Homebodies

As if the Grand Tour was not already a relic, draft board officials are doing their best to crush its last vestiges. But this is not actually their intention, and under the present system they can do little else.

At the end of each academic year, they must go through the records of each student and reclassify him. Since there is always the possibility that his scholastic efforts during the past year do not qualify him for continued deferment, they cannot permit him to go abroad until they determine his status.

This does not sound particularly oppressive so far. But due to the electronic perversity of IBM machines, notably those in University Hall, the grades which draft board officials use in determining a student's status do not appear until middle or late July. By then, the modern bicycle version of the grand tour is quite out of the question, except for those few fanatic enough to nip over and back at great expense per hour of enjoyment gained. Most would-be travelers stay home. This has happened to several local undergraduates, and probably many other students as well.

This trouble is inherent in any system that depends on section as a means of raising armies. There is bound to be a vast number of uncertainties which effectively prevent those in the purview of draft boards from doing a great many things which they would enjoy and which would benefit them. Eliminating the selective process, with its bewildering maze of deferments and categories would allow those who wish to plan ahead to do so--they could decide upon a grand tour for some particular time, knowing that at least the odds are in their favor that the military will not upset their time-table.

Congressmen have little time to think about raising armies at this point--soothing the angry mothers, aroused by the last attempt to revise the draft law, and other matters occupy their efforts. But by the time elections are over, the number of petty yet justified complaints about the discriminatory and confusing consequences of a draft system based on Selective Service will have reached a level where Congress must take note of them. The time cannot come too soon.