Draft Everybody?

Britain could not bring herself to it until she had been at war for two years; but after eight weeks the U.S. was already talking of it: a universal draft (not selective)--the assignment, willy-nilly, of every able-bodied adult in the U.S. to any job, civilian or otherwise, where the Government thinks he may be of most use.

That would be total war indeed. The U.S. had not yet faced the full meaning of it--the denial to everybody of anybody's right to work at the occupation he chooses. But men were beginning to discuss it in terms of war's necessity.

P: Present aim of the War Department is an army of three and a half million men--so said Secretary Stimson. Estimates of ultimate aims are astronomical.

P:The wartime industrial program will require an estimated 15,000,000-10,000,000 more than are now engaged in defense work--so said the Office of Facts and Figures.

P:When tooling up for the new war assignment is complete, auto companies alone will need 1,000,000 men--50% more than they ever employed in making autos--so said the Wall Street Journal.

Secretary Perkins, stout defender of the 40-hour week, cautiously suggested that a 48-hour week might be necessary. But much more far-reaching was a plan sent to the White House by silver-thatched Paul McNutt.

Its details were not revealed but it was described as a plan for the complete mobilization, of man power: Mr. McNutt recommended a central authority which would allocate workers to the spots where they were most needed. The job of this central authority would be to iron out the present confused man power-procurement program, now handled by six different agencies--Army & Navy, Selective Service, Civil Service Commission, Office of Civilian Defense, Employment Service. The plan still awaited the President's scrutiny, and he was expected to issue an executive order to implement it.

At most, the McNutt agency could only coordinate the recruiting of man power. Before anyone can actually be drafted, for other than a military job, new laws will be required. But in Manhattan last week Brigadier General Lewis B. Hershey, head of Selective Service, told a luncheon of businessmen that the time was not far distant when citizens must face the possibility of being either in the armed services or in an essential war industry. Objective of General Hershey's proposed draft system : mobilization of some 60,000,000 people. By the end of this month practically every able-bodied adult U.S. male will be registered. Said the General: "There will be no place for a slacker, even for one who is in a place where he does less than he could do somewhere else." There was a possibility that women would have to be registered next, and, he added, "perhaps ultimately children may have to help."

Probably not even General Hershey realized the full implications of what he said. Congress is accustomed to appropriating billions of dollars, or conscripting a few millions of selected men for battle, but to conscript the entire able-bodied population for national service would make even Congress' heart skip a beat.

Britain came to it, after two years, but has gone slow with it. Though it has been accepted in principle, no one in Britain likes it.

In the U.S., too, workers may have a strong protest to enter. Much debate may well be heard before a universal draft law is passed or enforced. But last week pressure for it had begun.

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