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Show Gates commission studies feasibility of volunteer Army pensated and who enjoys toojt. esteem from the general pu Sen. Hatfield said that alam have gone too far to suppose thai-professional thai-professional army would er the threat of military coups k cause they cannot back up statement with fact. "Except for the last 30 yes. and brief periods during WWI. the Civil War, our nation has t lied almost exclusively on a vt! unteer army." "Those who are determine,), find a direct relationship behve militarism and voluntary rem," ment system should look elos.'-at elos.'-at what is happening to our tt closest allies, Canada and Brita 'Both have volunteer programs at dt can be argued that militarism ; ' declining in these two nation;! Both countries are reducing ti international military comntl ments and Britain has reduced ! size of her forces." I Civilian control over the BY ALAN STEPHENS Staff Writer The draft for the past few years has been a source of alienation within our society, particularly of those within the draft age limit. As a result of this alienation, Pres. ident Nixon appointed the Gates Commission to study the feasibility feasibil-ity of an all-volunteer army. The report lias been, as expected, expect-ed, condemned and praisrd. Leader for the support of the Gates Commission is Sen. Mark O. Hatfield, R-Orcgon, who is now entering in his third bill asking for the abolition of the draft and the establishment of a volunteer army. Sen. Hatfield said: "The Gates Commission has conclusively answered an-swered all criticisms of an all-volunteer all-volunteer military." In the Senate congressional record rec-ord Sen. Hatfield has defended the volunteer military by pointing out the major discrepancies of the draft and by answering the major charges against a volunuteer military. mili-tary. The draft, said Hatfield, fails in three ways when it comes to providing pro-viding an effective manpower procurement pro-curement program. First, it denies individual freedom. free-dom. "Each man has a moral obligation ob-ligation to serve his country," said Hatfield, "but he must be granted the freedom to accept his responsibility respon-sibility and the right to determine the form of his service." Second, the draft is not equally applied. Under present conditions the draft takes about 350,000 young According to Sen. Hatfield, the only system that would eliminate the inadequacies of the draft is the volunteer army. "This Is the system that would allow maximum personal liberty and freedom from government interference, in-terference, for no one would be forced to serve in the armed forces. It will eliminate the injustice injus-tice of foroing some to serve while allowing the majority to escape." Since a voluntary army would be more or less permanent, With very little turnover, the men can be trained properly in methods of combat and operation of equip- would be realized. Senator Hatfield Hat-field points out that "a voluntary system would have saved more than $1.7 billion dollars In personnel person-nel cost alone during 1966, which is almost half of the $4 billion dollars dol-lars needed for increased salaries." sal-aries." The senator states that the argument ar-gument that an all-volunteer force would cost too much is not in real, ity an argument for the draft, but an argument against the extent of our military commitment. From the book "Why the Draft?" seven economists wrote: "The volunteer army forces tax- payers CO recogme me u uc of military activity. If they would be unwilling to pay this cost it must be because the benefits from such activity are less than its cost. In such a case the activity should be curtailed and not under the draft system nearly have its cost cancelled." The economist went on to say: "The volunteer army does not increase in-crease the real cost of national de. fense because it is more efficient." Another charge brought against the professional army, said Senator Sen-ator Hatfield, is that the military would be composed of mercenaries. mercena-ries. "The conclusion that a well-paid military would be less loyal than an army of conscripts is questionable. question-able. Is it really logical to expect ex-pect a man whose services is adequately ade-quately compensated, whose status is enhanced by a new professionalism professional-ism and whose contribution is recognized rec-ognized and appreciated, will be less loyal to his nation and its ideals than a man who is forced into service, is inadequately eom- xary u. any utuig wui grow stmt: er, said Senator Hatfield, becats1 "there Is no more effective way t! interest the voters in governinc' policy than through their poefe' books." "j "Civilian control over the mi tary should be extended . . j: government's authority todral' young men into uniform should b ended and it should be possible: reinstate it only by an act of Cc; gress upon the recommendation: the Commander-in-Chief." r provision would modify the abac of the president to involve the Ui in any commitment without i consent of the people, since wfc out unlimited resources of mem conflict could not be carried s for any length of time. Such a clause would also re state the constitutional right c Congress to declare war. In th way the president, before he t cides to intervene in conlfc would have to justify his action: Congress, which would reduce 6 possibility of an ill-considerf. commitment of troops. men out of the possible pool ol Li million. The senator said that we cannot tolerate a system that takes two years out of the lives of some men while the majority go free. Third, the draft fails to provide the necessary quantity and quality of men needed to man today's modern type of weapons. General Ira Eker, a retired air force officer, of-ficer, said: "Weapons are now so complicated and require such technical tech-nical skill for their operation and maintenance that it is absurd to expect short-term trainees to man them effectively." Sen. Hatfield has pointed out that any future combat operations are not going to be the cut-and-dried attack and retreat methods of WWI and WWII, but will be more like the guerilla fighting now being used in Vietnam, where small forces are much more versatile ver-satile than are large armies. The draft is designed to provide large numbers of men and cannot supply men with the training and experience experi-ence to be effective guerrilla fighters. It has also been pointed out that since the young men are forced into the military, there is a high turnover rate, because draftees count the days until they are released. ment. An all-volunteer army is usually usual-ly challenged on the grounds that it would not be able to p r o v i d e enough men for the armed services without vastly improved conditions for the professional soldier. However, How-ever, Walter Oi, economist and consultant to the Pentagon on military mili-tary manpower during 1964, found that with the needed peacetime force of 2.65 millions all but 75,000 men could be recruited at the pres. ent pay and benefit levels. Professor Oi has estimated that salary increases of about $4 billion bil-lion would supply all the incentive needed to maintain a full peacetime peace-time force, and during war time this price would double to maintain main-tain the force. This represents an increase of 5 percent in the defense budeet. Although four to eight billion dollars seems to be a considerable consider-able sum, it could be nullified by the economics that would grow out cf a volunteer army. With the smaller turnover rates in the professional pro-fessional army, smaller expenditures expendi-tures for Veterans' benefits, savings sav-ings in the maintenance of compli. cated equipment now mistreated by inadequately trained men, and reductions in the cost of maintaining maintain-ing boot camps, a great saving |