NO UNIVERSAL MILITARY TRAINING
Baldwin, Simeon E.
No Universal Military Training Design of Framers of Constitution for Small Standing Army Should Be Carried Out BY SIMEON E. BALDWIN. IN MY judgment, any permanent system of universal military...
...Instead of it we have adopted for the time being, the policy of conscription...
...overwhelming in war...
...The only recognized class is that engaged in the military and naval service...
...Against the danger of bad legislation by Congress there is the greater and self-executing safeguard of a constitutional provision that no appropriation of money for raising and supporting armies shall be over two years...
...Our history since the Constitution was adopted shows that its framers were right in providing for a small army and a supplementary militia, only, in time of peace...
...In framing our Constitution this policy was deliberately adopted...
...leaving conscription to be resorted to only when necessary in time of war...
...With states scattered over half a continent it was a vital necessity to have something like absolute authority in certain matters vested in a single executive magistrate...
...They are great in peace...
...For any others we can safely trust to voluntary enlistment in the armies and navies of the United States, and the State militia...
...He must, in the nature of things, see that the laws of the United States are prop-erl executed, whether by the people in general or any particular class of the people...
...We have made our President an officer of immense powers...
...We shall never wage wars avowedly for conquest...
...The design of the framers of the Constitution was to have only a small standing army, but that it should be supported by a force of militia in each state, trained under a discipline prescribed by Congress...
...IN MY judgment, any permanent system of universal military training and conscription would be unsuited both to the political and the social conditions existing In the United States...
...Against the danger of bad trust the only safeguard is impeachment...
...It is the President's right and duty to carry out the legislation oi Congress in regard to it...
...The necessities of the war of 1914-1918 have caused the virtual abolition of the State militia...
...to be supplemented, in case of invasion or danger of invasion, by a temporary Conscription Act...
Vol. 10 • November 1918 • No. 11
