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+ Peacetime conscription, v nether for military or labor purpo:es, is the itler way of solving unctiployment. Ominously enough, this was the road leading vaight into war by which we wiped out unemploy- ‘nt in the United States, after we had found no her way to do it. And now General Hershey, Diree- r of Sclective Service, in speaking about demobiliza- m and unemployment, declares: “We can keep ople in the army about as cheaply as we could cate an agency for them when they are out.” If the United States cannot solve er unemploy- ent problem by a better means than military dole, we canuol go after the root causes of unemploy- ent and at once begin to make provi-ion for volun- ry employment in peaceful work of national and ternational service, then it will apjear that our untry has nothing better to offer mankind than a vadening and streamlining of Europe’s conscript ad to ruin. = Universal military training is the wrong education for peace, national ealth, the prevention of crime, the trengthening of democracy, and self _ iscipline. Years ago H. G. Wells pointed out Uiai the fate of vilization hung on a race between education and nastrophe. Ife did not mean military education. hat is allied with catastrophe. We do need better uational health, a wiser use of isure, more effective ways of coping with crime, ‘ore constructive ways of public discussion, more dult education and, undergirding all, a self-d line of the individual citizen resulting on to the good of our country and all mankind, But is tremendous task cannot be accompli-hed by coi ulsory training in the ways of violence. It could not e done in one year hy any method; we must begi eh a program long before eur youils 1 SEVEN? Yrite to your Senaters and Repres For furiher information, additional capics Pre FEED 2979 be Hedediea- entatives now, urging them to oppose peacetise conserint teen. Do we want to .«jcct into our civil educational system, with its decentralized local self-determiustion, this military camel’s nose of a regimented year of goosestepping education directed from Washington? Let us he careful lest we sell our democratic educa- tional birthright for a mess of military pottage. Compulsory training for war would grant the Siate the overlordship of personal conscience. The present draft law as interpreted and admin- istered by the national authorities has resulted in the innposition of prison sentences running from six months to five years for more than 4,000 conscientious objec- tors, according to figures given out by the Department of Justice covering the period from October 16, 1940 to July 1, 1944. That this h- s law which explicitly provided for non-combatant #l- ternative service for any person “whe by reasou of religious training and belief is conscientiously op- posed to participation in war in any form” shows how impossible it is to reconcile the demands of military systems with the varied and imperative urg- ings of conscience. In 1937 the Oxford Conference, which was more representative of Protestant Chris- tendem than any conference since the Reformation, declared that the Church “should be opposed to an education which teaches men to subordinate them- selves to any human force as the final authority—le it the will of the majority, or of a leader, or of 2» absolute State, That is to violate the sanctity of con- science, which must be kept responsible to God alone.” America should be the last country on earth to violate that principle. Conscription for military training is a test case. Advocates of conscription acknowledge that uuless if is adopted soon, it will be defeated. We should refuse to be stumpeded by wartime en:o- tions into accepting a policy of permanent peace time conscription—a policy that cannot be justi- fied by any process of cool reasoning. ce Once of this Ayer, or suggestions for action, writc