I, and World War II...

...Indeed, it is a tribute to their humanitarianism — and the effectiveness of indirect pressures via the political process — that service in the armed forces is not made even less attractive then it now is...

...Compare, for example, the cost to a star professional football player and to an unemployed worker...

...In fact, the cost of a voluntary army properly calculated, would almost surely be less than of a conscripted army (section 3a...

...They would constitute a professional army, it is said that would lack contact with the populace and become an independent political force, whereas a conscripted army remains basically a citizen army...

...But even more, the answer is the tyranny of the status quo...

...Hence for a major war, a strong case can be made for compulsory service...

...If free men think enough of their freedom, there should be no question about their desire voluntarily to fight for it or about the ability of those who do not fight to pay them a good and ample wage for shouldering the task...

...However we recruit enlisted men, it is essential that we adopt practices that will guard against the political danger of creating a military corps with loyalties of its own and out of contact with the broader body politic...

...In addition to the lower turnover, already taken into account in the estimates cited, the higher average level of skill would permit further reductions in the size of the army, saving monetary cost to the government...

...Indeed, it is somewhat surprising that there are as many as there are — testimony to the drives other than pecuniary reward that lead some young men to choose military service either as a career or for a few years...

...They are not against compulsion...

...Universal national service would only compound the evil — regimenting all young men, and perhaps women, to camouflage the regimentation of some...

...And this is a wholly unrealistic possibility...

...A voluntary army would enhance also the freedom of those who now do not serve...

...Experience would show how responsive the number of volunteers is to the terms offered and how much these terms would have to be improved to attract enough men...

...Public hearings in the past few weeks have seen conservative philosophers, such as Milton Friedman, speaking against the draft while liberal politicians, such as Edward Kennedy, have argued for a "lottery" as opposed to the present system...

...There are net advantages, not disadvantages in offering volunteers conditions sufficiently attractive to recruit the number of young men required...

...On a more mundane budgetary level, the argument that a voluntary army would cost more simply involves a confusion of apparent with real cost...

...In addition Christianity simply contributes to the fragmentation of thought and experience and misses its chance to become a center of synthesis and cohesion...

...Military service has many non-monetary attractions to young men—the chance to serve one's country, adventure, travel, opportunities for training, and so on...

...The denominational foundation perpetuates the narrow, sectarian point of view that the whole atmosphere of the University is trying to overcome...

...It is entirely feasible to maintain present levels of military power on a strictly voluntary basis...

...The argument to the contrary rests on a political judgment: that a high ratio of Negroes in the armed services would exacerbate racial tensions at home and provide in the form of ex-soldiers a militarily trained group to foment violence...

...Unless it is clear that conscription is definitely to be abolished in a reasonably short time, the armed services will not have sufficient incentive to improve their recruitment and personnel policies...

...This undoubted fact is repeatedly cited as evidence that a voluntary army is unfeasible...

...Possible disadvantages of a voluntary army (a) 7s a voluntary army feasible...

...On this point there is wide agreement...

...The second has more merit, but devices exist to provide moderate flexibility under a voluntary as under a compulsory system...

...We need take no irreversible step...

...How can we justify, that is, involuntary servitude except in times of the greatest national emergency...

...Perhaps there is something to this...

...So long as compulsion is retained, inequity, waste, and interference with freedom are inevitable...

...This bureaucratic stand-pattism has been reinforced by a confusion between the apparent and the real cost of manning the armed forces by compulsion...

...If this is done, it will be seen at once that abandoning the draft would almost surely reduce the real cost — because the armed forces would then be manned by men for whom soldiering was the best available career, and hence who would require the lowest sums of money to induce them to serve...

...The military services require a wide variety of skills and offer varied opportunities...

...Hence, some method of "selective service" — of deciding which young man should serve and which two or three should not — is inevitable...

...There is little question that large armed forces plus the industrial complex required to support them constitute an ever-present threat to political freedom...

...The draft position is a clear and comprehensive case in point...

...It is hardly conceivable that it could have been introduced afresh, in, say 1950, if a system of compulsory service had not so recently been in full swing...

...However, the present method is inequitable, wasteful, and inconsistent with a free society...

...The air force, because it has relied so heavily on "real" volunteers, perhaps comes closest to demonstrating what could be done...

...A byproduct of freedom to serve would be avoidance of the present arbitrary discrimination among different groups...

...If it were proposed explicitly that a special income tax of 50 percent be imposed on enlisted men in the armed services, there would be cries of outrage...

...Industry and government would benefit from being able to hire young men on their merits, not their deferments...

...Out of simple justice we should in any event raise the pay and improve the living conditions of enlisted men...

...We certainly need controversy in the universities — but about intellectual and educational issues, not whether to rank or not to rank...

...Because we conscript, we pay salaries that are attractive only to the disadvantaged among us...

...the New Left and the Republican Ripon Society...

...By this argument the construction of the Great Pyramid with slave labor was a cheap project...

...The first speech of my 1964 campaign, for instance, pledged an end to the draft...

...The real survival strength of conscription is that it eases the life of the top military command...

...In any event, there can be little doubt that wholly voluntary armed forces of roughly the present size are entirely feasible on economic and fiscal grounds...

...These now cost us over $6 billion a year, or one-third as much as current annual payroll costs for the active armed forces, and they will doubtless continue to rise under present conditions...

...The Church considers itself ready for battle and well established once it has managed to construct an imposing "center...