To the load on the national economy that a total armed force of 11,100,000 will bring to the U.S., another generally unforeseen burden was added last week. Selective Service's Major General Lewis B. Hershey and Colonel Lewis Sanders hefted it for a Congressional Committee. Their prediction: to maintain itself at top strength, the U.S. will have to draft not 11,100,000, but 12,000,000. Reason: this year, at home and abroad, there will be 900,000 casualties.
The figure included more than the casualties of war, and admittedly it was speculative. The total of 400,000 set out for battle casualties could be...