world. We cannot just win the war. We must build a worthy peace. Peacetime conscription, we believe, is not a step in the direction of world community and peace. The adoption of such legislation would give evidence of our intention to block the above-mentioned policies which will contribute toward the achievement of peace. Our is the privilege and the responsibility as a nation to move forward to a high goal-peacetime Christian community-an ideal worthy of our material resources, our critical intelligence, our moral stamina, and our highest spiritual devotion. Chairman WOODRUM. You are a theological student of the Boston School of Theology? Mr. STEELE. The Boston University School of Theology. Mr. Brown, representing the International Association of Machinists, is our next witness. STATEMENT OF H. W. BROWN, PRESIDENT, INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF MACHINISTS Mr. BROWN. Mr. Chairman, I am H. W. Brown, president, International Association of Machinists (AFL), with offices at Ninth and Mount Vernon Place NW., Washington, D. C. The International Association of Machinists represents some seven hundred thousand American citizens, all of whom are vitally interested in the broad and general question which this committee is considering: "Should the United States have compulsory military training in the postwar period?" It is my understanding that this committee is not considering any specific legislation, however, on behalf of the members of the International Association of Machinists, I wish to express my appreciation for this opportunity to present to this committee the following statement. The executive council of the International Association of Machinists, during its most recent session, adopted the following resolution which was distributed to the press on May 8, 1945: Whereas education is democratic and teaches people to think for themselves while regimentation discourages freedom of thought and action; and Whereas experience has shown that in Europe permanent compulsory military service imposed a severe burden upon the people while popular education and general well-being suffered as a result of it, and in most cases lead to varying degrees of suppression and oppression not in keeping with our democratic institutions; and Whereas such permanent compulsory military service has long since been the established rule of the European Continent where Hitler and Mussolini attempted to invest it with a new glory while the United States remained free of conscription; and Whereas peacetime military conscription is a violation of American tradition and a direct blow at democracy which has made this country a haven of refuge for Europeans seeking to escape fascism and other militaristic forms of government; and Whereas peacetime military conscription endangers the rights of all citizens because it is based upon the idea that the individual is a pawn in the hands of unlimited state power; and Whereas fairness requires that our soldiers after returning home should have an opportunity to voice their opinion on an issue which would affect them and their children's lives so radically; and therefore be it 73951-45-pt. 1-24 Resolved, That the executive council of the International Association of Machinists opposes the passage of any bill providing for compulsory peacetime military conscription. The above resolution in brief form sets forth the views of our organization on this important subject. Supplementing our views as expressed in this resolution, the following remarks are presented on behalf of our association. American labor has always been unalterably opposed to military conscription in peacetime. Many of our best citizens are descendants of liberty-loving men and women who came to this country to escape the regimentation which conscription imposed upon the countries in Europe. It is my opinion that it is very foolhardy for this country now to abandon our free society and accept this Old World practice and particularly so after we have had an opportunity to see the results in Italy, Germany, and France. Some will say that peacetime military conscription is a device to keep us out of war. However, France, Germany, and other European countries have used conscription since 1805 to "keep them out of war," but the results hoped for have not been obtained. Again and again the existence of these conscripted masses has helped to hasten the wars that were supposed to have been prevented. Those who favor conscription argue that the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans will no longer keep us out of war and therefore, the citizenry of this country must be prepared to fight at once. Organized labor has never relied on mere bodies of water to keep us out of war, but has always maintained that democratic government at home and fair dealings with the other peoples of the earth were our best guaranties of peace. Armed might have never prevented war, and knowledge and good will have never caused one. This is no time for America to abandon her cherished principles of liberty and justice for all men. Reviewing the costly delay that followed Pearl Harbor before the United States was ready to effectively prosecute the war, we find this delay was due almost entirely to the fact that we did not have sufficient ships, airplanes, tanks, guns, munitions, and supplies, and it was necessary to establish facilities for the production of these in sufficient quantities. Then to make matters worse a number of employers, particularly in the State of Michigan, following