The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 54, No. 24, Ed. 1 Thursday, April 13, 1967 Page: 4 of 8
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Draft alternatives presented at national conference
(The following is the report
by Rice students Ralph Barth
and Barney McCoy of the three
day National Conference on the
Draft which they attended last
week at Washington University
in St. Louis—ed«)
BY RALPH BARTH AND
BARNEY McCOY
"A theme of youth today is a
revulsion against imposed struc.
tures." This quotation fron>
Marshall McLuhan, 'the sage of
the age," could well have been
the keynote of last week's Na-
tional Conference on the Draft
organized and conducted by the
American Friends Service Com-
mittee.
Six plenary sessions, each
concerned with a major effect
of the draft, constituted the
formal meetings.
Chancellor Eliot of Washing-
ton University addressed the
first session and did little more
than question the student de-
ferment policies of Selective
Service: if nineteen-year-olds
are to he drafted first, then why
not eighteen ?
He opposed abolishing gradu-
ate deferments for the loss of
skilled and erudite manpower
such a change would probably
effect to the nation.
Burn, Baby, Burn
On Friday afternoon at the
close of a session a dynamic
young activist from Morehouse
College in Atlanta stood up and
expressed his disappointment,
and others', that the confer-
ence was all talk and no action.
He then proceeded to per-
suade all the participants to
gather in front of the hall to
hear a list of seventeen pro-
posals that he and several oth-
er, as it turned out, radical
activists, had drawn tip. These
proposals, each of which re-
ceived its share of support from
different authors of the list,
called! for such actions against
the draft as refusal to pay
taxes, hiding AWOL's, encour-
aging resistance within the
armed forces, and "rendering
induction centers inoperable."
One hirsute individual, who
claimed he represented Stan-
ford, found that his personal
dissent was best channelled into
destruction of property. "Why
not burn down a draft board
here and there?"
Young Turks
This group of "Young Turks"
was obviously trying to sub-
vert the purpose of the confer-
ence and use it to voice their
own violent objection to the
draft (and Vietnam and Negro
poverty). The conference direc-
tors were horrified at this turn
of events and eventually re-
minded all that the conference
was not a representative as-
sembly and could not speak as
one.
The writers felt that the
Quakers have themselves to
blame for this debacle and for
the gross lack of respect shown
to such speakers as Colonel
Omer and Mr. Doherty by some
of the audience.
The Friends (Quakers) or-
ganized the conference pre-
committed to the conviction
that the draft was onerous.
Hence they invited mainly
speakers who they knew would
reinforce their general convic-
tions with intellectual strength.
The speakers chosen to defend
the Selective Service system
could hardly be considered re-
sponsible for our draft policy
today.
About two-thirds of the par-
"foco-Colo" end "Coke" are registered trade-marks which Identify only the product of The Coco-Colo Company
m
Let's hear
it for the
cheerleaders!
Everybody cheers for ice-cold Coca-Cola. Coke has
the taste you never get tired of... always refresh-
ing. That's why things go better with Coke...after
Coke... after Coke.
Bottled under tho authority of The Coca-Cola Company byi
Houston Coca-Cola Bottling Company—Houston, Texas
ticipants attending were college
students. Most of these stu-
dents had been solicited by local
chapters of the American
Friends Service Committee
throughout the country, but a
list of participants shows that
official student body organiza-
tions are not as well represent-
ed, as such action groups as
SNCC, SDS and "we won't Go"
movements.
Congressman Thomas Curtis,
Republican of Missouri, based
his objections to the draft on
the fact that his minority party
is not responsible for the poli-
cies and administration of Se-
lective Service. Curtis found
fault with the Johnson adminis-
tration for not making the
working papers of its studies
public.
Volunteer Military
Curtis also criticized Congress
for neglecting its proper func-
tion as a deliberative assembly
which should study the prob-
lem and arrive at a decision
through due process. For the
same reason he doubts the va-
lidity of the Congressional
stand on Vietnam.
On the positive side, Con-
gressman Curtis advocated a
small, professional volunteer
army with a large and real
ready reserve. This would show
savings through retention of
personnel who would be better
qualified.
Along with a volunteer
military, Curtis would insist
that skilled personnel be pro-
cured from the civilian sector
with pay based on the current
wage market. The Navy's Sea-
bees exemplify this "put^ng
round pegs in round holes."
The Great Leveller
Colonel Daniel Omer, Deputy
Director of Selective Service,
delivered a rather unenlightened
rationale of conscription. He
granted that the debate over
selective service must not avoid
discussing whether we should
have conscription at all, while
concerning itself only with the
draft law and its mechanics.
Omer argued that the draft is
desirable because it keeps us
aware that "freedom is not
free," and increases the stature
of the armed forces in the pub-
lic view because "our boys in
uniform" represent a true cross-
section of society. Hence the
draft is the great leveller, and
teacher of democracy to all
walks of life and all levels of
society.
Most of the conference par-
ticipants resented the invalidity
of Colonel Omer's argument be-
cause it was based on the blind
assumption that this country
must pursue a foreign policy
requiring a huge military.
