Show compulsory MILITARY TRAINING we are hearing a lot these days about the dihe proposed bill that would make it compulsory for every man between the age of 18 to 21 years to spend one year in military service such service subject to the sole jurisdiction of the army f I 1 program congressman W K X granger is trying to get a cross section I 1 21 opinion on this matter and in his most recent report says that approximately 20 per cent of the cards mailed to the constituents of the first utah congressional district I 1 have been bean returned and tabulated he further says that it is evident from the returns that I 1 the question of just what constitutes compulsory military j training has not been made clear judging from th the e answers I 1 given he also says the question is clear cut we either subscribe to it or we oppose such a program an opinion on the question is presented in an open I 1 letter to the president in its digest of editorial opinion I 1 published by peck Associate new york city and expressed in newspapers this letter bythe by 1 the editor of oregon observer says in in part well harry we understand that the army and navy boys are pushing you pretty hard bard f for or a slave army but you and all other good americans know that if we have a good army and navy in peace time it must be made up of good free americans w who ho are in the service of their own free will we know that our country must be prepared to defend itself from predA predators ors both from the inside and from the outside but we also know that if we use totalitarian methods to accomplish adequate preparedness for defense we will lose a whole lot of what is good and fine about america with a little thought on how to make the military training period attractive and a little salesmanship american youth can be induced to volunteer f for or in military training in in sufficient numbers to protect our great country if we go in for compulsion in a big way during pedee peace time it might turn out that america was not worth saving roosevelt and hitler and mussolini are dead and stalin is sick lets forget about them and their methods that about sums it up and while it is becoming more evident that a third world war is in the making we are inclined to agree with the greg oregon on editor that little will be gained if military training is forced upon the youth of this thi generation now there is bitterness in the hearts of many of the returned servicemen who are having difficulty in finding homes for their families or who are unable to gain some of the benefits promised under the GI bill of rights or for other reasons which combine to make their homecoming anything but what they expected or hoped for the memory of world war two experiences is still too poignant and there can be only objection to another period of drafting the youth of our nation |