• WHAT WILL THEY .DO WITH IT ? • .
BEFORE the next issue of the Spectator is in our readers' hands the forms to be filled up under the National Registration Act will have been . returned, and that arraying of the nation which we have so urgently • :pressed upon the 'public since the :beginning Of the war be an accomplished fact. Now collies the question, • What use . will our . raters and governors make of the ,Register—What will they do with it ? It is unthinkable that they can be content with the accumulation of a mass of statistics. They must act., and act promptly, on the information which they have received. Without further preface we shall set forth what we should do were we the Government. In the first place we should give certificates of exemption from any call for military service to skilled workers of military age now eegaged in making munitions of war, whether for Government or for private employers. It should, however, be clearly understood that the Government might and would withdraw such exemptions (1) if the person to whom the certificate had been granted ceased to work on munitions of war, or (2) if the Government decided that the work he was doing could be done as efficiently by a woman or a person of non-military age and had a sub- stitute ready. The certificate of exemption from field service should be so worded as not to imply that its holder was seeking exemption and so was shirking the call of duty. On the contrary, it should state that he was selected and enlisted for war work. He should be given not merely a badge, but if possible some distinctive uniform. Personally, we should like to see each war worker presented with a khaki cap and suit with 4' W. W." on the shoulder straps. But that, we fear, would be too big an undertaking in the present congested condition of things. We therefore think that a suggestion which has, we believe, already been made in the Press should be adopted, and that a handsome, well, made brassard with the Royal Arms woven into it and a suitable cap should be issued to all holders of the war workers' certificate. A certificate of exemption of a similar kind should be given to those persons of military age whose work the Government considers indis- pensable in our public offices, whether belonging to the central or to the local government. This means, of course, not merely clerks and officials, but persons working at municipal gasworks, electric and sanitary works, and persons working upon railways, which are for the time Government institutions. Next, certificates of exemption should be given (but of course sparingly) to persons engaged on necessary productive works., as, for example, miners, ironworkers, and shipbuilders. Again, persons of military age engaged in transport work, seamen, tramcar engineers, and so forth, must in many cases receive the certificate. Exemptions, however, must not be given where female labour could be employed, as in the case of conductors of tramcars and omnibuses. Further—and here again the issue of exemption certifi- cates must be most carefully scrutinized—we would give a certain number of certificates to men of military age engaged in private businesses not directly connected with munition work or transport. The tilling of the soil for the supply of food is a vital matter. There- fore persons engaged in agriculture should be allowed to apply for certificates of exemption, and these should be granted whenever the productiveness of the land 'would seriously suffer by the withdrawing of a particular indi- vidual. Finally, the Government should give certificates of • exemption to a certain waiting list of persons who returned themselves as skilled in work of the kind needed for the production of shells, rifles, guns, &c., and Who might be required later for the expansion of the munition workshops. This drawing up of what might be called a waiting list for war workers would, of course, be carried out very carefully, and only on condition that the person who received a certificate must hold himself in readiness to go to the places where his services were required at a week's notice. After the granting of these certificates of exemptien, or, as we should prefer to say, after this enlistment of war workers had taken place, the remaining men of military age on the Register would form the reservoir from which we should be able to draw for that second new army which it is evident we must now raise in order to secure .ourselves from the unspeakable misery and humiliation; of defea,t. .Before we deal with the best way of utilizing this reservoir, we desire-to say that ire. our *Mon it will be a capital error on the part of the Government if they maintain uine• teen. to ,ferty as the military age. Their proper course is to Mahe the limits of, military age seventeen to forty. By, this means they can include a very large number of lads who will prove excellent fighters. It is true that in a good many cases boys of seventeen ought not to be sent to the trenches. Such boys would, however, be quite serviceable for home defence purposes, and it is obvious that we must in any case keep a quarter of a million, and perhaps half a million, soldiers in these Islands to resist a raid.' Not only do boys of seventeen learn very quickly, but six months of good food and military drill and of life in the open would enormously improve their physique and make them the better able to bear the trials with which the nation will be confronted at the close of the war. Again, the educative effect of a military training on such lads will be beneficial in a high degree, There is no reason why the boys who are only seventeen should not share not only in the glory but in