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Show Push for Draft as Army Recruitment Misses Mark By BAUKHAGE Vwi Analy$t and Commentator. WNU Service, 1616 Eye Street, N.W., Washington, D. C. WASHINGTON. Uncle Sam is completing the biggest "help wanted" want-ed" campaign in history and he's afraid it hasn't been a 100 per cent success. When the tumult tu-mult and the shouting dies, the captains and the kings depart, the men who served their country "take up the plough-shares or the pen as a sim-p sim-p 1 e citizen a g a 1 n," and iomebody has to look around for carefully conducted polls undertaken by the National Opinion Research center of Denver university has this to say: "A substantial majority of the public in this country are convinced that in spite of the military implications impli-cations of the atom bomb the United Unit-ed States, needs peacetime military training. This conviction is evidenced evi-denced by nation-wide survey results Just released by the National Opinion Opin-ion Research center, University of Denver. "To test the stability of public opinion on the Issue, NORC asked separate but comparable cross-sections of the population two differently different-ly worded questions, one stating an argument against conscription in view of the military implications of the atom bomb, the other stating an argument for conscription in view of atomic Implications. No matter how the question is worded, a strong majority favor compulsory military training In this country. "Even the anti-conscription wording word-ing elicits a 68 per cent majority in favor of military training despite the atom bomb, while the pro-conscription question elicits no more than a 71 per cent majority in favor of the idea." Some of the opposition to the legislation came from people who were dupes of what many officials believe to be subversive organizations. organiza-tions. Some has been fostered by congressmen looking for votes. At this writing, however, it seems that common sense and patriotism are going to come to Uncle Sam's rescue. 0 0 0 Cut German Beer Supply I have just been in touch with the state department and am able to say, unofficially, but by no means uncertainly, that the Germans are not going to get a soft peace. I do not refer to the plan for slicing German industry to a very thin piece or the renewed efforts at de-Naziflcation de-Naziflcation in the American zone. What I am able to report is a step recently taken which the Germans will undoubtedly consider cruel and unusual punishment. They are not going to be allowed, as they hoped they would be, to brew beer. The United States government gov-ernment has ruled "nothing doing" because of the food situation and "other reasons." For the precise data on the situation situa-tion I am indebted to my former colleague, the Western Newspaper Union's correspondent, now in Germany, Ger-many, Pauline Frederick. Here it is: "The situation on brewing of beer in the three other zones of Germany is as follows, based on the reports given us by the agricultural representatives repre-sentatives of these zones in Berlin: "British zone Brewing of beer prohibited by military order. "French zone Brewing permitted until the recent critical food shortage short-age stopped it. "Russian zone Brewing permitted permit-ted but no information is available on the amount of grain being used in the Russian zone for this purpose. "The proposed brewing program in the American zone requires 39,000 tons of barley which will produce about 25 per cent of the 1931 consumption con-sumption based on a 12-month period peri-od in our zone. The 1931 production produc-tion was the lowest on record. No coal is permitted for brewing purposes pur-poses until local food processing needs have been supplied. "Thirty-nine thousand tons of barley bar-ley represents the breadgrain ration ra-tion requirements of our zone for approximately 10 days. The relative rela-tive caloric value of 39.000 tons of barley in the form of beer is 50.32 billion calories, or to put it another way, one liter is equal to 100 grams of bread in caloric value. "In the brewing process as compared com-pared with the utilization of barley for bread approximately 20 per cent of the food value of barley Is lost. "The whole question of brewing beer in our zone is a big political one and promises have been made by the minister-presidents and directors di-rectors of agriculture that this beer would be forthcoming in the spring months when farmers and workers can have it in the heavy working season. The German authorities have agreed that if the beer is made it will not be issued as a supplement supple-ment to the present ration but will be issued as a substitute for bread based on Its caloric value." Well, politics or no politics, the Germans aren't going to get their beer let the foam fly where it may. II1UJC lu I 1 1 CI IV.- the peacetime army and navy. That's what Uncle has been doing. Life on the bounding main has always al-ways had sufficient appeal, especially especial-ly to inlanders, to keep the navy up to par without much effort. But Americans ordinarily just don't go for soldiering, and that fact has the war department worried. It doesn't decide how big or litUe the army must be. It gets its orders from higher up. Such and such is America's Amer-ica's policy the war department has to get enough pairs of sound legs and arms and enough cool heads to carry it out. Conscription has always been unpopular. un-popular. We don't even like to use the word. But we have to get the men. Hence the fight to extend the draft and hence the greatest recruiting recruit-ing campaign this or any other country coun-try has ever launched. The sum expended ex-pended on this campaign is big; even compared to the amount spent to remind America of "the pause that refreshes." It was run like any other advertising campaign, with a selection of the media best suited for its purposes. Newspapers, daily and weekly, magazines, especially those devoted to popular science, billboards and radio, posters and window displays were generously used. It did bring in 320,251 recruits, but that isn't enough. And enlistments have declined steadily from their peak in November. That month 185,000 men either signed up or "re-upped" "re-upped" as we used to say. But watch the numbers shrink! December, Decem-ber, 131,000; January, 113,000; February, Feb-ruary, 93,000; March (estimated) 73,000; April. ?????? Seek to Better G..s Lot Besides this vigorous campaign a real, sincere and sustained effort is being made to improve the life In barrack and drill-field. Hearings to hear the G.I. gripes, with specific plans to right wrongs where they were found and can be corrected, a thorough examination of army justice jus-tice by civilian lawyers selected by the American Bar association, a 20 per cent pay increase, all these are part of a plan furthered by Secretary Sec-retary of War Patterson whose one desire is to leave the army better when he retires than the way he found it. But there are a lot of hurdles. One is the need of a higher type of soldier in these days of mechanized warfare; the second is the increasing increas-ing standard of civilian wages with which the army has to compete. The automotive and the durable goods industries are the chief competitors and their pay is good. However, there are intangibles which enter Into the question too. A man has to have more than a desire de-sire for clothes, a roof and three square meals a day and no responsibilities. respon-sibilities. To enlist he has to have a certain love for adventure, a willingness will-ingness to accept the hardships of barrack life in far countries. The army doesn't really in its heart want the draft. It is a case of taking what they can get. I know of no officer who would not prefer a volunteer army. That is another intangible. But with the commitments commit-ments which the United States has today and until a United Nations organization or-ganization can be formed which can take over the military function of the separate countries, the need is men. There is something strange about the opposition to extension of the draft as revealed in the hearings In my personal contacts I have not felt that opposition. By far the majority ma-jority of people I have talked with on my recent trip through seven states have agreed that extension of selective service was necessarysome neces-sarysome said a necessary evil but still necessary. One of the most |