Pacifist Group Attacks Reserve Program Bill

A local pacifist group has already begin to campaign against a billion-dollar proposal to increase the active reserves four-fold and which will be debated in the House of Representatives today. The drive against the bill will be supported at the University by the Fellowship of Reconciliation, John B. Butcher '57, a member of the FOR's executive board, said yesterday.

Anti-administration arguments, expected today on the House floor, will assert that the bill paves the way to universal military training. Thus far, UMT has never been able to proceed past debate. Lobby groups, including the National Council Against Conscription and the Methodist Church have been waging write-in battles with the Administration for months.

"Bill Will Be Passed"

Representative Carl Vinson (D-Ga.), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, has predicted that the bill will be passed without any major change. Representative H. R. Gross (R-Ia.) said last week, though, that the plan "opens the door to UMT."

Under the program, the armed services would be authorized to call 250,000 men between the ages of 17-19 for six months training, provided they agree, to serve seven and a half years in the active reserve. This would, in effect, reduce their active service by 18 months.

The President, by the new plan, would be authorized to call up to a million of these reservists into active duty without consulting Congress in an emergency.

Plan "Violates American Right"

The main points against the plan are that it is UMT "in disguise"; that it "tells the world the United States is turning toward military solutions for international problems"; and "it violates our American right of the individual to make his own decisions in a democratic society."

The local pacifist group, which distributed leaflets at the University yesterday urging students to write their Congressman, is the Greater Boston Committee to Oppose UMT. Butcher is also a member of this group.