The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER THURSDAY, MAY 25, 1916. COMPULSORY MILITARY SERVICE

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXX, Issue 43, 25 May 1916, Page 4

The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER THURSDAY, MAY 25, 1916. COMPULSORY MILITARY SERVICE

At a time when a Bill providing for the introduction of compulsory military service, as applied generally to men of military age, has been passed by the House of Commons, and when the adoption of a like system is to be proposed in New Zealand, it is (says the Otago Daily Times), interesting to consider the precedent which a democratic country has offered tor the course that is to be followed botn in the Mother Country and in this Dominion. The precedent merits consideration all the more because it seems likely that one of its principal features is to be incorporated in the measure which the Government of this Dominion has prepared. It was on the 3rd March, 1863, that Abraham Lincoln introduced the conscription law in the United States. At that time voluntaryism had completely broken down in the North, and the war had entered on a period, if not of failure, at least of grave discernagement. In an article in Blackwood’s Magazine, Mr George Townsend Warner, of Harrow School, shows in detail how the measure was applied, and the remarkable and largely unanticipated results which flowed from it. It adds to the attractiveness, and to the usefulness, of Mr Warner's presentiment, that be writes in no parti-

smi j>ii-11, Iml, confines himself rigorously t r > a dispassionate statement of 1 plain facts. The introduction of conI script ion. or rather of universal comI pulsory service, was a si rave and singuj larly bold step for Taneoln to take. lln the ’sixties the I nion was still overwhelmingly Anglo-Saxon. The State was democratic in the literal sense of the word, and its citizens| I were intensely jealous of arbitrary in-j terference with their personal liberty.; I Militarism. then as new, was a universal bugbear, and a theme I which would easily be turned to ac- ’ count for electioneering purposes, ( 1

! Lincoln himself had just won almost universal applause by his proclamation declaring freedom for slaves. He was ! responsible, moreover, for the l famous aphorism on the inexpedienee of swaj)j)ing horses in the middle of a stream, and it is difficult to over-esti-mate the power of a popular phrase. Yet in the teeth of these tacts, and with the knowledge that his party would soon have to face a general election, Lincoln was honest and singleminded enough to aeeept responsibility for a measure which he deemed essen-, tial to the security of the State at the hazard of losing all his hard-won j popularity and .sacrificing his career, j Baldly stated, his famous measure declared that all able-bodied citizens between the ages of 20 and 15, with certain definitely stated exceptions, were to he enrolled as the national forces, and therefore to be individually liable to be called out for service. '1 hey wore divided into two classes —first, all bachelors of military age and all married men from 20 to 35; and, secondly, all married men from 35 to 45, to be called up only in the emergency of the first class proving insufficient. 1 The whole country was divided into districts, not necessarily conterminous > with States, each under a provost-mar-shal, responsible for the creation of sub-districts, boards of enrolment, and enrolling officers for the. drafts called up. Quotas were assigned to each district by the President, and the boards were to call up their quotas, plus 50 per cent, to provide against medical or other rejections, at given places, on given days. Those who failed to appear were penalised as “de- . sorters.” The whole disposition of the . draft was to bo in the hands of the President, who could override all local authorities. There were defects in . the measure. It allowed commutation ■ at a fixed tariff in lieu of personal service, and it permitted, though under] increasingly hard conditions, the pro- } vision of substitutes, both unfair dis- j criminations in favour of the well-co-1 do and both undemocratic. It is aj general belief that the draft was never put into operation. But this is a misconception. Between October, 1863, and December, 1864, there were no fewer than four drafts totalling upwards of three-quarters of a million. The actual yield in men, it is freely admitted, was exceedingly poor. Exemptions reached the absurd total oi j 313,006. The best part of 200.006 , failed to report. And of the 200,000, j actually, accepted, 85,600 commuted j for money payments, 75,900 provided • 'substitutes, and only 45,000 weigi j finally available for personal service. At first sight it looks as if the whole j scheme had utterly failed. Yet this ! was far from the case. Volunteering, j which had almost ceased when the Act , was passed, sprang into new life, and , while throughout its whole currency'j the draft itself yielded in round num- | hers under 170,000 men, it so stimu- j kited voluntary enlistment that no fewer than 1,076,558 volunteer recruits came in to the colours. The system of local quotas made every man into a recruiting sergeant. If 1.00 men were required from a district, 100 men had to be provided. But they might he provided voluntarily instead of by compulsion, and so it he- I came everybody’s business to see that j they were provided. The locality that

failed to furnish the draft felt itself disgraced, and as in any case there was no escape from providing tlic men required, it had no material gain to offset the disgrace. It is a singular paradox, but an admitted fact, that legal compulsion should have led to a revival of voluntaryism. For, in the words of General Scott’s report of the Enrolment Branch, “the most effective way of recruiting was an an l nouncement of a call and the assignment of quotas—the true turningpoint of the war was when the first ballot-wheel began to turn.