Security Commission Urges Lottery for MT and Draft

Universal Military Training, which has been seriously considered for the past two years by Congress, loomed a distinct possibility yesterday with the government's recommendation of a special lottery system which would assign men to either the present two year service of a special six-month training.

The National Security Training Commission urged that such a system start by January 1, 1955, or earlier with the training of 100,000 18-year-olds. The number would increase as the available manpower increased.

According to the proposal, while high school students would be allowed to graduate or stay in school until they were 20 years old, college men would only be permitted to finish the academic year in which they were then enrolled.

The cent of the original program was estimated at $250,000,000. The lottery would decide which youths would serve the regular two years and which would be in the six-month program.

"While selecting some of six months' training and others for two years' service by lot would not yield absolute equality of duty, in the event of emergency, men with six months of training would be recalled ahead of the veterans and non-veterans," the Commission said.

The MT trainees--who only serve six months--would also be required to spend seven and a half years in the reserves.