Show draft touhy touchy issue for nation s coes fear strong reaction against military service even as occupation needs point vp up requirement for large army by news analyst and commentator service 1616 eye street NW washington D 0 one of the administrations hottest political potatoes Is a matter that nobody likes to talk about even the opposition it Is military service not uni universal ersal military service next month v or next year but any old kind of military service today and tomorrow right up to election day 1948 th the e problem has many facets bui but it h has s one awesome nub the veteran vote there are several danger si signals gials which the democratic administration mint s is watching with some trepidation the criticism over continuation of the draft which the pre president ident has given his complete and unqualified support recurring c complaints orn plaines plaints of discontented soldiers and their families milies ta appearing in radio congressional national committee and other washington tan fan mall mail which add up to a resounding demand for or more and quicker discharges char ge s and finally a growing fear ear that the reeling which alch used to be called isolationism is cropping up in a new form anti militarism the administration dare make any move to permit a drastic reduction in the arme armed d forces now military experts think it will be the middle of october before any such move can be contemplated by that time they think the danger of any serious outbreak in japan will be over or there will be e evidence that one is coming await jap reaction to occupation the full impact of the occupation of japan will not be felt andl american soldiers are deep in the heart of the country before that the reaction of the tha japanese people and the influence of the military lead leaders e IS as opposed to the influence of the emperor cannot be gauged suffice it to say that the surrender terms as well as the surrender itself came as a shock to the japanese ese people many americans tall fall to realize that a relatively small american ar army m y landed in japan in an area in which there were no japanese elc except ept th those 0 se permitted to be there by the authorities who arranged the surrender there was no contact with the general population or the military scattered over the rest of the country is a powerful japanese army as yet fully armed in defense positions strengthened when the japs completely reorganized their home borne defense against invasion after the capture of okinawa disregarding r eg arding the thousands of japanese sailors now on shore the air force the supply troops and others it la Is known that on hokkaido Hok kaido there were two full divisions A jap division is between and men on honshu there were 44 divisions and 7 bil brigades gades a brigade is roughly halt half a division on kyu shu 14 divisions and 7 brigades it is estimated that we would have men in the islands by the middle of september that is against a japanese army not counting the sailors airmen and others of well over a million that is why there can be no sharp reduction in american troops until we know what it if anything Is cooking under the cherry trees and then when that question Is answered we have the question of occupation it has been estimated that to police germany japan and korea and perhaps parts of china will take men where will they come from where will come from for that matter already a sharp reversion against military service has begun and if it follows the curve after the last war recruitment on a basis of voluntary Is hopeless at its low the army after world war I 1 numbered IS ISO men I 1 well recall the story of one of my officer friends whose regiment stationed in the die middle west vest dropped so low that men themselves voted to spend their post exchange funds for a recruiting campaign with a band anti and a company he paraded the country eJe for a week lie he got just three recruits and two of those were rejected as physically unfit As one officer remarked bitterly to me how are you going to get a man to join the army tor for 21 a month the basic peacetime pay when uncle sam will pay him 29 23 a week for not working at all he ha referred to the unemployment compensation pensa tion called for in pending legislation the position the administration is in when the cry to end the tha draft arises vets attitude hears bears watching the complaints from the veterans Is another matter they are not so much concerned over who gets into the army as who gets out A lot of them are marking time right now latera later a lot will be sent overseas in the jobs of policemen why I 1 get out now and get a start in business why my husband come back and support me in the manner to which I 1 have been unaccustomed since he joined up why my boy get back to school where he belongs why my sweetheart be allowed to io come home and marry me like he said he would and some day sonny and daddy and lover will come back and join a veterans organization and they will vote at the polls ah theres the rubt rub now we come to the third point which is really the most insidious the one which has to be handled the tha most delicately we may have hava learned in this country that an ocean is no longer a barrier against the enemy but we know there la Is another barrier which separates our maritime states from the heart heartland lanI of the nation bordering the mississippi flood plain that part of the country forgot its so called isolationism and threw its whole heart into the war but the ward war is over on paper anyhow it is time to put the hand back to the plough agal again n there Is need of stout arms and sit strong ong backs in the fields and though japs and the germans ma may require watching why not let george do it that Is a natural feeling and clever politicians cans would hive have little trouble in turning it to account b by raising the cry of militarism of imperialism pertal ism and all the oth other e r I 1 iams isms s ms w which men whose barns are their castles end and whose meadows era are their empires dislike such a sentiment could be turned against one administration as well as another but it so happens that the middle west Is naturally somewhat republican in its leanings normally and the democrats are now in the saddle one very keen political observer who has watched the way of the voter for many years said to me the other day if there were a presidential election tomorrow truman would win it and when you consider the matter coldly there are good reasons for the statement ube the republicans have had one healthy issue alter after another knocked out from under them truman has given business its head he has sat ox oa the OPA he has released one control after another he has most soll soil ci deferred to congress he is 0 on n the way to break up the war agencies and get the business of government back into the old line departments such Is tho picture as of today all clear except for one little cloud in the sky not much bigger than a emans hand band but there li is thunder and lightning in that cloud and it if the circumstances were such that its bolts of wrath were directed at the administration it would not even take say a stassen to win the presidential race on a walk 0 0 by next february barring unexpected developments all soldiers iii ia europe except those in the army of occupation and the minimum required to dispose of 0 the ardys surplus property will have been returned to the united states maj gen C P gross chief of transportation said in an announcement by the war department return of american forces in the pacific will be completed next june according to present estimates more than men are scheduled tor for return from tho the pacific theaters while approximately remain demair to be returned from europe some other troops also are to be returned ie turned from other overseas theaters |