25,000-Man Dearth Might Mean Draft, Hershey Says

Major General Lewis B. Hershey predicted yesterday that a new draft call may be necessary to fill a 25,000 man defict in the armed services.

"There are grounds for thinking we are going to get a call," the director of Selective Service disclosed during a visit to the state headquarters in Boston.

"My best guess is that we are 25,000 below strength," he said. "When we stopped drafting (at the beginning of this year), we were 25,000 over strength."

Even if there is no new call, General Hershey declared, registration of all men 18 years old and classification of all 19-year-olds will continue. In the event of mobilization, this will save the armed services 120 days, he said.

National Life Insurance

"This is like life insurance. If you live in a dangerous world," he said, "anything you do to prevent war is not wasted. However, if we are never to have any more wars, what we spend on defense is wasted."

Last year, the draft nabbed enough men to raise the armed services total 20,000 during November and pushed it up another 25,000 by the end of the year.

At that point inadequate budget expectations from the 81st Congress put a stop to plans to bring the forces up to the authorized 900,000-man level.