THE MILITARY'S DRUG FOR DEMOCRACY

...If the proponents of conscription in peacetime answer "yes," then I say let us propose to our Allies the universal abolition of peacetime conscription before we launch on another destructive, mad rush among our Allies for rearmament and peacetime conscription...

...This is not true...

...On the contrary, the results now being obtained in the recently launched voluntary recruiting program indicate that it will be a success...

...A thousand times no...

...Only last week Washington enlistments were being made at the rate of 2,500 per day and the drive is just beginning to gain momentum/This rate will produce 75,000 per month which now exceeds the quotas being inducted under the Selective Service Act...

...For the immediate future, we have millions of men who have had the best training the military can now provide...

...However, a mere reservoir of any or all of these factors is not enough...

...If someone says that the atom and the V-bomba have changed the situation, I ask in turn what evidence is there that these discoveries and others yet to come point to building our military security on masses of men trained for a year...

...They will not be able to wage war in the "foreseeable future," as Gen...

...But it would be a nonsensical policy to allow every Tom, Dick, and Harry in any civilian training program to have access to equipment of highly classified nature...

...Let us maintain adequate military security by voluntary methods and free the people of this great nation to devote their energies toward building a better America, a better world, and winning the peace...

...We shall shortly witness a gigantic propaganda drive in the public press and over the radio designed to push the legislation through Congress early next year at the latest...

...I feel strongly that the mere existence of the universal philosophy of militarism would stunt our national growth...

...Ask anyone who has served for any length of time in the military establishments...

...What are the ingredients of national strength...

...We have those who want a broad training...

...because economic wealth and strength can arise only from creative economic activity...

...Instead of promoting wholesome social conditions, the segregation of large masses of men for prolonged periods undermines accepted social attitudes and standards of values...

...It could be worse...

...Many of these devices will be developed and studied behind the closed doors of Government laboratories...

...IT is a well-known fact that most of the startling technical progress of the past war came from outside the armed forces...

...It is frequently argued that universal training will have democratic benefits socially...

...This is an important part of the heavy social price we would pay for compulsory military training...

...What are the costs of a system of military training...

...Several of the military historians who have studied the mass training programs in Europe in the past two centuries have commented on the problems of assigning top-notch military men to teach civilian armies...

...We are proceeding in the wrong direction when we indiscriminately draft prospective scientists, and put them in uniform...

...In the world in which we now live, it was never more important for ourselves and for humanity as a whole that we strengthen and foster the family, the schools, and the churches as the institutions for the development and attainment of the highest ideals of human conduct...

...Let us suppose for a moment that we have trained one class of trainees...

...don't stick out your neck...

...And why must we tie military training to it...

...A strong industrial economy is rich with technical personnel who can do the job...

...So firmly entrenched was the idea of mass service and mass training and mass conscription that a few leaders who did recognize the indispensability of the services of these men had to go to the absurd lengths of blanketing these men into uniform by Presidential order, in order to keep intact the personnel of certain Government laboratories...

...We will have to provide more opportunities for promotion, in-service training for skills and professions, as well as additional retirement benefits, but I am convinced the job can be done...

...I repeat, there is a very real danger that mass train-1 ing on a grandiose scale can seriously dilute and impair the effectiveness of a professional army that we need for adequate military security...

...keep your own skirts clean...

...Others may disagree but before we break our national life-long tradition and take the consequences in social, educational, and moral retrogression, let us make the effort...

...Advocates of military training are always enthusiastic about training young men...

...How much time was necessary or how much money it cost is for the moment irrelevant...

...On the other extreme, we could devote no manpower or resources for peacetime military purposes...

...We came dangerously close-in .-the recent war to the point of destroying the source of oi^r own strength...

...What better proof can be had that militarism takes advantage of immaturity and distorts normal thought processes...

...THAT brings me directly to several questions I want to pose...

...It is true that we still required many millions of men to win the war, despite our mighty technical weapons...

...I have already mentioned other social and human costs...

...I make that statement to clear the atmosphere of debate upon one of the most far-reaching decisions in our history—because some of the supporters of this adjunct of totalitarianism attempt to brand those who oppose it as having no concern for winning the peace or maintaining our national military strength...

...There would be exceptions, I know, but the general result would be a leveling process, regimenting all to a general pattern...

...There is no need for a hasty decision to fasten peacetime conscription on American youth forever...

...Ever since the founding of the Republic we have resisted every effort to fasten compulsory military service upon the people except in time of war...

