Shall We Have Universal Military Training?
The Length of the Training and the Size of the Force
If we do set up a peacetime training program, what should be the period of training? If it is obligatory for all young men, how large a trained reserve force would we have in the end? At the present time, those who favor a permanent selective service advocate a one-year training period, perhaps to be supplemented on a voluntary basis by periodic refresher courses. Under the terms of a bill before Congress, for instance, every young man would be liable for one year of training at any time within the three years after his eighteenth birthday. This period of a year is probably the maximum which Congress would be willing to consider, but while it would provide reasonably well for infantry training, it would not be long enough either for the Navy or for the Air Forces, and probably not for the more highly technical and mechanized branches of the Army.
The size of
such a reserve would be substantial. Hanson W. Baldwin, military specialist of
the New York Times, has estimated that about 100,000 young men reach the
age of 18 each month. Allowing for physical disability and necessary deferment,
between 600,000 and 840,000 would be available for training each year. Over a
period of a few years a formidable reserve force would thus be created.
