National Affairs: Obey or Pay

Dr. Wirt A. Warren, a mild-mannered physician with a good practice in Wichita, Kans., sat down and wrote a letter to the Department of Justice in Washington. "This will inform you," he wrote, "that I am not obeying and do not intend to obey . . . that portion of the [Selective Service] act ... providing a penalty for knowingly counseling . . . evasion of registration or service . . . The act is a law which I feel morally bound to break."

He had deliberately advised his stepson to refuse to register, he said, and had offered him money to...

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