...I can recall early in this war that some of those—both "military and civilians—who are now loudest in their support of universal service were saying that the French Army was the greatest in the world...

...In case of an emergency in the immediate future, they will be available...

...Even if we don't want it, we will get it with peacetime military training...

...Then, is it one or more of our Allies we are preparing against...

...Let no man say we do not have time to try the voluntary plan...

...If we seek to inculcate the youth of America with what the military proudly calls "discipline"—then simultaneously we destroy the creative, the inquisitive, and other special aptitudes of our youth which make for technical progress...

...The military atmosphere simply is not conducive to progress in science...

...News correspondents filing stories from Germany nowadays are continually writing about the amazing servility of the German people in accepting and obeying any orders issued, no matter how harsh...

...In general, the men behind the lines, the ground crews and maintenance personnel, are more closely associated with the normal activities of industry and the laboratory than they are with the military...

...Another reason is that all too often we were not efficiently organized...

...There are other well-meaning people among them who confuse mere numbers with true military security...

...And no responsible official in the Government or Congress who is either for or against military training is advocating any other course...

...This endorsement was the signal the militarists were waiting for...

...IT is a different matter when we come to specialized military applications of highly confidential nature...

...That is definitely "strike one" on the teacher in any training program...

...IT is undoubtedly true that our future military strength will require us to make sure that we have available for any emergency a sufficient number of technically trained men who can perform technical war jobs without too much "conversion...

...This will be equally true in peacetime...

...There are some well-meaning people in their ranks who firmly believe that we should have a large training program...

...They know all too well that the opinions of returning veterans and the considered judgments of more normal times will do their cause no good...

...The modern criterion for war strength is not manpower, but rather it is technical and industrial power and the requisite raw materials to feed the industrial activity...

...They pointed to the huge reserves trained as a result of the French policy of universal compulsory training...

...FINANCIAL Costs to the Government are only one of the costs involved...

...We are getting all the men the military now require by voluntary enlistments and the wartime conscription act...

...They have everything to gain and nothing to lose if they can stampede the people and the Congress into making this initial move toward totalitarianism...

...High-performance airplanes, radar and other electronic equipment, guided missiles and rockets, the proximity fuse, and the atomic bomb are the spectacular weapons that immediately come to mind...

...They may be excellent sugar coating and may entice some to swallow the bitter pill that goes with it, but it is sheer folly to imagine that any effective results along these lines could be obtained in any short training course or with any trainee who had a limited background...

...Twice in my lifetime we have furnished the decisive military force to defeat nations which have relied upon universal military service for vast numbers of trained reserves for their military power...

...After considerable vacillation, the President recently recommended the enactment of such legislation...

...We have those who want to select only the best specimens of young manhood...

...We have those who want to use training to promote the health of the nation...

...In a-study on Postwar Fiscal Requirements, the Brookings Institution has estimated the direct costs of training would be a minimum of $1,360 per man per year, based on a trainee wage of $30 per month, and excluding instructional and supervisional costs which would be considered a part of regular Army and Navy costs...

...Everyone will agree it is a combination of manpower, economic resources, and national morale...

...And peacetime military training would be precisely the factor that would produce the worst condition: namely, not merely retarding, but choking off the ideas for technical progress even before the ideas are born...

...THE mothers and fathers, the educators, the clergy, the citizens and the youth of America are entitled to frank answers to these momentous questions before we sentence our youth to involuntary servitude even for one year...

...One reason is that our activities were expanded over the entire world, over much more territory than a previous war had ever been fought...

...We all know now that mere numbers of trained reserves proved to be a false base of security for France...

...If they could get by with it, they would cook up some military substitute for the influence of the family...

...boys and girls, men and women...

...This would be the cheapest, but a disastrous policy...

...This is just another social cost we would have to pay...

...In fact, every thinking person knows, if he is honest with himself, that the military, despite any efforts they may make, is an organization radically different from any of those we have relied upon in the past to build for better citizenship and higher moral values...

...The speed and mobility of modern war requires that we be able to translate these factors into offensive striking power and that we maintain a proper balance between peacetime uses and probable wartime needs...

...And here let me warn you not to be taken in by the window-dressing which the advocates of peacetime conscription will set up to make the proposal more attractive...

...The plain fact is that science and the military do not mix...

...The reason is simple: it is an unnatural life and conducive to many warped attitudes and behaviors...

...They w-ill talk about giving educational courses, they will shout about the religious opportunities which they will provide...

