European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - March 7, 1968, Darmstadt, Hesse I he s id stated million world off by John Barbour a staff writer mile Man who drafted 14 million i Young americans for three wars Pon siders his critics regretfully As Aan considers an acre of Marsh with a drawl. To sense of irony Learned in boyhood on an Indiana farm where orphaned. Subs were bottle fed calves were weaned Early and a boy at age 4 Keptser Woodfox full for seven Days a week. Well said Lewis blame Hershey his voice rising and bending with age fortunately for the people who want to be against something the draft is very easily personalized because it Hap pens to have a director. And it s a lot easier to hate a Guy than it is to hate an idea. An idea Well what do you do write it Down and then get in there and hate it for some this rough speaking heavily built Man is both the idea and the Guy. In 28 years As director of selective service he s been assailed before. Buthis critics Are More vehement and an Grier now. They Call for his resignation for a revision of the draft Law for an end tothe War in Vietnam. They accuse him of restricting free speech of not being uni form in draft policy of being too old to do his Job. His Headquarters has been picketed. Draft centers have been mobbed. Congressmen and senators clergymen and professors students and mothers have berated him in dramatic emotional or erudite prose. Lilt Hershey settles into the big Brown leather chair next to his desk an remembers How As a Young Man in in Diana he took a prisoner unshackled tothe state work farm for his father who was sheriff. They had a Flat tire an the prisoner worked voluntarily and feverishly to change it so they could catch the train in time. Well Hershey drawled he had enough sense to know i had a duty. And after All if people Aren t too smart they generally understand. Sometimes people get too smart. They get so much knowledge it bothers them. They know How it happened in Rome and How i happened in Greece and How it happened several other places. And the kind of lose How it s happening Here. "1 do think that we got some people who have carried the ideas of building an Ideal world to the place where they re quite a Little Remote from the world they find the world of Lewis Hershey is Adown to Earth world and an imperfect one. Because of an old Polo Accident be wears a Glass Eye. But he squints so lightly it is often hard to Tell which Eye is the bad one. His creased face has the look of a Pioneer fort with rifles its through which someone is watch ing. From within he measures his critic Sand their reasons. "1 get caught by All the people Onthehill who Are raising he said. He can appreciate he added a Man who is running for office who attacks him to get Liis name in the papers. He can understand criticism from a senator who gets 300 letters from women whose sons Nave been inducted. Take anybody. And All we got to do disfigure How the individual fits into that pattern. We did t give him the a up i get caught by All the people. Who Are raising do i blame the Mother for writing he asked. Hell no. But on the other hand do i blame her for having live pretty nicely in this country for a Long time you can t have one without the the criticism bothers in. But in his spacious office surrounded by the flags of every state and territory that has draft office he is philosophical about it. He talked of civil War Days of the Bounty junipers boys who took any where from $300 to $1,300 for Volunteer ing then would disappear and go else where to take another name and Volunteer again for another Bounty. Well of course they could t do that very Long. So they started sending them under guard volunteers you see under guard. But even that did t d still run off jump on trains kill each other to steal the Bounty. Finally it got so bad the conscription officers had to take their volunteers off to War in the Specter of that kind of coercion and that kind of chaos haunts Hershey. It is the Way armies Are raised i primitive countries. The result he said is that you get Only the men too Porto buy their Way out or not smart enough to talk their Way out. In her Shey s turn of the Century Rural Indiana militia service was considered on a Par with taxes and a Man could get credit for militia time by working on the roads. Hershey whose father was once Road supervisor helped keep track of the time. War by War the . Selective service system was built out of chaos into the neighbourhood oriented draft that Hershey took Over shortly before world War ii. The idea was to leave the individual cases to local decisions while setting a National Standard for registration. The thing you be got to have in selective service system is one that produces people either by enlistment Orby being inducted to the numbers that the armed forces want. If they Don get people they re not a Good system. And 1 Don t care How uniformly they get nobody. And one of the things if i were the enemy if i were a person who did t like the United states i would try to destroy the selective service system ii i possibly could because it s the one area in which people Are More immediately participating in governing them selves by deciding on a local level who should i ins rumbling Way Hershey shift from Folksy recollections to a sort of Homespun eloquence. He spices his sentences with Small sardonic chuckles often leaves them incomplete As if the ending should be understood As if there were one possible conclusion inherent in his shrug or a pause. His verbs and pronouns take on a Fanner s indifference for singular or plural. Out of it All comes a gentle Charm and rugged a peal. Perhaps he said there is no Way to make a draft system completely uni form the British and the turks seek ing ways asked him How do you take some of the men and leave some. And he told them he d been at it for a longtime but he did t have the answer yet not one everyone would like Loowina by things make for inequality. A physical examination that rejeets10 to 50 per cent of the her Shey said. How Are you going to Tell the Public that that s fair?"1 Don t know the answer to the thing Anil there in t anything 1 can do about it. Because the Congress says who has to go the armed forces says who they la take and Tell me How fast they la Hershey has served but not fought in two wars one against a mexican Bandit one against a German emperor. He has gathered men for three wars against a nazi dictator against the korean communist and this War in Viet Nam. As a retired lieutenant general re called to fill a Job he is not subject tothe usual retirement regulations based on of the present trouble stems he admits from the confusion the nonexistent fronts the omnipresent guerrilla and the remoteness of the limited conflict. It s hard to get people to realize exactly what the situation is especially if you Don t know what it is Andi Don t pretend ultimately for this Man with 13grandchildren, the problem gets Down to a Way i am responsible that the boys Between 19 and 26 Are liable. Of course Congress passed the Law. Just the same so far As the boy is concerned i m the yet today s youngsters he feels Are not fundamentally different and if he were younger i d be quite challenged to take on some of these kids because i Don t think there s any problem with be had some discussions with these kids when they decided to quit fooling with the United states and i be said to them Are you through with the unite states is it All right for them to be through with you and they said Well that s fair enough so i said All right Don t walk on the sidewalks but Don get into the Street either because both of them Are part of this thing " _ he youngsters he s met her Shey said Are surprisingly honest when you get them alone but not always in a group. The circumstances of their grow ing up Are , when i was a kid kids did t have a television set they never heard a radio until i was 8 or 9 years old if they Ever got their mail the drove somewhere to get it because we did t even have Rural a kid living like i did didst have the Opportunity to learn a lot of meanness. 1 had to do it More or less on a limited scale. You see 1 did thave a Chance to see How they could be mean everywhere let s get on the television at such a time of Day because they re going to have the latest mean Ness. It s going to be demonstrated "4nd so these kids Haven t had the time to build up the immunity that you build up against measles or some sort of thing when you get exposed to it. And we were not Angels either. 1 Don think 1 was any worse than most but there were attempts to gain attention by Devi try when i was Young. We did t have the facilities. Even a Fella on bicycle which 1 never had could t have run Over anybody near As hard As if he d had a not Only that. I think there is a Little tendency to delay adulthood themore civilized your society because when you get out on the frontiers you better grow up. When my people went out to Indiana the people who could set up a tree very fast got eaten by the wolves and so you did t have a prob Lem. The Guy who was a Little slow he was t at the present tune we Over protect our to Imp Ami yet we pus them into adulthood at the same time which Lias the kid Joiny Forward Aud astern.". Of Hershey s two sons one is in the Marine corps Ami was wounded in Korea and the other was a naval Ottimer a lit a Titi d 0/1 j ilk l f thursday March 7, 1968 the stars and stripes Page
