I ordered a first edition (1944 Doubleday) of John T. Flynn’s As We Go Marching, which is an interesting book I’m half-way through. I found a curious letter inside from one Andrew W. Wilson:

The full text reads as follows:

Editor,
The Fresno Bee
Fresno, California

Dear Sir:

President Truman today has issued a report written by a group of prominent Americans supporting a program of Compulsory Military Training, although the prefer to use a more acceptable term, Universal Training. To the extent that this report is represented to be a non-partisan statement, it is a fraud on the American people.

Two members of the commission are educators, President Compton of Massachusetts Institute of Technology and President Dodds of Princeton University. These are two of a very few prominent educators who support peacetime conscription. The much larger group who oppose it were not represented.

The Protestant clergyman in the group is another exception to the general rule. It can be said with considerable accuracy that this man is the only Protestant clergyman in the country who supports peacetime conscription.

These examples are enough to show that this report was not written by a group of unbiased men, but by a hand picked group known to support a program of peacetime military training. The report is, then, nothing but a summary of the personal opinions of men already known to be in favor of the program and not an independently arrived at report of impartial men.

Sincerely yours,

Andrew W. Wilson

Sounds like we could have been a lot more like Switzerland, with that training. Here’s an excerpt of a speech Truman made regarding his plans for Universal Training:

So long as democracy is threatened in the world, and during the period in which the free nations of Europe are regaining their strength, this country must remain strong in order to give support to those countries of Europe whose freedom is endangered. Universal training is the best means of building up a large pool of trained civilians who could be called upon in times of emergency. The presence, within this country, of a strong, well-trained group of our young men would be of great importance in preventing future conflicts. The adoption of universal training by this nation at this time would serve notice on the world that our pleas for peace were not mere idle words, but that we had the strength to back up our will for peace.

Even after we adopt universal training, however, it will take a substantial period of time before the pool of trained reserves can be developed. In the meantime our armed forces lack the necessary men to maintain their authorized strength. Voluntary enlistments have been dropping, and each month we fall further under our authorized strength. This is why we must have a selective service law.

Our armed forces have to be kept up at the authorized level if we are to meet, our international responsibilities and maintain a minimum force in the continental United States. Selective service would be used only as an interim measure until the solid foundation of universal training can be established.

Source

So, watch out for the calls to eliminate the selective service in favor of Universal Training. Here’s more pictures of my beautiful book: