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Show The Volunteer System Is Inadequate In the debate on the Selective Training and Service ' IJill a crucial question has been raised as to whether voluntary enlistment can meet the present need lor a larger army personnel. lioth Republicans and Democrats Demo-crats are found on each side of the question. Conscription Conscrip-tion of manpower to keep pace with development oi war mechanics is favored and opposed by Democrats as well as by Republicans. A fair-minded analysis of this problems, in the light of past and current experience with the volunteer system sys-tem and of present requirements, will show that the answer is emphatically in the negative. Ihe new plans 'of the War Department call for an increased army personnel. per-sonnel. A look at the facts discloses the inevitable failure fail-ure of the volunteer system to produce the needed men. The Army's plan calls for having in training and organizing into units at the earliest possible momenta total force of 1,300,000 enlisted men, about 800,000 more men than are now in the Regular Army and National Na-tional Guard combined. It represents the considered judgment of our responsible military authorities that this'force is the minimum necessasy to safeguard our country's security. Of the desired strength ot 1,. 300,000 enlisted men (to be attained as soon as possible) there arc now enlisted (August 26, 1940) about 287,000 m the Kegular Army arm auout iju.uw m um. -However, through the release, upon mobilization of the National Guard of men who have dependents or are disqualified dis-qualified for active service for other reasons, the Guard, will lose some of its strength. Accordingly, a fair estimate esti-mate of the real enlisted strength of the Regular Army and National Guard as of September 1, 1940, is 500,000 men. Is it conceivably possible that any such plan, calling call-ing for the obtaining of ,800,000 additional men in the space of 7 months (April 1, 1941) and for the maintenance mainten-ance throughout this period of crisis of a minimum enlisted en-listed force of 1,300,000 can be realized under the volunteer volun-teer system? That is the question to be squarely faced at this time unless one is rashly prepared to say that our Army authorities do not know their business and have overstated our minimum requirement 'for army man power. Never in our history has it been possible to recruit and maintain under the volunteer system a military force comparable to the minimum army of 1,300,000 now needed. Experience in the year since the war began be-gan confirms the impossibility of doing so now. Virtually all competent authorities, including the Chief of Staff and others familiar with our military history, his-tory, certify that, in their judgment, the volunteer system sys-tem is wholly inadequate to meet the problem now bt-fore bt-fore us. The truth is, as experience, common sense and expert ex-pert knowledge combine to show, that voluntary recruiting- is at best uncertain and ineffective when it romes to raising and maintaining an army on the scale uf 1,300,000 men. At worst, the continuance of the voluntary vol-untary system in the present critical times may be disastrous dis-astrous to the nation's security. Those who advocate delay de-lay in the application of Selective Service, contrary to the judgment of the Commander-in-Chief and his responsible re-sponsible advisers bear a heavy burden of responsibility. |