Must We Have Postwar Compulsory
GIDEONSE, HARRY D.
Must We Have Postwar Compulsory By Harry D. Gideonse President of Brooklyn College MaJOR GENERAL LEWIS B. HERSHEY, National Selective Service Director, recently said: "I am convinced that for the...
...lasso far as war today is postulated on the understanding and use qf a great variety of machines, much of the training for war is In no way different from the training for peace...
...What srmed force ought the United Slates to maintain after this war...
...The war has certainly revealed deficiencies in our education provisions for American youth, but this does not necessarily mean that it would be wise to commit ourselves now to the postwar policy of requiring a year of compulsory military service...
...The remedy lies in a study of the educational problems in the states and communities that have the higheat ¦tatistical record of illiteracy...
...No one dispute* thst wo should be adequately prepared, but the definition of adequate preparation will depend upon the haxnrda inherent in the world situation after this war has been won( and after we have some realistic perspective on the result that Will have been obtained...
...The war in Europe is far from being won...
...In sum, since there must be military training, it should not be isolated from the general training in the peace ways of democracy...
...And if Russia, With her military potential of at last fifteen million men, should refuse to participate, I do not see how the others could dare to disarm...
...I do not, however, believe thai preparedness in a democracy is best achiever...
...maintenance of a substantial army after the war...
...Trie situation with regard to the physical condition of our youth and the criticism of education in connection with it, is more or less comparable with the national results of inequality of educational opportunity as they are reflected in th* military data regarding illiteracy...
...It is an index of our educational progress that we now consider some one as illiterate who has not gone beyond the achievements of a fourth grader...
...If Germsny I* beaten, disarmed and dissbled from rearming...
...White inductee* in this war are 41 per cent high school graduates, and Negro inductees only 17 per cent...
...if the receaetroctien ef the German economy snd the re-edacalton ef the German people are so intelligently and reselatoly carried eat that within a few years th* power* of government csn safely be tamed ever to a democratically constituted Gormen state and th* army of eceopatto* ran be gradaally withdrawn...
...Preparedness is at least as much a state of mind, a fighting faith, as a physical condition...
...Organized labor should see to it that the citizen's preparation for wsr should take this form and only this form...
...The war on the other, side of the globe is lik?[y to last much longer...
...Set the early record of the British beside that of the French and 'talians in the present war, and thin becomes amply clear...
...It would, however, be equally premature for Congress now to enact any law providing for the maintenance of a huge peacetime army...
...It is true that the selective service experience has revealed weaknesses in the physical condition of our young men, but it is not necessarily true that these weaknesses will be remedied by military training, in the ftiat place, such military training reaches only the boys and not the girls, and in the second place, it reaches them loo late for remedial action before military service...
...In other words, the military training has results in physical fitness only for those who are taken into the service, and it does not therefore cope with th* present problem of selective service which is concerned with the numbers who are unfit at the age of induction...
...We have good reason to be deeply concerned about the weaknesses in our educational provisions, but it serves no useful purpose to drSw general conclusions about the inadequacy of education in general when the data clearly indicate that certain special areas of weakness are the immediate cause of our unfavorable showing...
...Would Russia do the same...
...Health is a universal need, and strength and sanity of body is as much a goal of peace as of war, and so on...
...To pan the May bill or any »«*¦ ttar bill would have only present effttt, and that a dtiae-atrout one—it would terve notice on our eobelligereute that we intend to remain armed to the teetkS no matter what they do...
...If Japan too la decisively' beaten ana...
...Measured by this standard, far too many of our inductees are illiterate...
...There will surely be a period of months, and possibly of another year or two, between the cessation of hostilities and the signing of the peace treaties...
...that is to say, through a program that promotes the physical fitness of boys as well as girls before they sttain th* age of eighteen...
...If it lines not, if it takes the form intended by the May Bill, militarization of the national life would be a natural consequence, and this would bring pressing dangers...
...That the United State*, the British Commonwealth •f Nation*, China, and a very large number of other state* would, under these circumstances, be glad to join in such a process'of disarmament, seems to m* highly probsble...
...War,'' aaid that old fighting citisen of free France, Georges' Cltmenceau, "in too important to be It ft to toldieri...
...There is room for doubt...
...Totalitarian dictatorship is in its very nature militaristic and aggressive...
