you owe it as an inescapable responsibility to the fathers and mothers of America, to the very purpose for which you are advocating this legislation, and to the future of America, to disregard all selfish and commercial interests and to recommend as an integral part of such legislation that a zone of reasonable width be fixed around every such camp, within which it will be a Federal offense to sell, supply, give, or have in anyone's possession alcoholic beverages; to keep, set up, maintain, or operate any gambling place, machine, or game of chance; to engage in prostitution or to aid or abet prostitution.

Some provisions proved successful in 1917 and 1918. The lack of them has proved disastrous in 1940, 41, 42, 43, 44, and '45. Chairman WOODRUM. Thank you very much, Miss Smart. Miss SMART. Thank you for this opportunity, sir.

Chairman WOODRUM. Mr. Daniels, will you come forward, please? The committee this morning is highly honored in having with us the Honorable Josephus Daniels, former Secretary of the Navy. Mr. Daniels, we are indeed glad to have you with us.

Mr. DANIELS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Chairman WOODRUM. The floor is yours, sir.

Mr. DANIELS. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee, I have always found that the very best advice editors get was from Congressmen.

Chairman WOODRUM. They don't ever take it, do they, Mr. Secretary?

Mr. DANIELS. Sometimes they do. The best advice I get, I get from my Congressman, and sometimes we editors can probably reciprocate.

I am going to read my address, because I think it will take less time.

Chairman WOODRUM. Thank you; we are glad to have it.

STATEMENT OF HON. JOSEPHUS DANIELS, FORMER SECRETARY OF THE NAVY, EDITOR OF THE NEWS AND OBSERVER, RALEIGH, S. C.

Mr. DANIELS. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee, the propaganda for compulsory military service for American youth is based upon three false premises:

First, fear; and I hold with Franklin Roosevelt that "fear is the only thing to fear." As I read or listen to the pleas to Hitlerize America and see how the advocates of compulsion tremble, I am reminded of the old nursery rhyme: "Run, little fear, or big fear will get you."

Second is born out of cynicism, the disbelief in the ability of our civilization to rise out of savagery and so order the affairs of a civilized age as to make war an anachronism. This unbelief is based on the silly credo: "There have always been wars, and there always will be wars."

The third is imperialism, the desire that Uncle Sam shall abandon democracy, the right of all men to govern themselves, and follow the example of the Israelites of old, who tired of God's guidance, wished a king so that they would be like neighbor nations that lived by the sword. It was this jealousy of John Bull's exploitation of weak peo

ples that caused us to go into the colonial business when we obtained rule of the Philippines by conquest and purchase and held onto them under the pious profession of "benevolent assimilation." Happily, we have come to ourselves and given the solemn pledge to return sovereignty to the Filipinos as soon as this war is ended.

Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee, let me hasten to avow that I belong to the school of thought which holds with Washington, "In time of peace prepare for war." I also am a Wilsonian who believes equally in the maxim, "In time of war prepare for peace." One is the corollary of the other. As long as there are men and nations that live by the sword, there is the certainy that nations lacking that means of defense will die by the sword. As long as there are robbers and marauders, cities must maintain a vigilant and adequate police force to protect life and property, the size being regulated by the danger of being despoiled. I believe everything in the Bible, as Bob Doughton would say, and I would say, "from kivver to kivver" except "the meek shall inherit the earth." That makes me a heretic unless this prophesy was intended for some far-off century. Up to our day the meek have not only not inherited the earth but have been the victims of the strong and greedy whose creed is that the earth belongs to those who have the power and are able to go up and take it.

Our country for decades was so favorably situated between the two great oceans it had little fear of invasion. That was in the days when communication and transportation were so slow that Andrew Jackson could be winning the Battle of New Orleans days after the treaty of peace had been signed between the two fighting nations at Ghent. That protection was lessened when submarines could stealthily enter our harbors before their presence was discovered and hurl deadly torpedoes to destroy our cities. It was lost when bombers in a few hours could fly from Tokyo and work havoc on the American fleet. anchored in Pearl Harbor, or the "airy navies of the central blue" were capable of taking off before breakfast from Berlin and blasting Boston before the setting sun. Protected by the narrow Channel separating it from the Continent, the tight little island of England was safe from invasion in all former wars, but was dangerously near destruction when flying robots wiped out thickly populated sections of London and made life a nightmare to millions. Only the supremacy in the air, aided by sea and land forces, prevented its annihilation.

