Draft in the Colleges

Last week Columbia University's money-minded President Nicholas Murray Butler blurted a worry. "War conditions," he told newsmen on his 79th birthday, had already cost his university "several hundred thousand dollars" in tuition fees. Butler and his fellow presidents knew that worse was yet to come.

When Congress passed the Selective Service Act last fall, it gave colleges a reprieve by deferring conscription of students until July 1. After that, unless Congress amends the Act, students may be called from their classes at any time. Best guesstimate last week was that 10 to 15% of the 883,594 U.S. college men would be called next year.

First to raise an alarm was Harvard's President James Bryant Conant. An ardent champion of the draft law, he nevertheless warned U.S. officials last year that efficient national defense required that future scientists and engineers be allowed to finish their training. Two months ago a National Committee on Education and Defense called a conference of bigwig educators in Washington, heard an almost unanimous plea that Congress continue the system of deferring conscription of students until the end of their school year.

All this left Congress and draft officials unconvinced. But last month Brigadier General Lewis B. Hershey, Deputy Director of Selective Service, urged local draft boards to be careful about drafting needed scientists and technicians. Each case, said he, must be considered on its own merits, i.e.: the student's progress in his studies, his chances of getting a job.

Last week General Hershey went to New Haven, faced 72 professors and students from 20 New England colleges who had been convened by Yale and the International Student Service to ponder the Draft and Defense. Bluntly informing them that the Army needed college men as leaders and meant to draft them, General Hershey declared: "I do not think there is anything sacred about a ... college education. . . . The thing that frightens me is the 'business as usual' cry. . . . Going to school because you have nothing else to do is last year's hat."

Said a Yale student: "I hear the training period . . . may be extended beyond a year."

Hershey: "Do you think it will be?"

Student: "Yes."

Hershey: "So do I."

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