We believe the greatest contribution our country can make to the peace of the world is the achievement of full employment and security for 60,000,000 Americans. We believe the accomplishment of such an end will go a long way toward the stabilization of our economy and that of the nations of the world, and would do more to insure world peace than the acceleration and building up of our armed might.

Consistent with such a philosophy, we gave the Bretton Woods proposals our full support. The renewal of the reciprocal trade agreements was given our unqualified endorsement. We are seeking the implementation of the food and agricultural conference proposals. We took these steps and others because we believe that no individual or group or nation lives in an economic vacuum. We believe the security of one is dependent upon the security of all.

Therefore, we believe that the energies of all Americans, through their Government, should be concentrated on the solution of the eco1:omic and social problems which produce war and not on the development and acceptance of a policy of militarization which defies the ideas for which we profess to be fighting at this moment.

Centainly we should not admit defeat so early. Certainly we should not say to our sons and brothers in the armed services of their country that "wars are inevitable and each generation must fight a new

one."

We support the Dumbarton Oaks proposals. We were represented in an advisory capacity at San Francisco. We are convinced that a world organization should be brought into being which will take the enforcement of the law from the hand of the litigant and place it in the hand of the court. We believe in an international police force, not in a system where each nation through its armed might enforces its own law.

We believe peacetime military training by the United States concerns all of the nations of the world and all of the peoples of the world. It seems to us that such action at this time by the United States would be equivalent to shouting from the housetops, "We do not believe it is possible to create a world free from war. So watch out for us!"

Such a confession would be an invitation to all the other nations of the world to follow in our footsteps and would mean the death of the ideals which the United Nations have professed to be fighting fo..

Instead of pressing for compulsory military training, the constructive leaders in the Congress of the United States, in the State Department, and in all the branches of our Government responsible for our foreign policy, should demand consideration of compulsory military training in relation to our national aims for the achievement of world peace.

Instead of unilateral action on our part, all of the nations should plan for disarmament and for the creation of an international, not a national, police force.

We cannot have both collective security and overwhelming national

armaments.

Now is the time, gentlemen, that those who have the destinies of our people in their hands must build political and economic machinery without which peace is impossible and, may I repeat, to plan for the reduction of the armed might of the world.

We cannot go forward and backward simultaneously. Nor can we have peace until the contributing causes of war are removed by the will of the peoples of the world, as well as by their governments. That is why organized labor is doing all possible to emphasize a positive program for peace.

I would not be true to the people I represent if I did not remind you of the terrible responsibility which you who decide this issue face. From our point of view, labor would be the first to suffer if America were to follow a path of isolation, militarism, or imperialism.

Money which should go into homes, clothing, and food would continue to go into planes and tanks and guns. Taxes to maintain unproductive armament programs would go up. Simultaneously living standards would decline. Tensions would increase. Reaction would set in. Our democratic institutions would receive severe shocks from the unbalance of our economy. And the dangers from within might Exceed the dangers from without.

Permit me to illustrate what I mean: Peacetime military training for 850,000 to 1,000,000 young men would cost from $1,000 to $1,500 per boy. The Chamber of Commerce estimates the total cost for their training as $1,500,000,000 to $4,000,000,000 a year. That is a lot of money-money which from our point of view might better be spent 'for peaceful purposes.

For example, we are told that we cannot afford even $400,000,000 a year for Federal aid to education. A $100,000,000 program for school Junches has just been reduced to $50,000,000. We have never been able to get financial support for an adequate child-care program which would give us a healthy and vigorous American youth. And paradoxically, an amended Murray-Wagner-Dingell bill is opposed by most of those who are most vociferous for compulsory military training.

Is it superfluous for me to ask whether money spent for a healthier, happier America would not do as much even for our military security as that spent in training boys for war?

It is an interesting observation, isn't it, that so often those who have the security which wealth and power bring seek to protect that security with armed might, while those who struggle for the necessities of life insist that true security comes only when social and economic welfare is achieved?

During the last several days I have listened to some of the hearings which have been held before this committee. I have examined the testimony of most of the individuals who have come before you. Because of my observation and study, I have concluded that the organizations and individuals of America interested in the total welfare of its citizens are opposed to peacetime conscription. The churches, the educational and welfare organization, the parents, the labor movements, are united on this issue as they have never been on any other. is so because of their belief that peace is possible, if we build on the hopes of people instead of on the ambitions of nations. Perhaps it is also true because we do not seek to rule our fellow men but only to live together as brothers.

This

I will never forget the testimony of a coal-miner friend of mine who said: "Why should there be war and destruction when men every

where want only a job at a living wage, a home, and a chance to sit on the porch and rock their grandchildren?"

Because we in the CIO have the vision of a peace built on the common aspirations of the peoples of the world, we helped to bring into being the new World Trade Union Congress. This congress represents some 60,000,000 workers in 35 countries, from small nations and big, from colonial powers and dependent countries, men of every race and color and creed.

This great organization has three objectives: (1) Speedy victory in the war, (2) establishment of an enduring peace, and (3) the assurance of a secure and more abundant life for all peoples of the world.

The new World Trade Union Congress inaugurated a program for the world which, if carried out, might really bring us the peace we long for. That program includes:

(1) Adequate relief for the hungry in the liberated countries of the

world.

(2) The planned repatriation of the population of the liberated countries.

(3) A planned change-over from war to peace production with special protection for the interests of demobilized servicemen. (4) Prevention of inflation.

(5) Rehabilitation of servicemen and care for their dependents. (6) Full employment and jobs at adequate wages.

(7) A housing program.

(8) A development of high nutrition standards for workers. (9) Creative leisure.

(10) A program of social security which will take away many of the hazards of living.

(11) Protection of the people from monopolies and cartels.

