In our opinion, we cannot get through the war without
an ex- tension of the policy of compulsion, and the sooner this is recog- nized the better. To say that compulsion has failed because the number of compelled men is not going to prove very great is the most preposterous rubbish which any political sophist has ever dared to put before the public. The success of compulsion is not to be found in the number of persons compelled, but in the tremen- dous increase in volunteering which was the direct outcome of the adoption of the principle of compulsion. We have found exactly what Abraham Lincoln found—namely, that the great majority of the men who know that they are about to be compelled will, if the voluntary system remains open, prefer to undergo compulsion in the guise of volunteers. This may sound a paradox, but is a fact. If any one asks where the compelled single men are, the answer is, In the ranks of the voluntary Army.
