A Boston Lowell and a Hartford Mokarsky last week headlined the tightening and toughening of Selective Service.
The Back Bayer was a young (26) poet, Robert Traill Spence Lowell Jr., son of a retired naval commander, scion of a famed family with members in every war since the Revolution. No ordinary conscientious objector, Lowell twice tried to enlist, later reversed his views because he decided the bombings of total war are unethical. So he refused to serve "as a matter of principle." He was sentenced to a year and a day in Federal prison.
In Hartford, Conn., young (23) Stanley Mokarsky Jr. refused to report for induction, announced that his family (he was married after Pearl Harbor) came before his country, and that his country had never done anything for him. Cocky young Mokarsky (his war job paid him $100 a week) so riled Federal Judge Carrol C. Hincks that he gave Mokarsky the unique if impossible choice between going to jail and leaving the country. Judge Hincks conceded that he had no direct power to exile Citizen Mokarsky, gave him 30 days to think it over before sentencing.
Somewhere between the apparently lofty principles of the Lowells and the palpably selfish sentiments of the Mokarskys come the reasons and excuses of thousands of draft dodgers. Most of them, according to the FBI, are guilty mainly of carelessness and ignorance. Even with far more men drafted, this war's total number of draft delinquents is lower than last war's. Delinquencies reported by local boards to the FBI total 306,144 to date. From June 5, 1917 to Sept. 11, 1918, 474,861 cases were reported.
Against the millions of men called up, there have been so far only 6,036 convictions for draft evasions in World War II. By quiet prowling, without the public emotionalism of "slacker raids," the FBI has quietly nudged some 200,000 other delinquents into uniform.
Newest arm of enforcement is publicity. Some draft boards have long been posting the names of delinquents. Last week Selective Service announced that, in addition to popping all delinquents aged 18 to 38 directly into 1-A, all local boards would be asked to publish delinquent names monthly, thus try to shame backsliders into righting their score.