(12) The restoration of the free trade-union movement in every country because

we believe that close fraternal cooperation between them is indispensable for economic and social progress throughout the world.

In conclusion, the CIO asks that all of us, in Government and in the humblest home, bend every energy to the creation of the kind of a world our sons are dying for. The workers, the soldiers, the people want peace. They have no sympathy with those who would continue to use the wealth of the world to build implements of destruction or to train our children to become such implements. For are not our children our greatest wealth?

Germany has gone down to defeat. Japan's days are numbered. With VJ-day, we will have no sympathy for men who look back, not forward. Looking forward to jobs and homes, schools and playgrounds, we may also foster world-wide agreement against universal military training.

Chairman WOODRUM. Thank you, Mr. Cowan.

The statement submitted by R. B. Marston, director, legislativeFederal relations division, National Education Association, will appear in the record at this point.

STATEMENT SUBMITTED BY R. B. MARSTON, DIRECTOR, LEGISLATIVE-FEDERAL RELATIONS DIVISION, NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION

The executive committee of the National Education Association, at its recent meeting, February 19, 1945, adopted the following policy in connection with compulsory peacetime military training:

The National Education Association is in favor of all measures necessary for maintaining national security.

We believe that the immediate establishment of adequate civilian health and educational programs is essential in maintaining national security, both now and in the future.

World War II has demonstrated serious defects in the mental and physical health of some of our young men and women. It has made our country realize the necessity of building up and maintaining high standards of health, both for individual happiness and national security. A comprehensive national health program, conducted with thoroughness during childhood and adolescent years, is the best way to meet this need.

This war has brought into sharp focus the need for a broadened educational program, with emphasis in the civic, cultural, scientific, and vocational fields. We advocate a program of education for all American youth as an indispensable element in national security.

It is our opinion that no military-training program can supply the essential health and educational services needed. We believe that leaders in the field of health can achieve more working with all of our children and youth than a military-training program can possibly accomplish working with able-bodied male citizens. We believe that our present well-established schools and colleges can render greater educational service than can be rendered by a military-training program.

The administration of any program of national security should be entrusted to those who are professionally competent. The health program should be carried out by leaders in the field of health and the educational program by educational leaders. If we adopt a military program, it should be carried out by military leaders.

We shall continue to study the question of compulsory postwar military training in light of our present situation; and if we are convinced that such a program is necesasry for the best interests of national security, we will support it.

(A resolution accompanying Mr. Marston's statement is as follows:)

RESOLUTION

Adopted by the National Council for the Social Studies at the twenty-fourth annual meeting in Cleveland, Ohio, November 25, 1944

The National Council for the Social Studies in its twenty-fourth annual meeting, in considering plans for peace and needs of the postwar world to which education must respond, resolves that

In view of the fundamental changes, unsettled problems, and uncertainties which would be entailed by the establishment of a peacetime program of compulsory military training for all American youth, the National Council for the Social Studies goes on record as urging delay in any congressional action authorizing a peacetime program based on compulsion. The council urges that no action be taken until our educational and military experience in this war has

been evaluated and until our military needs under the emerging world organization are clear. The national council recommends the establishment of a congressional committee to evaluate this experience and clarify these needs. (This resolution was passed by a rising vote of 204 to 7.)

Chairman WOODRUM. The communication received from the American Association for Health, Physical Education, and Recreation will appear in the record at this point.

(The communication referred to is as follows:)

THE RELATIONSHIP OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR HEALTH, PHYSICAL EDUCATION, AND RECREATION TO COMPULSORY MILITARY TRAINING

(Approved by the board of directors, March 1945)

1. The association supports all measures judged by the American people to be necessary for maintaining national security.

2. Compulsory military training, if adopted, should be inaugurated on its own merits and not as a health and physical-fitness measure.

3. The health and physical fitness of the people are basic and vital elements in national preparedness for war and peace.

4. An adequate health and physical-education program, adapted to individual needs and extending from the formative and critical period of early childhood. and adolescence through youth, is basic to any military training. Such a program would insure fewer rejections in the armed services, and those accepted would be more efficient.

5. An individual who has neglected fitness up to 18 is not going to be fit at 19 years of age. Even if military training, including physical training, were required for 1 year for both sexes, and all health classifications, including IV-F's, this program would not compensate for all the earlier years of neglect.

6. The immediate establishment of adequate civilian health and safety education, physical education, athletic and recreation programs, is an essential element in a comprehensive program for maintaining national security now and in the future.

7. All schools, elementary through college, and agencies affiliated with and comparable to this association have much to contribute toward the development for maintenance of health and physical fitness of children, youth, and adults. Programs of health and safety education, physical education, athletics, and recreation contribute to the development of knowledge, attitudes, habits, and motor skills essential to the health and physical fitness of children and youth. Moreover, these programs provide recreational skills and attitudes that carry over into later life and aid in the maintenance of health and physical fitness of adults.

8. Sufficient funds must be available for professionally trained leadership, adequate equipment and facilities, and essential educational services if schools are to fulfill their responsibilities for the health and physical fitness of all children and youth. The cost of such a program would be small in comparison to the values obtained in terms of individual happiness, social and economic worth, and national security.

9. We are convinced of the need for a comprehensive national health and physical-fitness program which, to be completely effective, must reach all classes of American life.

10. No program of military training, including Reserve Officers' Training Corps, should be substituted for, or interfere with, a continuous, graded school program of health, physical education, and recreation from the beginning of school through college.

11. We believe the administration of any program of national security should be entrusted to those who are professionally competent. The health and physicalfitness program should be conducted by professionally competent personnel in that field. Military training, if adopted, should be conducted by military leaders.

Chairman WOODRUM. A statement submitted by Dr. Clinton N. Howard, general superintendent, International Reform Federation, will be inserted in the record at this point.

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