Doubtful Deferments

Much like the trainer whose stunt horse finally begins acting out of habit and not merely for sugar, draft officials think it is time to tighten student deferments and other exemptions or else scrap the whole Selective Service system and substitute Universal Military Training. Draft officials sense that students and everyone else of draft age now know they will have to serve sometime. With a dwindling manpower supply they contend that this is the opportune time to decide whether to skimp on deferments or institute UMT. But until President Eisenhower and Congress decide which course they will take, the present confusion of deferments and increasingly high draft calls will continue.

Currently the Senate Armed Services Committee is considering a UMT bill sponsored by Senator Leverett Saltonstall (Rep.-Mass.) requiring all eligible males 18 years of age to undergo a six months training period, and then serve as reservists for seven and a half years. During the 82nd Congress, a similar bill passed in the Senate, but was defeated in the House. This time, Saltonstall has altered his bill in several minor ways to pacify House members: the term of training has been increased from four to six months, and the UMT trainees will wear different uniforms and insignia to distinguish them from the regulars.

The bill's chances for success depend on two men. One, of course, is President Eisenhower; the other is the Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, Representative Dewey Short (Rep.-Mo). If Eisenhower endorses UMT as such (which is doubtful), Saltonstall expects little opposition in Congress to the bill. Short has consistently disapproved of many facets of UMT, and as House Armed Services Chairman could easily salt-tail the measure.

In a vague sort of way, both Short and Eisenhower agree on one thing: UMT cannot be instituted while the Selective Service program is functioning. Apparently they expect the draft to come to an absolute halt, with UMT beginning on its own at some later date, but neither has outlined any plan for the period between the transition, a period which could present innumerable problems. During the campaign, Eisenhower said he favored establishment of a commission to solve these problems, but since dozens of committees have presented dozens of solutions, it is doubtful whether another would come up with anything new.

Meanwhile, Selective Service is having its own problems. Its Director, General Hershey, somehow feels that he has been too liberal with exemptions, including ones for students. Last year, he told the CRIMSON that he wanted the deferment examination grade raised from 70 to 80, but only recently he changed his mind, and said he would be content with a hike to 75. Hershey admits, however, that college deferments, as such, are hardly the cause of, or even a major contribution to, the decrease in the manpower supply; fewer than 178,000 students have 2.S deferments out of more than 13,400,000 registrants.

Most exemptions are due to hardship or dependency. Nevertheless Hershey has been eyeing the college student market impatiently. "The college class to graduate in 1956," he has said, "must contain an ever increasing proportion of men whose service in the Armed Forces has been completed."

But since no change in deferment policies can be made without an Executive Order from the President, Hershey can only gaze unhappy at the statistics, and calls from the military. And for college students, and hope he can meet the high (53,000 for march) draft call from the military. And for college students, the Defence Department's annual report indicated that the military expects no drastic developments in students and fathers could be drafted but other than that it devoted out the obvious: student are not exempt from the draft; they will have to serve sometime.

If the UMT bill should pass, it will take at least a year to get started; during the first several years of operation, it will have to continue some student exemptions, otherwise there will just be no students for six months. But after this initial period, the cycle of high school-service-college would theoretically be uninterrupted.

Although Eisenhower will probably grant the Selective Service division permission to squeeze out some of the deferred, particularly fathers, college exemptions will continue--until the distant and presently doubtful day of UMT.