the physical, mental, and moral advantages of having•taken part in the war. Let, then, the lads of seventeen be accepted, but always with the proviso that they shall receive special medical supervision. It is difficult to say exactly how many men will be found in the reservoir after the exemptions have been made. Let us assume, however, that after deducting three and a half million men serving with the colours or in the Fleet, and the men of military age who are employed on the supply of munitions or on other necessary work, there will remain some four million men of Military age to draw out of the reservoir. How are these to be utilized for military service ? In our opinion the fairest plan would be to proceed as follows. Let us assume that the Government decide that they require two million more men. The next step is to calculate the quota required from each autonomous area in the country—that is, from each city, couni-,y borough, and county. The quota, of course, must be calculated not upon the general population returns—for this would not be fair to the districts in the North, in which there are large numbers of miners and other essential and therefore exempted workers--aput upon the numbers of non-exempted persons of military age returned as living in the area just defined. For example, if the county of Northmoorlands has one hundred thousand non-exempted persons of military age, or one-fortieth of the total number of non-exempted persons of military age, then its quota must be one-fortieth of the two millions asked for, or fifty thousand men. These are the numbers of men which it must furnish. Naturally the first act of the Government would be to see whether these men could be obtained by a voluntary appeal, and such au appeal would be made to them. If, however, the men who came forward in answer to that appeal were insufficient in numbers, the residue must be raised by a ballot held for the purpose as in the days of the Militia Act. When making the proposal for a voluntary enlistment—i.e., before applying compulsion—the Government should, of course, clearly bring to the notice of all persons concerned that if recourse were had to the ballot and men were compelled to come forward to make up the quota, the compelled men must understand that they would not receive the same generous treatment which is now accorded to the volunteer. The compelled man would, of course, receive the same treatment as regards food, clothing, and so forth, as the volunteer, but the separation allowance must be made on a loss generous scale to those dependent upon him, and only given where genuine poverty existed. It must neither be automatic nor lavish, and a considerably larger proportion of the allowance so made must be deducted from the .com- polled soldier's pay. No doubt in a good many areas the draft or ballot would be kept at arm's length. In others, however, the voluntary effort would probably fail, and in these cases the difference between the full quota and the numbers of men who came forward volun- tarily would have to be made up by drawing lots. All eligible men, that is, would be required to attend at a particular place on a particular d, ay and take their chance at the ballot.
. It will be noticed that the system hero advocated does not obliterate that voluntary system of which we are .proud, and in certain souses justly proud. , It merely supplements and fortifies it in the case of absolute necessity by com- pulsion. That was Mr. Lincoln's method. As he was prepared to tell the people of the United States :— "The territorial integrity of the country cannot be main- tained -without the further raising and supporting of armies. There can be no army without men. Men can be had only voluntarily or involuntarily. We have ceased to obtain them voluntarily, and to obtain them involuntarily is the draft—the conscription. If you dispute the fact, and declare that men can still be had votuntarity in sufficient numbers, prove the assertion Iy yourselves volunteering in such numbers, and I shall gladly give up the draft. Or if not a sufficient number, but any one of you will volunteer, he for his single self will escape all the horrors of the draft, and will thereby do only what each one of at least a million of his manly brethren have already done, Their toil and blood have been given as much for you as for themselves. Shall it all be lost rather than that you, too, will -bear your part?"
That, it seems to us, disposes absolutely of the ridiculous notion that we dare not have recourse to compulsory service because there is something anti-democratic and aristocratic about it. Lincoln was certainly not much of an aristocrat, and yet he was not afraid to use the word Conscription. We have often quoted Lincoln's words before, but we will quote them once more, for in our opinion they contain the final argument in this matter :— "1 do not say that all who would avoid serving in the war are unpatriotic; but I do think every patriot should willingly take his chance under a law, made with groat care, in order to secure entire fairness. . . The principle of the draft, which simply is in- voluntary or enforced service, is not new. It has been practised in all ages of the world. . . Wherein is the peculiar hardship now ? Shall we shrink from the necessary means to maintain our free government, which our grandfathers employed to establish it and our own fathers have already employed once to maintain it? Are we degenerate ? Has the manhood of our race run out ? . . With these views, and on these principles, I feel bound to toll you it is my purpose to see the draft law faithfully executed."
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