For Universal Military Service

Abstract

M y great-grandfathe~' came to. Am~rica fr0111 ,Germany; he came because he did not believe 111 Germany s program of universal military training. Today, nearly eighty years lat~r, the United States is contemplating a similar program, and Its you ng men are faced with an uncertain and compelling future. I believe however, that the youth of today face the problem with a different outlook than did the people of my greatPTandfather's day. In my opinion, the young men of America ~ealize that they live in the most ideal country in the world and that it is worth defending. There are, however, varied opinions as. to vV~lether or not yniversal military service is the r ieh t way 111 w hich to defend It. o It is .the .opinion .of ?ne grou.I~ t~at if a wall of peace !s to be mamtall1:d, urnvei sal ser vico IS. the only answer. This sam e OTOUI)pomts out the fact that, 111 reo'al'd to d tion . • '=' '. ,=,e e nca , the eighteen-c-twenty year age IS the 10glCal time for una '=' 1 1 . I 1. 1 a yo '=' man to serve »ecause at t lIS age 'ie nas completed hio'h hool and is just beginning coll:ge. Th~ be~ief is h.elcl by the~e ;~ople that the system of selective service IS unfair to those who are selected .. On the o~her. hand, there is the gTOUP which feels that universal service IS not the answer to the problem of prcventing war. They point out the fact that many of the participants in. both world. wars had similar program~. This group also believes that ul1!versal service is war breedll1g because such a program could hardly be considered a peaceful gesture by suspicious nations.