Pearl Harbor, in effect went on a sit-down strike, refusing to accept Government contracts until the amount of profit specified was increased. The change in the conditions under which war is fought today and in the past shows that the mechanized program requires a much longer period of time to develop and organize than does the training of men for the armed forces. During peacetime we cannot object to a preparedness program that provides for the producing of things needed to fight a defensive war, but such a program need not include compulsory military training. Recently I learned that a shockingly high percentage of young men have been refused by their draft boards because of physical ailments. That 4.500,000 men have been rejected as physically unqualified is a surprising and a regrettable fact. This record should cause every person who is concerned about our national welfare to cooperate in a fearless and honest effort to ascertain the reason of the high percentage of people-especially young people suffering physical ailment, and then proceed with whatever is necessary to build stronger bodies. Such an investigation will disclose the need of intensifying physical training and wiping out every slum district, and will further show the need for the construction of decent and healthful dwellings. We may need to improve our pure food laws and their administration. The field of medicine, including hospitals, dentistry, and surgery, needs a thorough investigation and the correction of whatever is necessary to the end that quackery will be removed, and that there will be available ample facilities at reasonable cost for the benefit of all people. On behalf of the International Association of Machinists I wish to state that our organization is deeply concerned with the cause of wars, believing that therein lies the key to the situation. If wars can be prevented I am sure that all of us will agree that our major concern has been eliminated. With this thought in mind it is our considered opinion that in our day the major cause of war can be traced to mass unemployment. We have only to study the history of this war to realize the truth of this statement. If there had not been mass unemployment and starvation in Germany Hitler could never have been successful in attaining the position of leadership and power that resulted in the program of aggression against other nations with the final end that Germany went down in defeat. Had there not been mass unemployment and hunger in Italy Mussolini would not have been successful in its program to become a dictator. Thus we see two excellent examples in our own day of the effect of large-scale unemployment upon nations. America should profit by the lessons which we have learned in this tragic conflict, and provide machinery so that this situation will not occur in our own country. In this connection there is now pending before both Houses of Congress a bill to provide for a program of full employment. On behalf of the 700,000 members of the International Association of Machinists, I strongly urge that Congress will perform its responsibilities in this regard by passing legislation which will provide for a program of full employment for the people of our country. Class. hatred, suspicion, violence, are all the byproducts of unemployment and constitute a very real danger to the national security of any nation. In my opinion, we should be directing our time, energy, and money not to a program providing for compulsory peacetime military training, but to a program designed to provide full employment for the people of our great nation. If we are to tackle in a scientific way the cause of business depressions and unemployment armies, we need more public servants, who are conscientious, socially and economically minded and with the courage to act along this line. If we are patriotic in the true sense-if we are concerned about our national welfare-and if the preservation of all that the word "America" stands for is paramount, we must go to the roots of our social and economic problems and not resort to camouflage and mockery. Labor is not impressed with the argument that conscription helps win wars and saves the lives of soldiers. History tells a different story. Germany and France have maintained larger conscripted armies than any other powers in history. Conscription did not guarantee victory nor save loss of life for them. American advocates of conscription make specific mention of lives lost because our boys were not trained. The workers of America know, however, that the real struggle of this war was to hasten the building of the massive machines of war to spare the lives of our boys. They know that it takes far longer to design and build the factories and tools that make tanks and planes, artillery and bombs than it does to train the soldiers. It was German tanks and planes and guns that won over France's well-trained conscripted troops in 1940. While we believe the American soldier has shown himself to be a match for any other soldier on earth we know that our soldiers themselves will tell you it was the superior quality of American machines, including superiority in the air, on the ground and on the sea, that finally brought defeat to Hitler and to Germany. It will require even more massive implements of destruction to determine the out-. come of any future war in which the Nations of the world may be unfortunate enough to engage. The amazing record of free American labor and industry in America which resulted in unbelievable