The outstanding lesson taught by World War II is that the nation. which commands the air is the nation that can rule the world. This is not to say that wars can be fought and enemy countries brought under subjection and punished alone by this new weapon sending its bombs hurtling on crowded cities, industrial plants, and railway stations. No complete victory can be won and garnered, as this war proves, except by aerial warfare with hand-to-hand fighting following the devastation from the air. It is too soon, Mr. Chairman, to assess the relative value of the forces of land, sea, and air, or to plan for wise preparedness in a world that is still bleeding from the wounds of war. There must be time for the adoption of the best plan after all the lessons have been made known.

The first sound that fell upon my infant ears was from the shelling by Federal gunboats of a small southern town in which I was born. I

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have lived through three major wars, having been privileged to direct naval operations of the United States in World War I. Study and experience have convinced me that until we can replace war with effective international agreement as a safe substitute, our country must be well prepared against attack. In 1914, when the European war broke out and there was danger the contagion might reach us, the Wilson administration made plans and in 1915 secured authorization for the creation of the most powerful Navy in the world. I am testifying today from my experience of 8 years as Secretary of the Navy, covering the period of World War I, and from my strong belief in efficient modern preparedness. No man believes more in having a gun well primed than I do. But I put emphasis on the sort of preparedness this war has taught will win victories and not on the discredited broken stick of universal compulsory conscription.

Before we entered the war in 1917 naval statesmen did not foresee that the enemy would employ the U-boat as its chief offensive. We did not provide adequately for such warfare. We had placed chief emphasis on dreadnaughts while the craft most needed were destroyers, submarines, chasers, and eagle boats. There was better preparedness against the submarine in this war, but military experts here and abroad had not foreseen that Nazi victories over Europe and the expulsion of the British from the Continent would come from superiority in the air and mechanized weapons on the land. The tide of war did not turn until Allied air superiority blasted Nazi cities and fortresses and factories and railroads and war buildings. The imperative preparedness of tomorrow is that which will give conquest of the skies. Without that mastery all the mighty leviathans and the thundering artillery and the serried ranks of infantry will be compelled in any future war to say, "One thing thou lackest yet”— and the first and most potent offensive weapon.

We were forehanded in antiquated cavalry in 1940, we were strong in powerful dreadnaughts which may soon be outmoded, we had efficient drill masters and artillerymen, but in 1940 all our belated preparedness lacked the most important essential for modern warfare-modern aircraft carriers and ships in the upper air that could drop down their deadly missiles and destroy whatever they elected to annihilate.

When the time comes to prepare for preparedness-let me repeat that when the time comes to prepare for preparedness-the first step will be to unlearn the methods of the past and discard the archaic drilling, put all cavalry horses to plowing, shut down munition plants making out-of-date weapons, discard the ancient tactics and strategy long taught in military schools, and look mainly toward the perfection of weapons of the skies. The "airy navies of the central blue" will win the first battles of the future. The chief ships of the surface navy will be the aircraft carriers, and the chief function of the land forces to give the knockout blow, follow up, mop up, and occupy. And Uncle Sam will be astounded at the number of young men who will volunteer-more than needed-to see the sky darkened by the dreadnaught planes "raining down their ghastly dew."

Mr. Chairman, my first introduction to compulsory service, and my revulsion from it, came in 1914, a few months before the outbreak of World War I. A very good friend, General Estoppinall, Member of

Congress from Louisiana and member of the Naval Affairs Committee, called to see me on his return from France, where he had been on a visit to his sister. "I am glad to get back," he said, "to a free country where youth are not conscripted for military service and where we do not live daily in fear of war. When I arrived in France I found my sister in deep distress because her sons must leave home and school and be called to military service-the law required service up to 45 years of age. She hated the separation-her boys being taken from her and from school to march and drill and drill and march and march, for which they had no taste."

General Estoppinall said the French hated the system but tolerated it because of the fear that Germany would again try to possess their country. That fear was well founded for in less than 6 months after that conversation German soldiers rushed through Belgium and threatened France. It was not in 1917-18 but till America threw its might into the struggle that the Germans were driven back. The French fought bravely against great odds, not because of the compulsory military service but in spite of it. By 1918 they were war weary and could not have carried on without the help of British and American soldiers, who, lacking the nightmare of compulsory service, fought with at least as high efficiency as their allies whose sons had been conscripted to serve in the army since 1872.

