Letter from Herbert Akioka to President Harry S. Truman

Herbert K. Akioka 504 N. Peach St. 10-29 Marshfield, Wisc. A" Dear Mr. Truman, This letter is from a high school senior. I am I7 years old, will graduate from high school this may, and would like to begin as a candidate for the degree ofvBachelor of Philosophy on day June 25, I946, four days after my birthy, at the U. of Chicago. According to the proposed plan of peacetime conscription, Mr. Truman, after my eighteenth birthday I will automatically become a soldier in the United States Army, and for a year I will be given military training Thus I will become one of a vast, regimented herd of men constantly prepared for war A herd consisting mostly of homesick youths, marching around on a drill field, eating billions out of the countries taxes, cleaning their rifles, and think- ing of mom and pop and the girl back home, and the garage around the car ner that he had been saving money to buy----to set himself up in business ; have a wife and family, and become a good ,substantial American citizen. What I want to do is go to school, Mr truman. I want to make myself a better man . The hope of this country is not the man who carries the gun, but the man who carries the book . He is the one we are going to relie on the most in the future. If we are going to spend billions train to keep our national security, let's not spend it on the drilling of a herd of men, but on productiveness, and scient- ific advancement; for I believe that the next war is not going to be won by the man with the rifle, but by the man with the test tube. Think how much encouragement that few billions of dollars would mean