Military Service Duty to State.

To the Editors of the CRIMSON:

The writers of Wednesday's communication have assumed a premise to their argument with which the present writer is unable to agree. They call the proposed system "compulsory" instead of "universal" military service--and declare that it will be undemocratic and un-Christian because it involves the compulsion of conscience. Yet they admit that the proposed law will provide for conscientious scruples. Surely they do not put much faith in our ability to administer the law justly, and surely they do not consider that we shall be so busy organizing and training the millions who will be willing to learn to fight for their country that we, unlike England today, can easily spare those who have honest convictions opposed to military service as well as those who will be willing to perjure themselves to avoid doing their duty.

But even admitting that the proposed system would mean compulsion of conscience--as I do not--it is submitted that such compulsion would be neither undemocratic nor un-Christian. All compulsion is not abhorrent to democracy and Christianity. Taxes are universally compulsory--and the payment of them may be against the conscience of some--but they are merely regarded as a necessary evil. Taxes are one thing which the individual owes the state. Military service is another, and the compulsion of a man to do his duty to the state is justified--even in a democracy.

Yesterday's writers will do well to read Alan Seeger's "Message to America." written on the battlefields of France, one verse of which reads:

"Not by rough tongues and ready fists

Can you hope to jilt in the modern lists.

The armies of a littler folk

Shall pass you under the victor's yoke,

Sobeit a nation that trains her sons

To ride their horses and point their guns--

Sobeit a people that comprehends

The limit where private pleasure ends

And where their public dues begin,

A people made strong by discipline,

Who are willing to give--what you've no mind to--

And understand--what you are blind to--

The things that the individual

Must sacrifice for the good of all." H. L. M. COLE 1L.