TIME TO ABOLISH THE DRAFT

...A few years ago there was a justified and widely-aired complaint about using servicemen as cooks, waiters, chauffeurs, and even as personal servants for officers...

...But the mere fact that we would conscript men for non-military requirements in order to avoid paying civilian wages is repugnant to me...

...As the post-World War II babies continue to mature, the figure will rise above fifty per cent...

...While I am sure that General Wheeler has other grounds for his position, he seemed to rule out a voluntary system on the ground that he did not think it would give him a "broad-based input...

...Thousands of jobs now filled by military personnel might well be turned over to civilians...

...I introduced legislation last June which would have declared it to be the intention of Congress to end the draft as soon as possible...

...Second, there is a genuine interest in service careers, displayed by a large percentage of enlistees, despite the lack of any real incentives offered by the government...

...Conscription has been under fire now for some years...

...The Department of Defense has gone part of the way toward recognizing the illogic of the present system in initiating its experimental "Special Training Enlistment Program" (STEP...

...Certainly the cost of training, housing, and feeding soldiers must be calculated in the comparison...

...Many young men wish to enter the Armed Forces, and this remains true even though we have done little to encourage them...

...adopt realistic standards for enlistment, and pay volunteers a competitive wage...

...A recent Army survey of motivations for enlistment among its first-term enlistees resulted in the following statistics: 46.8 per cent of those surveyed said the draft had no influence on their decision to enlist...

...Under the present system—mislabeled as "universal military training"—forty-two per cent of the men theoretically eligible for military duty as draftees will not serve...

...I do not know whether it would cost more to hire civilians for such tasks...

...The study can hardly avoid these factors, simply because it begins with the purpose of determining, in an organized manner, if conscription can be ended, and if so, how...

...Strange as it seems, a young man can be turned down in an effort to enlist and still be drafted: Mental and physical requirements for enlistees are higher than those for draftees...

...This was a remarkable comment for the nation's top military man to make...

...Both justice and efficiency demand it...

...Fourth, there is the extensive use of military personnel for jobs which might be done just as effectively by civilians...

...the other is the fear that to substitute volunteers for draftees would be costly...

...His support of the draft system seemed to be based on criteria which have little to do with national security...

...STEP aims at helpmg men who, because of minor deficiencies, fail to meet enlistment standards...

...Assistant Secretary of Defense Norman Paul has noted, "The volunteer is likely to be a better-motivated soldier than the conscript...

...This wartime image of conscription bears little relation to present reality...

...men with a physical deficiency, such as bad teeth, or who are underweight or overweight...

...In addition to surveying thousands of servicemen and other young men in an effort to determine their attitudes toward service in the armed forces, the study is presumably taking a long, hard look at the effects of the system on American society...

...These are some of the human costs of the draft, which are overlooked when it is claimed that it is a part of our traditionally "broad-based" system of military service...

...This resolution aims at moving forward to end compulsion in the military service—to reinstitute freedom in this vital branch of American life...

...Does a cook need the same educational requirements as a radar technician...

...On rational military grounds, there is no question that it would improve the quality of the Army...

...Yet this is the condition— dangling in limbo—in which young men find themselves from the time they are eighteen until they are either drafted or declared ineligible...

...It is much more than a military problem...

...As the nation moves toward a decision on the draft, I believe two fundamental considerations should guide us: First, the problem of military manpower should be dealt with as is any other national problem—in terms of today's needs and resources and not in terms of a presumed ideal which is no longer relevant...

...This is another possible obstacle to a recommendation that the draft be eliminated...

...If applied in its original universal form, the draft system would today provide far more men than the Armed Forces need...

...In Canada, a private starts at $112 a month, while an American enlistee begins with a paltry $78...

...However, it is" still true, in the broadest sense, as Professor John K. Galbraith has said, that the draft is a "device by which we use compulsion to get young men to serve at less than the market rate of pay...

...In recent months as many as ninety-seven out of every one hundred draftees left the Army as soon as their two years were up...

...If we abolish the draft, as have both Canada and Britain, we will find, I think, that we have constructed a military arm even more effective than it now is...

...those who marry early...

...Perhaps one reason is that there are almost four million men without jobs today...

...That is one reason the draft is no longer universal...

...another 16.5 per cent said the draft had very little influence...

...Our present standards for recruitment could be changed to permit many more volunteers to enter the services without damaging the quality of our Armed Forces...

...The study is to be concluded in April of this year, when the President will receive recommendations on conscription from Selective Service, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and civilian officials in the Department of Defense...

...For these reasons, I think the Congress should make its position clear...

...The lack of adequate incentives to increase enlistments is only one part of the problem...

...We should be willing to pay the price to attract a fully voluntary force...

...The program attempts to upgrade them physically or educationally in a reasonably brief period of time...

...The arbitrary and uncertain nature of this lottery, casts a pall of doubt over the nation's young men at the very time when they are trying to set the course of their adult lives...

...Third, there is the increasing number of restrictions, often irrelevant, which keep out men who wish to enlist...

...More recently, in January, 1964, then Senator Kenneth Keating proposed that a commission be established to study the problem of the draft...

...The number of youths reaching the age of eighteen annually will increase from less than a million and a half in the past few years to nearly two million during the fiscal year ending in June, 1965...

...Its basic justification is the principle that free men should be able to choose free ways to serve their country...

...The implication of these statistics is that there are many enlistees who find the Armed Forces attractive either as a career, or for training or adventure...

