University of Virginia Library

Proposals

The Pentagon and the Offices of
Selective Service are playing around
with other ideas. They proposed
last fall a test study of national
service which placed all men who
were not ready to volunteer for the
military into civilian alternative
service in "the national interest"
(Please recall that it is the Military
agencies which determine what
"national interest" is). All men who
were unemployable would be
"trained" in civilian service camps,
which are recently renovated WWII
Japanese internment camps. That
idea was shot down by blacks and
religious leaders who said that the
tacit addition of the Military was
that the camps would primarily
consist of young black and brown
and poor white read untrained
and unskilled — the Pentagon says
they've dropped the idea.

Presently there are several bills
in congress which propose National
Service, all variations on a basic
theme: Volunteer for the military or
spend from two to six years doing
some work, at slave wages, in the
"National interest". All National
Service Proposals seem equally
unlikely until the power claims of
the various Congressional pressure
groups are measured against each
other.