"Dangerous" Bill

Said General Eisenhower to Congress: "Gentlemen . . . any gamble with the national security of the United States at this time is a gamble with the peace and security of the world." Despite this and other draft-extension pleas from President Truman and Secretary of State Byrnes, Congress could hardly bring itself to touch such "dangerous" legislation in an election year. But if an extension were not voted by May 15, the U.S. would have no draft law.

With a desperate Kamikaze air, the Senate Military Affairs Committee last week reported a bill extending the draft for a year. The bill, which differed little from the existing draft law, was okayed by the Army. But it horrified Colorado's lumbering Senator Ed Johnson. Cried he: "Only beardless youths will be conscripted. . . ." Every "boy" drafted will be "thrown in the path of diseased prostitutes and lewd women" in the "foulest human cesspools."

The House seemed to agree with Senator Johnson. When its bill to extend the draft for nine months reached the floor, members fell to clubbing it with amendments. Two blows were enough to reduce it to imbecility: 1) an amendment raising the draft age from 18 to 20; 2) an amendment to suspend all inductions between May 15 and Oct. 15.

Majority Whip John Sparkman, of Alabama, warned his colleagues: "If you change the age limit to 20, there just aren't any men left. . . . I want you to think!"

But the House was thinking--of Election Day. This week it passed a bill of sorts, sent it to the Senate for further argument.

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