...No conclusions about inhsrent ability are permissible, however, because the statistics also shew that Negro soldiers in the last wsr included 1 per cent who were high school graduate*, a figure which because of increasing educational opportunity for the Negro group has risen to 17 per cent in the present war...
...The correct conclusion i* that we should be busy with th* urgent job of equalising educational opportunities for all young people in the country, wherever they may happen to be located...
...by compulsory military and naval training of males—or females—upon reaching the age of seventeen...
...If we are concerned with this problem, we should deal with it directly...
...Under our present law, our present armed forces will remain in existence long - enough for us to ascertain what kind of a peace we are going to have, and accordingly, how large an army we shall need...
...It should be absorbed in the education for peace, be treated a* a part of the education for peace, and conformed to the goals and methods of democracy...
...Every one knows that provisions in some of our southern states are not adequate—and not always for financial reason* alone...
...if enongb Nasia are exernted to deter all weoM-b* imitators for decade* to come...
...Such a program should be avail-able to all males able to participate and benefit by it...
...la dealt with on broadly similar lines...
...The right answer mil depend on tkt outcome of th* war and Ihi nature ef the peace...
...It should be made a part of education for peace and integrated with the school system of the nation so that it will always be under civilian observation and control...
...But even so, the people knew that an army trained and maintained in segregation, having special access to weapons, mighT become an instrument of oppression and tyranny...
...in the Second Article of the Bill of Rights, they declare "that the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed...
...The knowledge and skills yhich are different, the special combat skills are, according to (he best information, acquirable in a comparatively short time...
...I do not see how anyone who is neither a determined militarist nor a pacifist pure-and-simpls can at this tims give an unconditional answer to that question and others which it involves...
...The record made by the Russian* and the Germans throughout the war re-enforces the lesson: military training and equipment are not the most important part of preparedness...
...In other words, this is an educational problem affecting boys and girls, and not a military problem affecting male youth at the age of induction...
...By Algernon Lee .Viifnno 1 Chairman, Social Democratic Fedeiatio...
...The Founding Fathers were so profoundly aware of the dangers that in the Constitution they reserved to the states the officering and training of the national militia...
...and if, either throngh that or aome other international agency, the principal economic rauaes of wsr are reduced to a minimum—if snd when the** condition* are met, gsniirsl.-oiwltaneom, and fairly rapid redaction of national armament* will be on th* horizon of pracUcaMHty...
...And the only army compatible with democracy is, of course, a conscript army...
...If international cooperation should not be more firmly established after this war, it will be time to determine our military policy in accordance with, the final results of the pence settlement...
...Whether we shall need permanent military service after the war—apart from our need for physical education which is beyond dispute—should depend upon the total international situation after the war...
...Must We Have Postwar Compulsory By Harry D. Gideonse President of Brooklyn College MaJOR GENERAL LEWIS B. HERSHEY, National Selective Service Director, recently said: "I am convinced that for the male youth of this country a minimum of one year should be given to development and training essentially fur the purpose of national preservation, but which can well accomplish several secondary objectives...
...For these reasons it would at this stage be prems-ture for ns Social Democrats, or any other Americans who value freedom even above peace, to declare categorically against the...
...And this 'faith is even more than the concurrent health and knowledge and skill, a long-time growth whose root is men's belief that that which they are called upon to fight for is worth fighting for...
...Th* American people rightly believe thst they are fighting this war with the hope that it will result in a more enduring peace...
...They wanted every citizen to have equal access to weapons...
...And so...
...Such data depend upon the yardstick that is used, of course...
...The May Bill misses the point...
...The fighting spirit, moreover, is a function of a deep and strong faith in what ons ia fighting for...
...The entire problem of preparedness is therefore a problem of general education, which begins in the elementary schools and continues throughout life...
...It is far more than being trained and equipped with certain knowledges and skills and weapons...
...if aa adequately armed leaser to enforce peace i* set np...
...By Horace M. Kallen Pii'/itMi.r of Philt&ophy, S'rwSchool of Social Research 1 N view of the fact that wars are recurrent, that the moat soher and realistic opinion looks to other war* to follow the present one, it is obvious that the traditional American attitude toward preparedness*and win* must be abandoned...
...Military training should not be sen regaled and set apart as a thing in itself...
Vol. 27 • August 1944 • No. 35