...and men whose employers claim that they are essential...

...We have introduced an increasing myriad of exceptions and limitations for the purpose of reducing drastically the number of men from whom Selective Service must choose...

...Recognition by the Pentagon that military personnel should receive a wage commensurate with those in civilian life comes at almost every level except at the bottom—where good pay would be most crucial in getting men to volunteer...

...The question of conscription is one on which the American people and their representatives should express themselves...

...This may once have been true, but today it is far from the truth...

...Often the preference of military men for the draft is based on a habit of mind which identifies the Army with the conscripted men who fought in World War II, and which identifies that army of conscripts with the present draft system...

...Plans for marriage, education, or job are often distorted by the question of draft status...

...time to abolish the draft by SENATOR GAYLORD A. NELSON /^Vnce our government accepts the ^ fact that conscription is-not one of the essential ways to fulfill our military manpower requirements, I believe we can phase out the draft without adversely affecting our national security...

...It is also examining such ideas as service pay increases and cash bonuses for enlistment, military-paid vocational training, and other educational opportunities...

...As long as we are getting along with the present system, it may be argued, why go to all the expense of changing...

...This compares with the rejection of less than one-fourth of the draft-age men during the Korean War...

...It is obvious that the physical standards required for some jobs are not those required for others...

...The volunteer, on the other hand, will stay for four years, and perhaps more...

...The answer is that a shift from an outmoded and wasteful system to a rational one will, through the development of an army of highly motivated professionals, repay the initial investment many times over in the long run...

...The most obvious failure is that we have done next to nothing to offer adequate monetary incentives to enlist...

...another is that we have not been willing to take a large number of men who wish to volunteer even under present conditions...

...and I have drawn up a resolution which will express the sense of Congress that, so long as national security is not adversely affected, we should do everything possible to end conscription...

...And il is looking into the vast potential for the replacement of military personnel with civilians in non-combat positions...

...A total of 63 per cent, therefore, probably would have enlisted regardless of the threat of the draft...

...If he has specialized skills, the Canadian recruit can earn as much as $202 a month, nearly three times as much as his American counterpart...

...But more important, in the long run, we will have strengthened our free society...

...I am glad much has been done to correct this abuse in recent years...

...Four factors dominate any consideration of the conscription problem: First, there has been an immense growth in the nation's manpower pool...

...Last December, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Earle G. Wheeler, told the nation on television before a panel of young people: "I like to have the people of the United States interested in the Army—I mean the Armed Forces —and one way of keeping that interest alive is to have you young gentlemen ushered into the Army in particular, from time to time, from very diverse walks of life, from all over the country, so that we have a very broad base from which the input is made...

...Asked about this practice at a news conference, President Eisenhower replied, "If we just got these things all done by civilians, you probably would have to pay a lot more money...

...It would cost more money at the outset to make a change from the present mixed draft and volunteer system to a fully voluntary one...

...To adapt our military manpower system to the needs of today rather than to those of twenty years ago, the obvious answer is a totally voluntary system...

...To keep back the flood of otherwise eligibles, mental and physical standards for the services have been raised so high that in 1963 one-half of the nation's draft-age young men failed to meet them...

...Especially when many kinds of training require more than two years, men who enter the Army against their will are a poor investment...

...The result is that the system passes over those who can afford to stay in college until they are twenty-six years old...

...A family in Beloit, Wisconsin, wrote to me, "These young men should be launching out into the future with confidence instead of hesitancy and cynicism...

...the result may be premature marriage, unwise choice of career, or even the lack of any plans at all, for fear that the draft would disrupt them...

...Is there any essential reason why a clerk should have to meet the same physical requirements as a rifleman...

...Certainly no other large-scale organization places its personnel on the basis of identical requirements for different tasks...

...Is it any wonder that there has developed an "evasion mentality" among many American youth, and that many who are drafted consider it nothing but bad luck...

...These facts have long been known to the Army, but the Army has felt that the draft is needed as a threat to persuade young men that they would be better off to enlist...

...We have been willing, after much pulling and hauling, to raise pay enough to get officers to re-enlist, but it has not been considered appropriate to extend the same principle to those who enlist in the ranks for the first time...

...It has implications far broader than any Department of Defense study is likely to consider...

...men with criminal records...

...Another survey, conducted by the Air Force, confirmed the trend of the first—55.4 per cent of enlisted airmen stated that the possibility of being drafted had no influence on their enlistment, and another 41.9 per cent said they volunteered primarily because of training opportunities or career opportunities, and only partly out of fear of the draft...

...But there are two possible obstacles to a firm recommendation that the draft should be ended: one is the unchanged attitude of some military leaders about a conscription system which has changed a great deal...

...This is the conclusion that emerged from my own study and which is now confirmed by representatives of the Department of Defense, who have informed me that a voluntary system can easily replace the draft—if Congress and the armed forces are willing to GAYLORD A. NELSON, U.S...

...it has ramifications in every aspect of American life...

...During the summer, President Johnson directed that a Defense Department study, which had been underway since 1963, be broadened to make it the most comprehensive survey of the draft ever attempted...

...Senator from Wisconsin, is prominently identified with the leadership in the Senate advocating an end to conscription...

...Second, once we can satisfy ourselves that national security can be maintained without the draft, the preeminent objective in fulfilling our military requirements should be the minimization of compulsion...

...The men who are drafted represent a small fraction of the total pool of draft-age men at any one time...