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Show Universal Training Dye fror Big Play Backers Say UMT Needed To Bolster Foreign Policy By BAUKHAGE Newt Analyst and Commentator. ( I hit it the first of two articlet on the drive for univertal military training which is to be launched toon anc what is back oj that drive. The firtt article deals with the potential eflect of military training on our foreign policy, the next with the program itself.) WASHINGTON. As the foreign ministers' conference plodded along in London, American delegate Marshall probably prob-ably frequently found himself reaching for one document to support his cause, that wasn't there. If it had been he would have had concrete 'proof to place before the world that America Amer-ica is not engaging in the well-known game of bluff. That is why. shortly after the second session of the 80th congress opens in January, you will see and hear a lot more about universal military mili-tary training than you ever did before. The President, as requested by the American Legion, is expected to proclaim a UMT week, (January 6 through 12), and although there will be no active propaganda on the part of the government departments because the administration, especially the war department, is going to lean over backwards to avoid the charge of trying to influence congress, they will do whatever they can within their prescribed limits. But there will be a concerted pro-UMT pro-UMT drive from many private organizations. or-ganizations. The f .as!- American Legion is concentrating on that one issue and its commander, command-er, James F. O'Neil, has publicly pub-licly stated he is going to give his whole time to it. The VFW and other veterans' organizations will fall In line. More important perhaps, per-haps, will be the . whether the people believe this whether it changes the thinking of enough members of congress so that a favorable majority can be obtained. ob-tained. No one will make a guess now as to what the chances are, but the "situation" mentioned above already al-ready has effected some changes of viewpoints. The sources of support for UMT will draw heavily from administration administra-tion regulars unless popular opposition opposi-tion gives them the election year jitters. UMT Gathers Strong Support Naturally Chan Gurney ot South Dakota, chairman of the senate armed services committee, and Chairman Walter G. Andrews of New York of the house committee of the same name, whose sub-committee under Representative Harry Towe of New Jersey produced the bill which is now pending before the house, are enthusiastic supporters of the measure. And it is expected that friends of would-be presidential candidate Dewey will fall in line ; since universal military training is , one of the major issues which the New York governor has endorsed. If this assumption is correct Senator Sena-tor Ives and Republican House Majority Ma-jority Leader Halleck could be included. in-cluded. Senator Saltonstall of Massachusetts Mas-sachusetts has expressed his approval. ap-proval. Candidate Stassen and his friends, though not at this writing committed, are emphatically friendly. friend-ly. Governor Warren, another avowed candidate, took the trouble to fly East to address sympatheti- Baukhage active, Pdva-tion Pdva-tion of the powerful power-ful national security committee headed by former Justice of the Supreme Su-preme Court Qwen J. Roberts. This eommittee, formed about two months ago, is an offshot of an earlier ear-lier citizens' committee headed by Justice Roberts which unsuccessfully unsuccess-fully urged passage of a universal military training bill through the last session of congress. Like the earlier group, the purpose of this national security committee, composed com-posed of veterans' groups like the Legion and VFW as well as the national na-tional chamber of commerce, Rotary Ro-tary clubs and the League of Women Voters, is to coordinate efforts to get universal training enacted into Law. The interesting thing about the renewed re-newed drive for military training, as the men who have negotiated American foreign policy interpret it. Is that UMT's military function is secondary. Let me explain it this way: Granted that the Kremlin policy pol-icy is a long-range plan ot active aggression whose most immediate immedi-ate goal is to get control over as many nations or as much disputed dis-puted territory as possible, and absorption of control over Germany Ger-many as its chief goal. Granted that communism In Europe at this writing is on the defensive and will be even more so if the European recovery plan succeeds. Meanwhile, the Russians will take every step short of war. Granted that Russia does not wish to fight a war at present. Russia knows we know that. But Russia knows that we not only do not want war, she also knows WE COULD NOT FIGHT ONE, not only because we have only a handful of troops on the con-tinent con-tinent (a force greatly outnumbered outnum-bered by the Red army) but because be-cause we are woefully unprepared. unpre-pared. Therefore, the Russians know they can go much further in their "cold war" than they otherwise oth-erwise could. They can play their obstructionist game in the foreign ministers' conference and in the United Nations, carry on active propaganda against us along the periphery of their satellites sat-ellites and even ACTIVELY AID armed forces within non-satellite non-satellite border states as the are doing in Greece. STASSEN DEWEY They favor UMT cally the Roberts national security committee at length when it was formed. There are" many other prominent suporters. Senator Taft Is definitely opposed op-posed to universal military training, which he groups with other "controls" which are objectionable ob-jectionable to him. Opposition may be considered strong from the extreme right and the extreme left. It is hardly likely that Representative Vito Marcan-tonio, Marcan-tonio, who has the support of Communists Com-munists in New York, would vote for UMT. Outside of congress, the church organizations and a large army of mothers arte opposed. The only way their view can be changed, UMT supporters say, is to convince them that our boys will be safer trained than untrained, that in every war we have had to have a trained citizen citi-zen army in the end. Twice while we waited to train it, thousands died, and some went into service without proper preparation. The Russians feel they can take this course because the believe that the American people peo-ple themselves will not back any threat to their (Soviet) aggression, aggres-sion, nor, they think, will America Amer-ica support any step to strengthen strength-en the military machine of the United States. That is the reason the hand of our policy makers would be greatly strengthened if universal military training were established here because be-cause it would show that America is really backing its diplomats. Of coarse, the argument that a strong military organization prevents war because it reduces thp chance of attack is an old one. But under the peculiar international in-ternational situation which exists ex-ists today, it is probably more nearly true than ever before in history. Whether or not a bill authorizing universal militnry training is passed &t the coming session depends od |