STATEMENT OF JACOB GOULD SCHURMAN

The CHAIRMAN. You may sit down.

Mr. SCHURMAN. Mr. Chairman, gentlemen of the committee, my home address is Bedford Hills, N. Y. I have circulated cards with my name.

I had intended, Mr. Chairman, to speak at greater length before this committee and have prepared notes for that purpose.

When I saw last night that this was your last session I sat down and wrote a brief abstract of what I wanted to say. The hour was so late, I make my apologies to the representatives of the press, that I had no time to have copies made-typewritten copies-and I have only the one copy for the secretary of your committee. The CHAIRMAN. Yes, sir.

Mr. SCHURMAN. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee, the question is: Shall there be an extension beyond 1 year of the service of selectees, guardsmen, and reservists in our Army? General Marshall has told you that failure to adopt this course will involve the loss of two-thirds of our trained soldiers and threefourths of the officers beginning this autumn.

It is a time of the gravest national peril when defense of the country is preeminently needed. General Marshall is our highest military authority, a man of great ability and sound judgment, and he enjoys to an extraordinary degree the confidence of the American people.

A democracy must find experts and then trust and follow them. I support General Marshall's recommendation to prevent the disintegration of our Army.

The existing law-that of September 16, 1940-provides for the extension, through congressional action, of the 1-year period of training in case the Nation subsequently found itself exposed to serious danger. There is, so far as I can see, no breach of faith, no violation of contract, with our young men in now having recourse to this provision. The law that called them to arms for 1 year also authorized the extension of that time under certain conditions, namely, impending danger to the country and the necessity of defending it with all our might and skill and strength.

The President has told you that this necessity now exists. With great emphasis, with impressive solemnity, he has declared that the danger to our country is not only greater but "infinitely greater" than it was a year ago. And he adds that this is not merely a matter of belief with him, but a fact that he actually "knows." An emergency, he says, has arisen: National interests of the United States and the Americas are imperilled.

Gentlemen, in the face of this alarming situation I hope the Congress will formally declare the existence of a national emergency and thus save our trained Army for the defense of our country and the Western Hemisphere.

May I add that the effect abroad would be incalculably enhanced if this action were taken by a unanimous vote of the Congress. Of course, the matter does not admit of any delay, as the President has said, "Time counts."

The President has recently been accused in speeches and in the press of himself bringing on the perilous situation in which the

country now finds itself by utterances and acts which his critics brand as unfounded and unconstitutional. I hold no brief for the President, but I am profoundly convinced that whatever the President has said or left unsaid, whatever he has done or left undone has not had any appreciable effect in bringing the war closer to the Western Hemisphere or endangering the safety and security of the United States.

The present alarming international situation has been created by the thought and will of the world's great apostle of the rule of force, and his name is Adolf Hitler. Hitler is actuated solely by personal ambition and love of power and the prospect of the aggrandizement of the Nazi Party and the German domination of the world. As he said long ago in Mein Kampf: "Germany will either be a world power or will not be at all.”

The United States and Great Britain alone stand in the way of the realization by Hitler of his dream of world dominion. His tripartite agreement with Italy and Japan is aimed directly at us. Nazi machinations in South America are a preparation of the way. "Fifth columnists," inciters to disloyalty and treason, propagandists and other experts in subversive activities always precede in Hitler's tactics the actual warriors with their terrible mechanical forces perfectly organized for the deadliest warfare by sea and land and air.

Shall we meet this attack in cooperation with Great Britain, or alone after Britain has fallen? Gentlemen, in my opinion the defense of the United States and the Americas has now become inseparably associated with the policy of giving the greatest possible aid to Britain and maintaining the traditional American policy of the freedom of the seas. In union there is strength. Without union each faces the gravest danger. Thank you.

The CHAIRMAN. Thank you very much, Doctor.

Mr. SCHURMAN. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

The CHAIRMAN. Are there any members of the committee who care to ask the doctor any questions?

(No response.)

The CHAIRMAN. You will be excused, Doctor. If you will be good enough to leave your copy with the reporter, he may want to refer to it.

Mr. SCHURMAN. Yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. Are there any witnesses?