Another American Spirit
Dr. Vincent Harding, Profes-
sor of Sociology at Spellman
College, a Negro, delivered a
strong and articulate diatribe
on how the draft, Vietnam, and
the plight of the underprivi-
leged minorities all illuminate
the "other American spirit"
that ugly feature that enabled
Americans to own slaves,
slaughter whole Indian nations,
and conquer Mexico in years
past.
These faults have been visi-
ble to the rest of the rest of
the world for quite some time,
according to Dr. Harding. Pa-
triotism never equals blind, ir-
rational obedience. Is our motive
in Vietnam really anti-commu-
nism? And what's so horrible
about communism for Southeast
Asia ? he asked.
A New Humanity
Dr. Harding concluded that
a new humanity must be cre-
ated after the defeat of criminal
America.
With regard to the draft and
American tradition of civil lib-
erty, Marvin Karpatkin, Acting
Legal Director of the American
Civil Liberties Union, elaborat-
ed on the resolution of the
ACLU on the draft today: "The
draft is such a severe depriva-
tion of liberty that it can be
used only in case of most severe
emergencies, and the burden of
proof is upon government to
show that there are no less on-
erous means of averting that
emergency."
Thrown To The Winds
Karpatkin demonstrated how
the Selective Service Act has
abridged the following safe-
guards of individual liberty:
the Fifth Amendment is of-
fended because the draft limits
the right of travel and resi-
dence, the First Amendment be-
cause the rights of speech
(draft card burning) and asso-
ciation are curtailed, and the
Thirteenth Amendment because
the draft approximates invol-
untary servitude.
In addition, traditions of re-
ligious liberty were thrown to
the winds when conscientious
objection was so narrowly de-
fined by legislation as to dis-
criminate against atheism. In-
equities in the operation of se-
lective service—the processing
of individuals under the man-
power network and its continu-
ing pattern of bias—amount to
unequal protection under law.
Totalitarian Methods
Karpatkin saw much damage
being done to young Americans
introduced to something less
than democracy.
Journalist Bruce Chapman,
author of "Wrong Man in Uni-
form," felt we might have to
wait until after Vietnam to dis-
cuss the draft on its own mer-
its. Chapman inserted an ap-
propriate remark of Adolf Hit-
ler's: "Totalitarianism can force
one's adversary to adopt totali-
tarian methods."
Chapman found many faults
with the draft as it is operated
today and deplor'ed the com-
plete arbitrariness of a lottery.
He granted the necessity of the
military complex, however, and
said that it should fill its ranks
solely with volunteers.
No Deferments
The elimination of systematic
deferments was called for by
Dr. William E. Keast, President
of Wayne State University in
Detroit. The II-S and the de-
sire to retain it encourage the
student to pursue what may be
for him the wrong choice of
major. It prevents student risk-
taking, like dropping out to
travel and experiment.
Keast saw student deferments
reinforcing reliance on the
highly inadequate system of
grades, credit hours, etc., as
measures of growth and
achievement. The system is un-
fair to the student who must
attend part time for financial
reasons.
The principle and administra-
tion of student deferment are
not operating as originally in-
tended, according to Keast. He
saw the university becoming an
agency of national manpower
policy.
Let the Blood
Education is a permanent as-
set, Keast said, the draft a
temporary expedient. We must
not allow the latter to cripple
the former.
Dr. Bernard H. Baumrin, As-
sistant Professor of Philosophy
at Washington University,
placed conscription in the bat-
tle of the powerful and the
wealthy versus the weak and
poor—"let the blood of the
masses; spare that of the no-
ble."
Baumrin also found student
deferments entirely inequitable
and even extended his thesis to
the perhaps facetious conclu-
sion that the highest percent-
age of Ph.D.'s are graduated
four years after the start of a
war. "The only way to eliminate
wars is to make the ruling
classes fight them."
Harried NSA
W. Eugene Groves, harried
president of the National Stu-
dent Association, also came out
against student deferments.
Groves wanted to remove the
impact of the draft from edu-
cation and make the university
more relevant to human educa-
tion.
During the session dealing
with the socio-economic effects
of the draft, Norman Kurland,
of the Citizens Crusade Against
Poverty, raised the basic ques-
tion whether compulsion is still
necessary to the military's
manpower needs. Even assum-
ing the necessity of the mili-
tary, the Platonic state-before-
individual is antithetical to the
goals of our society, he said.
Big Conspiracy
Kurland compared the cost of
an all-volunteer military to the
effects of the disruption of do-
mestic life, the logs of poten-
tial leaders in lower income
groups, and the potential eco-
nomic dependence of all those
draftees, and found it relatively
cheap.
Arlo Tatum, Executive Secre-
tary of the Central Committee
for Conscientious Objectors,
said that through the draft the
adult world forces youth to
crystallize its position on cen-
Continued on next page
2,600
*2,700.
18,400.
348.
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THE RICE THRESHER, APRIL 1 3, 1 9 6 7—P A G E 4
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Coyner, Sandy. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 54, No. 24, Ed. 1 Thursday, April 13, 1967, newspaper, April 13, 1967; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth245000/m1/4/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.