Flaws

The U. S. draft law has its faults. Biggest trouble is that the law is a wartime statute, put to pre-war use. Its pool of 17,000,000 registered men is unnecessarily large, will soon be bogged with middle-aged registrants. Men who were 35 when they registered last October remain technically subject to the draft until May 15, 1945. Yet the law has no adequate provision for taking in the 1,250,000 young men who turn 21 each year.

Last week the father of the present law concocted a remedy for these defects. He was Brigadier General Lewis Elaine Hershey, acting draft administrator, whose civilian chief, Dr. Clarence Dykstra, resigned last week to join the President's new National Defense Mediation Board (see p. 14). General Hershey proposed to narrow draft registration limits (now 21-35), conscript only men between 18 and 23. He would also let the trainees in the new age brackets choose the year when they would serve. Many Congressmen would like to correct the law now. But General Hershey would put off making any changes until the U. S. is ready to settle down to regular, permanent conscription in annual classes. Meantime he would rock along with the existing act until the Army has accumulated a reserve of trained conscripts (or actually needs a wartime law,).

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