Conant, Educators Offer Universal Military Service as Draft Solution; Hershey Committee Modifies Plan

President Conant will back a Universal Military Service plan as a solution to the nation's long-run military man-power needs, it was learned last night.

Other educators also favor such a proposal, and it is likely that the Senate and House Armed Services committees will discuss the plan as soon as they go back to work.

The Conant proposal would draft all men at eighteen or when they complete high school. There would be no deferments. Even men normally classified as 4-F, but able to handle clerical work and the like, would be taken into the Army for a two year training period.

The campaign to develop this plan was launched in New York a few weeks ago at an informal meeting of educators in New York. It was decided there that the program would be put forward under Conant's name. At the request of Gardner Cowles '25, who was present at the meeting, Conant agreed to write an article for Look magazine explaining this proposal for the draft. The article will be in the edition going on sale December 5.

Sometime during this week the Association of State Universities and the Association of Land Grant Colleges will discuss and probably vote on the Universal Service plan.

Opposes Three Others

At present Conant's program is in direct opposition to three others: 1) the Administration's Universal Military Training plan (HR 9411), which calls for a partly-civilian controlled Corps separate from the Services; 2) the plan tacitly approved by General Hershey; and 3) a proposal of the American Council on Education which would defer men on the basis of the test and state quotas.

The only one of these that is under consideration by Congress now is the UMT bill now in the Senate Armed Services Committee. A member of that committee, Senator Leverett Saltonstall '14, told the CRIMSON last night it is very likely that a Universal Military Service proposal will be brought up during discussions of the UMT bill--"I certainly feel that it should," he said.

Saltonstall said that his committee expected to report to the Senate on the Draft by January or early February.