The draft under French law provided for a 27-year period of military service. The proportion of the youth drafted varied from 65 to 85 percent. In World War I and World War II our American soldiers, who had never in time of peace been conscripted, went overseas with only a few months war training and, fighting side by side with the French, demonstrated that long, compulsory training did not make better soldiers. This is particularly true in mechanized warfare, where familiarity with automobiles, tractors, and like machinery makes it comparatively easy to go from peacetime to war without a long period of goose-stepping.

The example of France, which in 1939 boasted the greatest and besttrained regular army, with long training under a compulsory law, certainly offers no good argument to adopt a system which did not save that Army from rout and defeat in this war. French soldiers, without the blight of compulsion, would have given a better account of themselves. The draft system was tried and found wanting.

The advocates of a compulsory law point to the early victories of the Nazis as an example America should follow. The first thing Hitler did when he became dictator of Germany was to tighten up and enforce military conscription. All German males between 18 and 45 were drafted and forced into active duty for a period of 10 years. The system called for the training of the entire youth of the nation. There was basic preinduction service, discipline, and hardening of young boys in the schools. They were indoctrinated into the fake of being "the superior race." Germany was made one vast military camp and all life was based on preparedness for war-this by order of the Fuehrer. The Nazis became brutally efficient and for a time ran roughshod over most of Europe. They believed their military caste and universal military service would make Germany the master of the world. It would be futile to deny that the German military force won important victories and imposed their will for a

time from the Atlantic Ocean and the British Channel to the steppes of Russia. Their victories were made possible more by early supremacy in the air and the utilization of mechanized implements of war more than by compulsory goose-stepping. And the time came when the drafted Nazi soldiers, with long years of compulsory military service, came up against mighty armies from countries which had practiced no peacetime compulsion. The result is history. The citizen soldiers, quickly mastering the lessons of war in combat, came off victors over those who believed no soldier could fight unless from boyhood he had been compelled to make militarism the grind of his daily life.

Certainly an examination of the results of compulsory service in France and Germany give no sufficient reason why the United States should abandon its century-old Americanism and adopt European imperialism, which now in its rout finds none so poor to render it obeisance. Weighed in the balance-in the acid test of war-that much-vaunted system was found wanting. Its epitaph-this is true of Italy, too, and will be of Japan: Mene, mene, tekel upharsin—and for those of you who have not read the Bible lately, that means "Thou art weighed in the balance and found wanting."

Up to date nobody advocating spending billions and billions of dollars for compulsory military service has even guessed at how much money will be required to put that juggernaut in motion and keep it going, and in what sort of war these draftees will be trained to fight to get best results. The only suggestions have been land bases, barracks, and tents galore, and the sort of drilling that was in fashion a generation ago. Most of such training is as out of date as the triremes of Rome. It has not been suggested that there is need for drafting men for the Navy. It can obtain all it may need by volunteers who are ambitious to go down to the sea in ships. Aviation will attract more men of their own volition than there are planes now or that can be made, in which they can try their wings. There remains, therefore, as the only possible argument for compulsory training, the drafting of men to make up the land forces. At the most there will be need only for a small, compact land force. Every man that can be wisely placed can be obtained by volunteer enlistment if there is adequate payand again I wish to emphasize that "if there is adequate pay"-with certain advancement from the ranks to those who show ability in

actual service.

Let me illustrate: When I became Secretary of the Navy in March 1913, Congress had authorized an enlistment of 54,643 men. I found that the strenuous effort to attract enough youths to the number authorized lagged. This in the face of propaganda by Navy bands and solicitation to enlistment by the promise "Join the Navy and see the world." I resolved to find why the response to appeals to enlist did not secure enough seamen. I found it was due to four reasons: (1) The pay was inadequate; (2) the training, except in gunnery and engineering, was lacking; (3) a caste system denied the equality that is synonymous with Americanism, and (4) the door to promotion was barred.

A new policy was adopted of a school on every ship, better vocational and elementary instruction, opportunity for advancement and promotion to commissioned officer rank-not enough-and training in