...But over and above these there are still other intangible costs that will be very serious...

...On the one extreme, we could devote all our manpower and resources for military purposes...

...The real question is, "How long will this training be valuable to the nation...

...It does not make it so just because men in high places say it is so...

...In this war one of the first nations to fall was France...

...Certainly no informed person can contend it is one or all of the enemies we have just defeated...

...One is the loss that will result from the interruption of education...

...OUR forefathers recognized the danger of militarism to the democratic way of life...

...The war proved this and clearly showed that manpower without the latest weapons of war is virtually helpless...

...I shall endeavor to explain later why it is my firm conviction that compulsory military training will actually weaken us in a military way, as well as in economic and social respects, while at the same time lulling us into a false sense of security...

...They are unanimous in reporting that it is no particular deference that is being shown to the victors, but simply an acceptance of the fact that the Allies are the successor government to a previous government that demanded and instilled this militaristic servility in its people...

...colleges, universities, libraries...

...We have those who want the program to be strictly military...

...THERE is no evidence to prove that we cannot have such military forces as we require on a voluntary basis...

...Some of the advocates of training try to make it more palatable by suggesting that the curriculum be partially elective and include a variety of subjects among which they cite aerodynamics, electronics, jet propulsion, rocket missiles, and allied subjects...

...If it is necessary and desirable to insure better health for our youth —and few will argue against it—the corrective propo-- sition should stand or fall on its own merits, and not be a subordinate side-issue to military training...

...This, of course, is the directly opposite situation to that which prevails when a select few who desire military training are chosen for such training in institutions comparable to our present military and naval academies...

...that he becomes imbued with the fixed dogmas that he teaches, if not totally discouraged with the impossible task of making a military man out of every boy...

...Can anyone seriously argue that a year away from these institutions which have been the source of development of American civilization will weaken their influence upon American youth...

...If that is what we want in our youth, we will get it with mass compulsory military training...

...But if health be our objective, why not go to the root of the health problem directly...

...What can we expect to teach the trainees...

...We should not reverse our policy without complete understanding of its far reaching, devastating effect on fundamental human rights and the political, economic and social consequences which it will bring about in the years to come...

...But perhaps the primary reason, other than the necessity of occupying territory, is the fact that modern technological warfare requires tremendous numbers of men behind the lines repairing and maintaining equipment...

...And many a scientist and engineer will bitterly tell you that his developments and contributions were made in spite of, not with the help of the Services...

...Educators confirm the statement that too often an interrupted education—for whatever the reason—means the end of education for that person...

...It has been clear through all history down to this very hour that universal compulsory service in peacetime has been the characteristic of governments which have been to a greater or lesser degree totalitarian and despotic...

...We have those who want a specialized training to suit the individual...

...If he is candid he will confirm the fact that the accepted attitude all along the line is, in vernacular language: "Don't worry about it...

...They indicate the need for vast, well-organized research, and the maintenance of "highly trained and constantly retrained military forces of sufficient size to provide adequate security for America and to fulfill our international responsibilities and obligations...

...To make the voluntary system work over a period of years we will have to reassess the compensation offered and the conditions of service...

...I favor adequate military security for our nation and the winning of the peace...

...THE experience in two world wars should make us pause before we take the first step toward totalitarianism...

...This is a rash conclusion...

...Subjects like this can be taught much more effectively within the framework of our present educational system, including the technical schools operated in conjunction with certain industrial organizations...

...let the next fellow do it...

...Hence, with the diversions of civil life, the ravages of time, and the changes in military tactics, it is not unreasonable to expect that the potential value of the training will be almost zero less than five years thereafter...

...Mass peacetime military training is not only a drug to youth, it is also a drug to the members of the professional Army who must do the training...

...During the recent war it was the technical experts brought in from the various schools and industrial organizations who carried the brunt of the training programs for the Services...

...It was apparent even before this war that the science of war was rapidly becoming a contest of technology...

...As long as international relations remain uncertain we have no alternative but to maintain sufficient military power to cope with eventualities...

...We have those who want to train all youth, men and women...

...And I am frankly concerned over the numerous reports in the press and elsewhere telling how the Services have largely alienated those who did the work behind the scenes and received very little credit when the cloak of secrecy was lifted...

...They explain that young men don't have set ideas and prejudices against military training and take to it...

...Any additional training along this line that needs to be done can best be done within our present technical schools and industrial organization...

...Too often the student does not return.to finish...

