The President in his recent message to Congress regarding granting him emergency powers has asked that he be given the right to call more than 900,000 men into service each year. It is now the belief of the draftees and at least 80 percent of the general public that our soldiers are to be used as reinforcements for the British Army, to be used by England wherever and whenever she sees fit. In other words, we are to do for England what her own colonies will not do and she is unwilling to do for herself.

The warmongers are composed largely of two groups, the profiteers and the ones who want to try and crush Hitler, regardless as to its effect on this country. The bodies of the warmongers will not provide food for carrion crows or rats. They will not come back from the war, wrecked in body and mind, blinded or with legs and arms missing.

In order to defeat Hitler, it will be necessary to invade continental Europe, and England is perfectly willing to do it with our soldiers. Any competent military authority will tell you that it would be mass suicide. It would result in the death of not less than 1,000,000 men, leaving 2,000,000 mourning parents, to say nothing of the wounded and maimed, and it would result in failure. It would make Churchill's fiasco at the Gallipoli Peninsula during the last war, which resulted in the loss of 250,000 and ended in failure, look like a Sunday-school picnic.

General Wavell and General Auschinlech have stated publicly that it would be necessary to have American manpower in order to defeat Hitler. On July 26, 1941, Sir Gerald Campbell, British propaganda chief in the United States, said in New York City that England did not want our Army now but did want our air force and Navy. Untold millions of citizens in this country are toiling and sweating to pay back the money which we loaned England during and after the last war, and money which we have given them since this last war started, toiling for the British Empire like the starving millions of India. Now they again want our blood to bolster up their declining powers. It is like taking all the blood from the veins of a vigorous young man, leaving him to die, in a futile effort to prolong the life of an old man ready to topple into his grave.

Unless our present Army Staff expects to build up a mass army according to Civil War tactics, no mass armies are needed except to send expeditionary forces all over the world in an effort to spread democracy with a tommy gun. Competent military authorities agree that the French and British Armies in France, numbering 5,000,000 men, were cut to pieces by German panzer divisions numbering not to exceed 150,000 men, and we have not 1 fully equipped mechanized division in the United States.

Like the politicians of England and France, a group of politicians in our country have allowed their hatred of Hitler to destroy all their reason and, like the politicians of England and France, would embark on a war for which they were totally unprepared. It is also generally agreed that neither England nor France would have declared war on Germany if they had not been promised that this country would come to their aid in an all-out war.

I just want to read one excerpt from a paper which was published in Cincinnati on July 27:

ATHENS, OHIO, July 26.-"Home by October" is the slogan of members of Battery C, Ohio National Guard, now in training at Camp Shelby, Miss., as a part of the Thirty-seventh Division, according to a story in a local paper said to have been written by Sgt. C. K. McKinstry.

Members of the battery, a local unit, are opposed to an additional year of service, according to McKinstry, and want to come home and share in the high wages being paid in private employment.

Gentlemen, I thank you.

Mr. SHORT. How many camps have you visited?

Mr. BENGE. The main camp that I have visted was Fort Ord, Calif. Mr. SHORT. Did you seek these men or did they seek you, or what? Mr. BENGE. No; I went out there to visit my son and talked to him and talked to some of the boys. I did not make any effort to cross-examine anyone, or anything of that kind. Then I have talked to boys in Cincinnati from Camp Shelby.

Mr. SHAFER of Michigan. What figures do you have relative to the number of deaths in these maneuvers?

Mr. BENGE. I would rather not give my source of information, but I can tell you this: that one convoy, in night maneuvers, traveling 15 miles, lost 18 men killed in accidents.

Mr. SHAFER Of Michigan. Where was this? Where did this happen? Mr. BENGE. I would rather not answer that question, because I am afraid the man who gave me the information would suffer.

Mr. SHAFER of Michigan. We would like to have the information here in our committee. I have not heard of 18 men being killed in one convoy, and I would like to know where this was.

Mr. BENGE. It happened in California, on the way to Hulen.

Mr. SHAFER of Michigan. What outfit was it?

Mr. BENGE. I could not tell you that. I could get you that information definitely, as to who it was.

Mr. SHAFER of Michigan. Will you do that?

Mr. BENGE. Yes, sir. Shall I address it to you?

