Disputation Defused

Almost everyone agrees that the Selective Service System is inequitable, iniquitous--and indispensable. Almost everyone also agrees on most of the latest spate of proposals to reform the draft.

President Johnson, drawing heavily on the recommendations of his advisory commission (TIME, March 10), last week proposed to Congress some sweeping revisions of the system, notably: 1) inducting younger men first rather than the oldest eligible for service, 2) ending deferments for most graduate students and giving serious consideration to withdrawing undergraduate deferments, and 3) substituting a lottery scheme for the present selection by birth date.

South Carolina Democrat L. Mendel Rivers, whose House Armed Services Committee will write the legislation, at first seemed opposed to the President's program, in particular to the lottery idea, which under present circumstances would become a form of Viet Nam roulette. Rivers had employed his own advisory panel, which flatly rejected any system of random selection, and the chairman apparently differed with the President on other points as well.

After the initial response, however, the prospects seem to be for more compromise than conflict between the White House and Capitol Hill. "I don't shut my eyes to some form of chance," Rivers allowed later. "We're all trying to work things out." Furthermore, Rivers' own advisers came out in favor of taking 19-and 20-year-olds first. There was also agreement on reducing deferments for graduate students, although here the President was prepared to go beyond the prevailing sentiment in the Armed Services Committee. He would deny deferment to all graduate students except those studying to be physicians, dentists and ministers. Rivers is disposed to grant waivers to others in fields associated with defense needs, such as physics.

Johnson shrewdly defused disputation in advance by taking a flexible position on the touchy questions of undergraduate deferment and whether to replace or reorganize the system of local draft boards. Nor does he intend to rush out executive orders--as he has the power to do--to implement the lottery scheme and some other proposals. Congress has until June 30 to renew and amend the draft law, and in so doing it may apply legislative controls to some areas in which the President now has sole jurisdiction. But Johnson's go-slow approach gives Congress time to make its views felt--and an opportunity to share any political consequences of major changes in the draft.

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