Not Now

On the question of postwar compulsory military training, a large county was heard from last week. Representatives of some 600 colleges convened at Atlantic City (Association of American Colleges), heard an urgent plea for action from General Marshall, pondered, debated, then voted (210-to-35) that: 1) they are perfectly willing for every U.S. youngster to be conscripted for a year of Army training if they are convinced that it is necessary; 2) they are still far from convinced./- Their cautious arguments for delay: 1) it is too soon to say what our military needs will be; 2) alternate plans have not been sufficiently discussed; 3) present action would imply distrust of the plans for peace.

The educators do not expect to like peacetime conscription, even if they decide it is necessary. They think it would menace the free spirit and methods of U.S. higher education, might easily become a dangerous political weapon. They also believe it would seriously aggravate their postwar problems.

Struggle for Survival. Those problems are staggering. Veterans Administrator Frank T. Hines told the convention that some 1,160,000 servicemen plan to go to college as soon as they are discharged. But the bulk of prospective veteran students are also best suited for military occupation overseas. The college boom will therefore be postponed 18 months beyond the end of the war. Meantime conscription would delay by a year the college entrance of able-bodied 18-year-olds. Already financially hard-pressed by depleted civilian enrollment and the gradual ending of military training contracts, many small U.S. colleges will by then be hanging by their ivy unless drastic action is taken.

That drastic action can only take the form of federal aid. But college administrators insist that the federal help should have no strings of federal control. The aid should be in the form of 1) "selected" draft deferments; 2) priority on surplus commodities they can use for buildings and equipment; 3) direct grants based chiefly on losses of peacetime enrollment; 4) longterm, low-interest loans; 5) contracts for adult extension courses and research; 6) a federal scholarship fund.

/- A National Education Association poll last week showed that 1,300 school superintendents are substantially (60%) of the same mind..

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