Word: draft
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...Franklin Roosevelt, as usual, made headlines too-some as President, some as candidate. As candidate he made a fighting speech before a Labor audience (see below). As President, he received from Congress the capstones of his defense program : 1) conscription of man power, along with unprecedented peacetime powers to draft industry as well; 2) a $5,000,000,000 supplemental Defense Bill, to equip the new Army and launch a world-beating two-ocean Navy...
...Roosevelt gracefully accepted both, signed both. Said he, calling upon 16,500,000 male citizens to register for the draft Oct. 16: "We have set forth the underlying . . . duties, obligations and responsibilities of equal service. . . . We have not carved a new and uncharted trail in the history of our democratic institutions. On the contrary, we have merely reasserted an old and accepted principle of democratic government...
Under the sponsorship of a group of student organizations, including the Daily Californian editors, a meeting was recently called to discuss the draft--discussion being still, presumably, one of the rights of citizens of this democracy. Promptly came forth a sharp statement from the office of President Sproul, warning that students who opposed "defending this country" might find themselves deprived of the chance to be "educated by this country...
Without making any conclusions as to the desirability or unsavoriness of the draft act, most college students will join with California's in asserting their right to free discussion of national legislation. At least until this country is at war, such freedom cannot reasonably be held to constitute "clear and present danger" to the United States. Equally certain, suppression of discussion is "clear and present danger" to democracy and free education...
Principal reason for the rapid response in enlistments in the desire of many college men to get in the Navy rather than be called into army training after the draft act. Following the course one may volunteer for a year's active training which will make him an officer in charge of a destroyer if called to duty...