Conscription for the United States
The passage of the Conscription Bill in the Senate by 47 votes to 25 and in the House by 232 votes to 124, marks the triumph of a policy which the President has long been pressing. It provides for the registration of all male American citizens between the ages of 21 and 35—a total of 16,500,000, from whom men will be called up as needed by ballot. It is significant proof of America's new understanding of the world situation that she should have taken such a decision at a moment when normally all political thought would be absorbed by the coming Presidential election. But in this case both the President and his opponent are agreed on the principle if not on all the details. To this country it is a cause of profound satisfaction that America should be making herself as strong as she manifestly is, for whilst Great Britain is fighting for America as well as herself in the first line of the defence of democracy, a strong United States in the background is an indispensable source of strength to combatant Britain.
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