Mr. SHAFER of Michigan. I would rather have you just insert it in the record.

Mr. BENGE. I see. It will take a few days to get that information. Mr. SHAFER of Michigan. What information do you have relative to the suicides that you speak of?

Mr. BENGE. Various people that I have talked to. There is one woman here who got a letter from her son telling about finding a boy hanging in a latrine.

The CHAIRMAN. What is your business, Mr. Benge?

Mr. BENGE. I run a one-man parks business.

The CHAIRMAN. What is that?

Mr. BENGE. I just have a small automobile parks business.

The CHAIRMAN. In Cincinnati?

Mr. BENGE. That is right.

The CHAIRMAN. You did not apply to the Navy for information with respect to this convoy that you are talking about?

Mr. BENGE. The Navy?

The CHAIRMAN. The Navy or the Army, either one?

Mr. BENGE. Just what do you mean?

The CHAIRMAN. Did you ask the Army or the Navy for this information?

Mr. BENGE. No; I did not ask them for this information. The CHAIRMAN. The information that you are giving us, then, does not come from the War Department, but from outside sources? Mr. BENGE. That is correct.

Mr. HARNESS. These convoys that you are speaking of, are those organized by the Army to take the men back and forth between the the different training centers?

Mr. BENGE. No; these were night convoys during the blackouts. Mr. HARNESS. During maneuvers?

Mr. BENGE. Yes, sir.

Mr. HARNESS. Of course, under normal conditions, in peacetime, you could reasonably expect a certain number of men to be killed or die or commit suicide, could you not?

Mr. BENGE. Well, that is true. But I talked to a Marine gunnery sergeant who was with the Second Division in France, and he told me-it was yesterday a week ago that they did not lose a single man through accidents; the only men they lost in France in the Second Division were due to combat.

Mr. HARNESS. Were they traveling at night?

Mr. BENGE. They traveled at night. He told me that one officer went out one night and turned on the headlights on his car, and the result was that a German bomber came along, and he said it blew him and his car all to pieces and killed 30 men. They had to work at night in France just the same as they do now.

Mr. THOMASON. Mr. Chairman, the War Department could give us the accurate information as to accidents. Why not get the accurate information rather than hearsay?

Mr. HARTER. Was this a convoy working out of the camp in which your son is a selectee?

Mr. BENGE. That is right.

Mr. HARTER. What is the name of the camp?

Mr. BENGE. Fort Ord. It is near Monterey.

Mr. SHAFER of Michigan. What training has your son had since he has been in the Army?

Mr. BENGE. Well, with rifles; that is all that I know of. We received a letter from him recently. He said they have two machine guns and no tripods; they have two mortars, but they have never been fired, because they have no ammunition.

Mr. HARTER. When were you at your son's camp?

Mr. BENGE. In March.

Mr. HARTER. You have never been in any other camps in the United States?

Mr. BENGE. No, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. That is all; thank you, sir.

The next witness is Mrs. Mary L. Arbogast, of Fort Thomas, Ky. Mrs. GROEN. Mr. Chairman, may I ask one question? This is a very serious thing in my mind, and we have heard it said that if we appeared before this committee our boys who are in the cantonments would suffer. Is there any truth in that?

The CHAIRMAN. No; there is nothing of that kind.
Mrs. Arbogast, will you take the stand?

STATEMENT OF MRS. MARY L. ARBOGAST, FORT THOMAS, KY.

The CHAIRMAN. Mrs. Arbogast, will you tell the committee, please, where you live, whom you are speaking for, and, if you represent some organization, tell us what it is, and give us your statement? Mrs. ARBOGAST. I surely will.

Mr. Chairman and members of the House Military Affairs Committee, my name is Mary L. Arbogast. I am a member of the Mothers of Sons Forum of Greater Cincinnati and am here in the interests of my four sons, all of whom are or will be of military age. My eldest son, Lawrence A. Arbogast, is a draftee now stationed at Camp Hulen, Tex. (Company C, One Hundred and Sixth Separate Battalion, Antiaircraft, Coast Artillery).

