Letter from August Binder to President Harry S. Truman

Trinity Evangelical and Reformed Church Mount Vernon, Indiana AUGUST E. BINDER, Pastor 530 Walnut Street Oct. 24, 1945 THE PRESIDENT, P.P.F. 200 The White House Washington, D. C. missage Dear Mr. President: Con 3 M So far as this letter is concerned, it is another one of those that you will never read, since it will be handled by some minor clerk who will simply stack it in a pile of others marked "against", ite., against your proposal for fastening military training upon every youth of the land. Nevertheless, whether you read it or not, I want to register my protest against your recommendation which is contrary to every democratic principle upon which our nation has been founded and certain contrary to the very things that we have been told again and again would come if the two World Wars were waged successfully. Apparently they were not SO waged and the peace which we were promised has been and is again being lost. We were told that we would have some of the ancient fears removed, but you, Mr. President, have struck not merely fear, but terror int the hearts of the people of this nation who were looking to you for a finer moral leadership. It seems that you are betraying the trust and confidence which you seemingly were about to win since all you can recommend is the age long patterns that have lead to failures and national ruin. I regret this and hope that the people of this nation shall rise to repudiate such a program for our nation and insist that we get down to the root causes of war by establishing social justice. It seems more clearly evident all the time that men in high places can bandy about words as if they have no meaning. You say that this is not military conscription, only traiging. What is the difference, the youth of our nation shall be serving for one year under the military, they shall then be placed on a reserve for six years. Frankly, Mr. President, I can't see one iota of difference. You say that there sha 11 be no military caste, yet that is just the very thing that will be perpetuated. You are giving more and more emphasis to militarism and placing those who have control of that program over our youth. That certainly is the development and glori- fication of just such a caste. You say that youth will be given opportunities for worship while in training, but you fail to say a single word concerning those who for conscience sake are opposed to militarism and can have no part therein. I suppose you propose to place these within the penetentiaries of our land. Fine-then lets have bigger and better ones SO that these young men may also learn what democracy and equality of opportunity means. The prisons are a good place to teach such things.