Citizen Group Urges Tighter Law on Draft

Students who become fathers while still in college should not escape the draft, a citizens' committee on manpower advised President Eisenhower yesterday.

James D. Zellerbach, chairman of the National Manpower Council, urged in a radio address last night that the president tighten up the draft regulations which permit boys deferred for college under the 2A status to escape service by marrying and having children before they graduate.

Terming college parenthood "an escape hatch," Zellerbach called upon the president to permit a father draft under the circumstances, to insure "equality of sacrifice."

The NMC is a citizens' group set up by the president when he was still at Columbia for study and recommendations on the national manpower situation.

This is the latest in a series of criticisms of the college student's relationship to the draft. Earlier this month, John A. Hannah, Undersecretary of Defense, announced that the Defense Department would investigate complaints that deferment of college students was a show of favoritism to those boys in higher income brackets. As a result of other complaints, the 2A status has been limited to four years.

Students who deliberately decelerate their programs or fail courses in an effort to remain in college for more than four years will lose their deferments automatically.