quantities of equipment of war being produced and transported to the fighting fronts quickly has been responsible not only for saving countless lives but has been responsible for victory in Europe. Many stories have come out of this war relating the numerous instances which have resulted in victory because of the superiority of men and machines on the part of the Allies. Inventive genius and mechanical efficiency are not easily conscripted. They are more apt to develop in a free society and among an unregimented people. Capt. Liddell Hart, widely recognized as one of our great military tacticians, in his book, Why Don't We Learn From History? states on page 23: Twenty-five years spent in the study of war, a study which gradually went beyond its current techniques to its wellsprings, changed my earlier and conventional beliefs in the value of conscription. It brought me to see that the compulsory principle was fundamentally inefficient, and conscriptive methods out of date * * * a method that clung like ivy to quantitative standards in an age when the trend of warfare was becoming increasingly qualitative. For it sustained the fetish of numbers at a time when skill and enthusiasm were becoming even more necessary for the effective handling of new weapons Conscription does not fit the conditions of modern warfare-its specialized technical equipment, mobile operations, and fluid situations. Success increasingly depends upon individual initiative, which in turn springs from a sense of personal responsibility-these senses are atrophied by compulsion. * Labor is very suspicious of the judgment and the motives of those behind this frantic rush to make us follow conscription as a permanent policy under the heat of wartime emotions. Advocates of conscription tend to raise many questions by their untimely pressure for this movement now, while millions of the sons of the United Nations are dying in battle defending the cause of peace and democracy and while delegates of these same United Nations are seeking to establish peaceful machinery to take the place of wars. We are not fools and neither are the people of our Allied Nations in this war. The common people of every land know that adoption of conscription by America now means that we are preparing against one or many of our present Allies while bitter fighting continues to take a toll of our boys in the Pacific. In conclusion, the International Association of Machinists is opposed to the compulsory military peacetime training on the basis that it did not adequately meet the changing picture in the way which modern wars are conducted. Ample time is provided for the training of any army during the period required to produce the weapons with which modern wars are fought. History has proved that mass unemployment is one of the greatest contributing factors to war. Our duty is to provide a program of full enjoyment for the people of our country and guarantee that this threat will be permanently removed. Our efforts need to be directed toward the program of building up the health and living standards of our people, to assure that America will be a Nation of healthy individuals with opportunity for medical attention and service available at reasonable cost. Physical training-yes! Peacetime compulsory military training-never! In closing may I reiterate-fairness requires that our soldiers after returning home should have an opportunity to voice their opinion on an issue which would affect them and their children's lives so radically. I thank you. Chairman WoODRUM. We thank you, Mr. Brown. Mr. Patton, representing the Wisconsin Council of Churches and other organizations, is present? Mr. PATTON. Yes, sir. pages and Chairman WOODRUM. I notice your statement runs three then you have something else you wish to include in the record. Mr. PATTON. Yes. I am representing the Wisconsin Council of Churches, the Wisconsin Committee Against Peacetime Conscription, the Wisconsin Northern Baptist Board of Managers, the First Baptist Church of Madison, the Wisconsin Congregational Conference, and the Western Unitarian Conference, and my statements are based on resolutions drawn up by those groups, and that will be appended to what I say. Chairman WOODRUM. Will it be satisfactory to have those resolutions placed in the record without reading them? Mr. PATTON. That was intended. STATEMENT OF REV. KENNETH L. PATTON, PASTOR OF THE FIRST UNITARIAN SOCIETY OF MADISON, REPRESENTING THE WISCONSIN COUNCIL OF CHURCHES AND OTHERS Mr. PATTON. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, the members of the groups from Wisconsin and the midwest which I am here representing are in the majority opposed to universal peacetime conscription in general. They are even more unanimously opposed to any action on such legislation until the war shall be over on all the fronts and the people in the services returned to this country where they can take part in such a decision. Their opopsition arises from their belief that such conscription will work against democratic freedom and action, and that it opposes the religious and Christian principles of peace and cooperation for which these religious organizations stand. If we are to admit that the only way we can secure ourselves from attack is by making soldiers out of all the men of our nation, we are admitting that we must resort to force and expediency, rather than to moral principles and intelligence, to solve our problems. We have denied that need in our personal relations and our civic lives. There |