STATEMENT OF MRS. ROSA FARBER

The CHAIRMAN. Please provide the reporter with your name and address.

Mrs. FARBER. My name is Rosa M. Farber. I am acting national chairman of the Mothers of the U. S. A. with headquarters in Detroit. Mr. Chairman and members of the Military Affairs CommitteeThe CHAIRMAN. What organization do you represent?

Mrs. FARBER. I represent the Mothers of the U. S. A. with headquarters in Detroit, Mich. We are a national organization, members of which are mainly mothers, wives, sisters of men who fought in the World War; who now have sons of military age. There are no membership fees and the cost of operating is met with money

which comes in the form of voluntary contributions. We pay no salaries; all of the work is done by voluntary help. I might add here: We have been organized since October 1935 and we have never put on a membership drive or a money-raising drive.

Since the headlines first appeared in the newspapers announcing the proposal to extend the training period of draftees our office has been besieged with telephone and personal calls, insisting that we voice. our opposition to this new proposal which adds to the mental and nervous turmoil of mothers and fathers-in fact, every person who has attained the age of understanding. I have literally been forced to appear before this committee on behalf of mothers.

A few days ago something like nine generals of the United States Army testified before this committee. One general, outdoing the others, claimed 90 percent of the men in the Army want to remain in service. This was amazing news to those of us who have listened to a continuous stream of opposition. Now, since War Department officials point out that Army regulations forbid soldiers from trying to influence legislation, we ask if Army officials are free to violate these regulations because they, themselves, have used the soldiers to bolster up their own arguments.

Since the men in service dare not express themselves on a matter which is of vital importance to them, then mothers must assume that responsibility.

Mention has already been made before this committee of notes dropped from trucks as they passed through New Jersey. This method was used by men in the Forty-fourth Division to enlist civilian support in their behalf. That protest came from the East. The following letter which appeared in the Detroit News July 21 comes from a training camp in the West, and is signed by 18 soldiers. It is typical of the attitude of the men, from the reports we get. The letter is as follows, addressed

To the EDITOR:

We are addressing this letter to you in the hope that it may in some way help to defeat any bill calling for an extension of service by the drafted men, and because many of us are from Michigan.

Many of us volunteered for service, leaving our friends, homes, and jobs willingly. To keep us longer than a year is unfair, and from a military standpoint unnecessary. We have learned our jobs well and even now our daily routine is merely repetition. In fact the job of training could have been done in 6 months.

Perhaps this letter sounds a bit selfish, but if we could see any vital need for further training we would not protest. Without a doubt this letter voices the opinion of every selective service man in the regiment.

The name of the camp and the names of the men are deleted here. However, they did appear in the newspaper.

A young man on furlough, stationed in a camp in Illinois, said to me, "A lot of funny things are going on. The fellows in camp don't say much because there is nothing we can do. But the feeling is that the people are letting us down." That comes, I want you to know, from a camp in the Middle West.

Reports from the Navy are equally disturbing and we offer the following excerpts from a letter received by a mother from her son who, by the way, is a university graduate. He writes:

There should be quite a bit to write about but we are not allowed to write. We can shout what we think from the housetops as long as we don't shout above a whisper and as long as no one hears us.

Tell Eddie (Eddie is a younger brother) to stay out of the Army, Navy, or any other branch of the service at any cost.

May I say here, Mr. Chairman, that our information does not come from generals. It comes from the men themselves. In many instances the men who are bitterly opposed to the present set-up served and received honorable discharges from other branches of the service, the Army, Navy, or marines. These men know Army life!

Their complaints are legitimate, and yet, they probably do not know and possibly members of this committee do not know that colonels from the Air Corps are making speeches to luncheon clubs explaining that we must mobilize our men and prepare to fight any place on the globe. Undoubtedly, they do not know that Great Britain has made plans for them, by and with the knowledge and consent of those in our Government who are supposed to guard our interests. An Associated Press dispatch from Leicestershire, England, July 12, 1941, reports the following:

Describing United States preparedness, Roland Tree, parliamentary secretary of the ministry of information, said, "It would be a fair statement to say that like us, they were mighty slow getting started" and recalled "How difficult it was to persuade the people of this island of our danger at the time of Munich.

