Slow Elimination Of Draft Asked In Ripon Report

The Ripon Society called yesterday for a gradual elimination of the draft. The Cambridge-based organization of young, progressive Republicans termed the present use of conscription "antithetic to a free society" and condemned the Johnson Administration for trying to "stymie reform" by methods aimed at preventing thorough debate.

The Society also explicitly rejected two alternatives to the present Selective Service procedure offered by Secretary of Defense McNamara: the lottery and universal national service. The latter would give a draft-eligible person the option of service in organizations like the Peace Corps or VISTA.

Aiming ultimately at the establishment of an all-volunteer, all-professional army, the Society proposed that military salaries be increased, living conditions for military personnel be improved, and that the quality of in-service education be raised.

The draft could not be disposed of immediately, the group admitted. But the flow of volunteers could be increased in a "transitional stage of several years" by offering better incentives to those who volunteered and lowering "irrelevant induction standards," they explained.

The Ripon statement emphasized, however, that in case of a national emergency a draft system "could always be reintroduced."

The group of Republicans took partisan aim at the President's National Advisory Commission on Selective Service. It challenged the commission, which is expected to forward its recommendations on draft revision to the President in January, to "let knowledgable draft critics -- particularly proponents of a volunteer military" debate the alternatives supposedly being considered by the President's group.

In defending its plan for a volunteer military, the Society cited a 1957 military efficiency report prepared by Ralph J. Cordiner for President Eisenhower. Cordiner, the former chairman of General Electric, has since served as the finance chairman for the Presidential campaign of Senator Goldwater in 1964. In the report nine years ago, Cordiner said that the Selective Service system should emphasize not the "total number" in service, but the retention of those with leadership qualities, technical training, and experience that the services 'so urgently need.'

The Ripon report will be submitted to all Republicans in Congress as well as all the G.O.P. Governors. W. Stuart Parsons '62, the national coordinator for the Society said Monday that "if enough interest was generated by our proposals, we would consider asking members at law schools to draft a piece of legislation implementing our plan.