Peacetime Conscription

Report Outline
Leading Issue of Postwar Military Policy
Arguments for Peacetime Conscription
Arguments Against Peacetime Conscription

Leading Issue of Postwar Military Policy

Advocates of compulsory military training will return to Washington from the present recess of Congress prepared to press for early action on a permanent system of conscription for the United States. The new system would replace the present Selective Service System after the close of the war with Japan. War Department recommendations for adoption of a peacetime military training law at the 1945 session received full endorsement in a report to the House, July 5, from its special Committee on Postwar Military Policy.

The special committee, Rep. Woodrum (D., Va.), chairman, held open hearings from June 4 to June 19 at which proponents and opponents of compulsory military training were given full opportunity to present their views. Further hearings will be held in the early autumn by the Military Affairs Committee of the House on a compulsory training bill offered by its chairman. Rep. May (D., Ky.), and by the Military Affairs Committee of the Senate on a companion bill offered by Sen. Gurney (R., S. D.). The Woodrum committee's report was confined to broad questions of policy; it did not recommend specific legislation.

Alignment of Forces on Compulsory Training

Immediate adoption of a peacetime training law is urged by all branches of the armed services, the Department of State, the American Legion, the Veterans of Foreign Wars, the United States Chamber of Commerce, and such specialized groups as the Citizens Committee for Military Training of Young Men, Inc. Immediate action is opposed by the A. F. of L. and the C. I. O., by the three leading farm organizations—American Farm Bureau Federation, National Grange, Farmers Union—by representative associations of educators, and by church groups representing the Protestant, Catholic and Jewish faiths. Some of these groups ask merely for delay until defense needs of the postwar period can be more clearly discerned; others are opposed to the whole principle of compulsory military training.