The Pittsburgh Press (April 4, 1946)
Background of news –
Compromise on the draft
By Bertram Benedict
The present authority for the draft ends on May 15. The administration has asked that it be continued for one year.
On March 26, the Senate Military Affairs Committee divided evenly, 8 to 8, on a motion to extend it for six weeks, to allow for further study and provide against acting in haste. The committee vote did not follow either party or sectional lines.
The committee has agreed to take a final vote on draft extension next Tuesday. Sentiment in Congress and probably throughout the country has been strengthened for continuing the draft as a result of difficulties between the United States and the Soviet Union.
(After World War I, the application of the draft ended immediately with the signing of the Armistice.)
If the proposal to extend the draft now during peacetime meets the same response in Congress as did the original draft proposal, which was enacted during peace (1940), it will go through only with a number of restrictions.
The election a factor
After the German invasion of the Low Countries in May 1940, President Roosevelt sent Congress a series of measures on strengthening the national defense, but refrained from urging conscription.
Remembering that the United States never before had applied conscription except in war, he evidently felt that a draft proposal would get stronger public support if it originated in Congress and with opponents of the administration. The presidential election was only eight months away.
On June 20, a draft bill was introduced by Rep. Wadsworth of New York, Republican, and Sen. Burke of Nebraska, anti-administration Democrat. The president endorsed the bill; so did the Republican presidential candidate, Wendell L. Willkie.
The bill called for registration of all men between 18 and 64, and for 12 months’ military training of those between 21 and 45. Congress reduced the registration age limits to 21 and 36.
The 12-month period might be extended by the president if Congress should declare a state of national emergency. A third restriction provided that none of the drafted men should be employed in service outside of the Western Hemisphere except in the territories and possessions of the United States.
That one-vote margin
In the early summer of 1941, the War Department and then President Roosevelt asked Congress to declare a state of emergency, so that the drafted men would not have to be sent back home after getting 12 months’ training. Congress proved obdurate. First it passed a bill, signed by the president on August 16, 1941, deferring service for all men over 27.
Finally, the Senate voted, 45-30, to extend the draft for 18 months and to remove the 900,000 limitation. The bill went through the House by margin of only one vote, 203-202. However, canvasses showed that a 12-month extension would have received a much wider margin of approval.
In both houses most Democrats voted for the measure and most Republicans against it, but 65 Democrats voted “nay” in the House and the bill would have failed there without the support of 21 Republican representatives.