National Affairs: One More Try

West Virginia’s diehard Republican Senator Chapman Revercomb rose up on the floor of the Senate to thunder his objections: “I don’t want to draft troops to take part in a civil war in China.” The little knot of bitter-enders took up the cry. But the Senate, urged on by South Dakota’s Republican Senator Chan Gurney, resolutely beat back a last desperate attempt to wreck the draft law, approved (6940-8) a one year’s extension to replace the stop-gap bill which expires July 1.

The heart of the measure was the authority to induct men between 18 and 45 whenever voluntary enlistments failed to provide the manpower for the postwar Army (1,070,000), Navy (558,000), and Marine Corps (108,000). If the House swung into line, the Army would be able to refill its manpower pool with a monthly average of 40,000 18-year-olds and 10,000 19-year-olds through Selective Service. But the House, which had twice shown its determination to keep teen-agers draft-free, still had its back up.

Missouri’s mulish Representative Dewey Short reiterated the House position: “They don’t need them, and I don’t think they need the bill at all with the voluntary enlistments they are getting.” This week, as the bill went to a joint House-Senate conference committee, the best anyone hoped for was a compromise which would set the lower age limit for draftees at 19.