Younger Soldiers

Eight months' experience with the draft has convinced the U.S. Army command that men between 20 and 25 make better soldiers than do men between 30 and 35, who are too set in civilian ways. Result: a decision to lower the average ages of draftees, eventually eliminate the troublesome 14% of trainees who are 30 and older.

When the President last week ordered some 832,000 new 21-year-olds to register for the draft July 1, he fell in with this trend. In theory, the new registrants will be at the bottom of the order lists in their local districts. In actual fact, the fit and eligible among them will soon find themselves at or near the top. By the end of this year, the Army hopes to be taking nearly all of its new recruits (60,000 a month) from the 21-25 draft bracket.

Draft boards have no authority to defer older men merely because of age. But, at the behest of national draft headquarters in Washington, local boards, civilian physicians and Army doctors have already begun to find other excuses for deferment.

By last week this extra-legal procedure was working well--so well, in fact, that to the Army it made little differercs whether the President or Congress legalized deferment-for-age by executive order or new legislation.

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