"You can well imagine the magnitude of the task to persuade a vast continent that has an ocean of thousands of miles between them and Europe that they are in any immediate danger." Tree said "Don't be impatient with the United States. They have committed themselves as a nation to see that we win this war. I am quite confident that they will live up to that commitment."

We ask, gentlemen, to live up to our commitment to see that Britain wins the war. Is that our emergency?

According to a United Press dispatch which appeared in the Detroit News, November 5, 1940, we learn:

Prime Minister Winston Churchill declared today Great Britain had won a historic victory over German invasion plans, had established Greek bases for unlimited counter-blows against Italy and was preparing to fight on if necessary through 1944. "It's a grand life," Churchill barked confidently to Commons, "if we don't weaken."

This is the reason our men must remain in the Army longer than 12 months: So that Britain can fight through 1944 if necessary?

I am not here to say or do anything which would impede or interfere with the maintenance and training of the Army of the United States. We realize that is vital to the security of our country in this day and age. We do not believe that any of the mothers with whom we come in contact have any desire to see the Army torn asunder. However, being mothers, and being in daily touch with mothers whose sons are in camps and in active service, we know that the first important requisite to an army is the morale and mothers understand as no other group can, the attitude of these boys and appreciate what their viewpoint means to the morale of the Army which stands as our first line of defense and our security. Many of us have lived these past 20-odd years with men whose entire outlook has been warped by their experiences in the World War. No one knows better than the wives of these men and the mothers of their sons what that tragic mistake cost.

I mention this not as an emotional appeal, but to impress upon this committee and the Congress the fact that there is a very real and solid foundation upon which rests the mothers' determination to stay out of war.

We mothers disapproved of the Compulsory Draft Act because it was a complete departure from our American system of voluntary

service and meant the adoption of another of Europe's peculiar devices which makes people dissatisfied with government and society, and from which our forefathers fled.

We objected because the President was given complete power to write the rules and regulations. Having in mind the fact that we are safer if these matters are left in the hands of Congress, we suggested an amendment which would have returned to Congress Some of the power it relinquished.

We objected to compulsory conscription because we felt there was no need for this drastic departure from our way of life. Had the voluntary system been given a chance it undoubtedly would have resulted in a sufficient number of volunteers to bring our Army up to the then required number of 900,000 men. This unquestionably would have been true had there been a just cause and if we could have confidence in our Government.

How can our people, including draftees, have confidence in their would-be leaders when one day they are told that a great emergency exists which threatens the institutions and integrity of the United States and every man from 18 to 35 is needed for defense: then, after months of hardship, find they are victims of politics, under a situation described in the Detroit News, July 17, 1941, under the byline of a reputable Washington reporter.

Republican Congressmen today insist that if Willkie had kept still on the draft issue it would not have been pressed before election and that, without it, their party would have been successful. Further, the Republicans say, if the question had been left for the post-election Congress to deal with, it would have produced a far more intelligent and effective statute, and this in ample time to meet the Army's need.

In proof of the latter assertion it is pointed out that volunteers continued to come in during the summer and early fall months of 1940 faster than the Army could house and equip them, despite the fact that volunteering was discouraged after the draft law was enacted. Wherefore it is argued that if the enactment of a draft law had been postponed for 6 months and a vigorous campaign for volunteers had been instituted in the meantime the Army today would be amply supplied with 3-year service men, unrestricted territorially as to their use.

This, Mr. Chairman, brings us to the statements made before this committee by none other than General Marshall and as recently as last Thursday, July 17, when he gave as a reason why the training period should be extended the fact that the War Department now faces the problem of returning the draftees who have been sent to outposts, and getting them back in time to discharge them when their year is up.

Apparently great complications have arisen which certainly should have been foreseen had ample time been given to working out the problem. Mr. Chairman and members of this committee, the people are now asking: What was the rush? Each man feels his life might have been different had the program been worked out more care fully. To extend the training period now is adding fuel to a fire which has been burning for months.

When the Burke-Wadsworth bill was being debated in Congress the short training period-only 12 months-was played up. The possibility of a national emergency and service for the duration was played down. Now, General Marshall explains that draftees who are in Alaska must be returned and replacements sent up before heavy