FAIR Shake?

With major portions of the nation's draft law due to expire June 30, Lyndon Johnson will send a message to Congress this week on that perennially prickly problem. By presidential directive, Johnson will put into effect these far-reaching changes by the end of next year:

> The youngest draft-age men, starting with 19-year-olds, will be taken first, reversing present priorities under which 26-year-olds are the first to go.

> Deferments for all graduate students, except those in dental or medical schools, will be ended.

> Draftees will be tapped by "fair and impartial random" selection--a lottery-like concept that Johnson acronymously dubbed "FAIR."

In addressing himself to mounting complaints about the draft, President Johnson showed a characteristically deft and sensitive political hand. Taking youths as soon as they turn 19 should effectively mute one of the principal laments about the draft: that it keeps many young men on tenterhooks until they are 26. Doing away with most graduate deferments will all but eliminate graduate schools as a draft haven. But Johnson sidestepped for the time being unquestionably the thorniest problem of all--whether deferments should be continued for college students. Recognizing the political explosiveness of any proposal to do away with college deferments, Johnson shrewdly left it to Congress to debate the issue. "I will then," said L.B.J.'s message, "take that presidential action which I believe will best serve the national interest."

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