...Now, contrast this with the total public expenditures for education: Federal, state, local...

...It is the proponents of this alien system who are in a hurry...

...And they have not proved their case...

...She relied upon universal service for her national security...

...that a long tour of duty as an instructor, especially if kept in the same surroundings, tends to weaken him as a battle commander...

...If we are to spend money on training, we might do better to spend more of it on our established educational institutions...

...They point out that insofar as military training is concerned, mass teaching is not akin to generalship on the field of battle...

...There are still others who have suffered irreparable losses in this war and who seize upon this in desperation as insurance against repetition...

...Toward the support of all of these institutions, with about 26 million persons attending school, total support, including various grants and aids, is only about two and a half billion dollars...

...This traditional resistance of the citizens of the United States is not based on mere theory nor prejudice...

...We have many undernourished and underprivileged youth who might benefit physically...

...The militarists know full well that calm, full, and frank discussion of the facts involved will cause large deflections in the ranks of these people, and so they want to push the program while the aftermath of war still beclouds the issues and facts...

...We blindly drafted young scientists and then put them in routine jobs in the 'Army and Navy, where no use was made of their exceptional talents...

...Despite all their efforts the military cannot provide an adequate substitute for the family, the school, and the church when it comes to developing and improving the moral and intellectual values of our society...

...Multiply this by 600,000 trainees and you get a bill for military training that is in excess of one billion dollars...

...Apparently some who desire a military training program for all youth think the Army should do this...

...This record is being made at a time when we still have to maintain large occupational forces in both Europe and Asia...

...On the contrary, the logic of scientific developments for war point in the opposite direction...

...It is no credit to those who teach military discipline that they can break the spirit and imagination of a boy more easily than a man...

...As to a course of training, proponents of the training have widely separate views in what they advocate for the curriculum...

...I think any thoughtful citizens will admit that the burden of proof is upon those who advocate that we reverse our national policy and adopt the abhorrent system of universal compulsory military service...

...A single weapon can change military tactics overnight, as we have learned in connection with the atomic bomb...

...Such a policy could lead only to national financial suicide...

...So they choose to strike for their objective before the reaction against the plan becomes too great...

...If it is argued that peacetime conscription is required for the more distant future, I ask who is it we are preparing to fight...

...It is generally admitted that in peacetime the prospective trainee will be apathetic if_not actually unwilling to undergo training...

...The answer is found in our experience in the recent war...

...We have always depended upon the family, our educational system, and the church to build the moral and intellectual strength of American youth...

...What we need most is a good corps around which to build: an efficient professional army, well-organized, surrounded by proper technical personnel and up-to-date weapons, and loaded with practical plans for rapid expansion if the occasion demands...

...Douglas MacArthur has said, and every competent military authority I know agrees with him...

...Other thousands of technical inventions and improvements serve to emphasize further the point, as we look back on the war...

...This is an excellent example of the kind of Frankenstein we can create for ourselves when we make a fetish of universal training, or place our complete confidence in brute numbers...

...A year of universal, compulsory peacetime conscription will snatch every youth away from these three great institutions of American society at the most critical period in their lives...

...Why should we try to make a technical college out of the Army when we are better equipped to do general training in our present educational system...

...In many branches of the Army and Navy it was the established policy to train and re-train, or train and "refresh" at periodic intervals for the reason that technical progress was so rapid it was necessary to do so...

...I don't have to convince you that such an attitude is not conducive to progress...

...Obviously, unless we intended it for aggression and plunder, this would be a national folly of protecting an empty cupboard...

...No, the evidence is clear that we do not have to take this decision on the basis of any immediate situation...

...It is no reflection on the military to deny that they cannot provide adequate substitutes for the family, the school, and the church...

...full-time day schools, vocational schools, night schools, part-time schools...

...Let us not import this alien philosophy and stunt our growth as a nation with militarism...

...I cite the previous situation as a case where blind action tended to retard technical progress...

...They have been crushed, their ability to wage war destroyed or in the process of destruction...

...Proponents frankly admit that this is their last big chance to fasten peacetime conscription on America...

...IN my brief discussion of this subject, I want to say at the outset that I advocate that we fulfill our international responsibilities...

...My own personal opinion is that some health benefits might be derived from the training...

...How much manpower will be necessary to maintain sufficient military power is a decision that must be squarely met on the basis of three factors: The world outlook with respect to international relations, the extent of our foreign policy commitments, and the security of the United States and its interests...