"Equality Does Not Exist"

THE DRAFT

The very notion of conscription rubs against the American grain. Yet in 1966 the U.S. has maintained its draft system almost uninterruptedly for a quarter of a century, the longest period of compulsory military service in the nation's history. Last week Lieut. General Lewis Elaine Hershey, 72, who has directed the present selective service since its inception, acknowledged mounting criticism of the draft but maintained that current criteria, and the 4,050 local draft boards that apply them, are the only workable formula for deciding who should go into uniform.

Before the House Armed Services Committee, which opened Congress' first major investigation of the draft since 1951, the white-haired, crew-cut Hershey defended continued exemptions of college students training to be professionals such as doctors and engineers. "If we want skills that may be critical tomorrow," he argued, "we should be prepared to defer them when the needs of the armed forces permit." Noted Hershey: "There is concern over 'inequity.' Equality of ability, equality of service do not exist." When Pennsylvania Republican Richard Schweiker argued that a "national policy would reduce these inequities," Hershey coolly countered: "If you are driving 65 miles an hour and are picked up, one judge gives you three months in jail. The other says 'Don't do it again.' "

"Gravest Weakness." As for conscription by lottery, a method tried briefly during both World Wars, the draft chief asked: "What would you do if you drew a one-legged man? Those urging a lottery recognize that you can't apply it to the disqualified. You return to a selective service system." But a lottery's "gravest weakness," Hershey contended, is "the substitution of chance for judgment in an area where we need much more wisdom than we have--the proper utilization of our manpower."

Asked why selective-service rejects should not be obligated to share in civil-defense programs, Hershey replied that he did not oppose a "wider range of training." But he added that inducting men for "any but military service has to be looked upon very suspiciously." Hershey rejected outright a suggestion by Committee Chairman Lucius Mendel Rivers of South Carolina that the induction-age ceiling be lowered from 26; in fact, he favors raising the ceiling to include single men and childless husbands up to age 35.

Hershey's defense of the existing system thus resembled Winston Churchill's assessment of democracy: "The worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried." This week the Pentagon is to release the results of a long-awaited study on the draft and the nation's manpower problems ordered by President Johnson two years ago. Nonetheless, it seems unlikely that when major provisions of the present draft law expire on June 30, 1967, Congress will adopt any radically different system to replace it.

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