Draft Will Die in June, House Leaders Declare

WASHINGTON, D.C.--Congress is so seared of universal military training in peacetime that "there isn't a chance in the world" it will extend the draft law next year, according to top members of the House Armed Services Committee.

Representative Melvin Price (D-Ill.) told the CRIMSON yesterday that "it is very difficult to get Congress to pass a draft act during peacetime. It was very difficult to get the present law passed two years ago, and it will be impossible now that there is no need for it."

The current law expires on June 24, two days after the College's graduation exercises. According to the act, students could legally be conscripted during those two days, but Price predicts that "there will be no more drafting unless the international situation gets very bad."

Price echoed the views of Representatives Carl Vinson (D-Ga.), chairman of the committee, and Paul J. Kilday (D-Tex), another key member. He explained that the major opposition to the draft came from Congressmen who were afraid of a peacetime UMT.

Enlistment Spur

Vinson said over the weekend that the Administration would doubtless ask for an extension on the ground that the law served as a spur to voluntary enlistment. "But they haven't got a chance in the world of getting it," he said. "There is no justification for it."

Senator Millard Tydings (D-Md.) chairman of the Senate Military Affairs Committee, was away from Washington yesterday and couldn't be reached for comment.