I am not a pacifist, and I believe in adequate national defense on land and sea and in the air. I am quite sure that all of my sons would glady make any sacrifices necessary to repel an invader. I am equally sure that each and every one of them would practically have to be forced to fight another country's battles on any foreign soil.

I do not claim to be a military expert but can never reconcile myself to the belief that our first line of defense is in the English Channel. The only reason that I can advance for trying to ram this theory down our throats is that there must be some facts with which the American people are not acquainted. Could it be that there are some underlying financial interests at stake? I would consider myself a very poor American if I admitted that England is fighting our war while we content ourselves with merely being the "arsenal of democracy."

I am here specifically to protest against the extension of the period of training for draftees. Defense of this hemisphere should not need an Army of the magnitude possible under the Conscription Act. I believe that a standing Army should be built up on a volunteer basis, and this could easily be done by making the pay sufficient to be attractive. This would create an Army of much higher morale than our present policy of taking men indiscriminately from civilian life and forcing them to remain in the Army against their wishes.

I have personally talked to a number of draftees and find them extremely dissatisfied and resentful of the fact that those who were lucky enough not to be drafted are making more money than they have ever made before. They are almost unanimously of the opinion that the extension of time is being sought for only one purpose-to eventually send an expeditionary force to Europe and Asia.

These boys and their parents resent the manner in which this whole thing has been engineered. Certainly General Marshall knew last October that one year was not a sufficient length of time to make a soldier. Why did he not speak then? Simply because the Selective Service Act would never have been passed had the time limit been indefinite.

These boys went into the Army in good faith, confident that their Government would not double-cross them. I do not like to dwell upon the state of the morale of our armed forces should their training period be extended indefinitely.

I thank you.

Mr. HARNESS. Mrs. Arbogast, you mentioned the dissatisfaction on the part of the men in camp because the men who were not drafted are making much more money. Do you think that if these men were paid more money in camp they would be willing to stay another year?

Mrs. ARBOGAST. My boy would never be satisfied to stay another year. He is 28 years old, and he is taking a position in defense work. The CHAIRMAN. Of course you realize, Mrs. Arbogast, that the plan is to discharge these men who are 28 years of age?

Mrs. ARBOGAST. I hope so.

The CHAIRMAN. Thank you very much, Mrs. Arbogast.

The next witness is Mrs. Sadie Barry, representing Parents of Selectees, Taylorsport, Ky.

STATEMENT OF MRS. SADIE BARRY, TAYLORSPORT, KY.,
REPRESENTING PARENTS OF SELECTEES

The CHAIRMAN. Mrs. Barry, you have a written statement, do you? Mrs. BARRY. I have just a few notes.

The CHAIRMAN. You may make whatever statement you wish. Mrs. BARRY. I am Mrs. Sadie Barry, and I represent the Parents of Selectees. I am from Taylorsport, Ky. I am the mother of a selectee in the servie now, and I have another son who expects to be called almost at once. I am speaking in behalf of my son and these other boys who are soldiers in the camps. I have visited two camps besides the one my son is in, because I wanted to see and hear some of the conditions myself.

Mr. HARNESS. What camps have you visited?

Mrs. BARRY. I have been at Fort Thomas, Ky., and I have also been at Camp Knox. I have visited two of the camps these boys are in.

The boys talked reluctantly, but they will answer questions if you ask them to. One of the questions that I have asked is what they think of this extended service, and of course they all think that their Government should keep faith with them and let them out, or, if there is an emergency, that they should know what this emergency is. They also say "They expect us to do a man-sized job. Why don't they treat us as men and ask us to volunteer?" That is one of the things that they ask.

One of the boys said, "We can't talk for ourselves; can't you talk for us?" So I thought I would.

I find that they are all patriotic American citizens, and are willing to defend this country here, and here alone.

Another thing is the drafting of skilled mechanics and leaving a shortage in our plants; then they set up schools to train new men, with a shortage of skilled mechanics in the defense production. In the camp that my boy is in-he is at Fort Knox, Ky.-he is a machinist a skilled mechanic.

Mr. SHORT. How old is he?

Mrs. BARRY. He is 23 years old.

Mr. SHORT. Where did he work before he went to camp?

Mrs. BARRY. At the Bradford Machine Tool Co., Cincinnati.
Mr. SHORT. How long had he worked there?