Hershey Backs Induction For Draft Troublemakers

Local draft boards across the country will probably follow Selective Service Director Lewis B. Hershey's recommendation that college students who physically interfere with military recruiting personnel on campus be subject to immediate induction, Colonel Paul H. Feeney, Director of the Massachusetts Selective Service said yesterday.

Hershey said that student deferments were "given only when they serve the national interest." Anyone who violates the Selective Service Act or any of its regulations or operations should be refused a deferment in the national interest, he declared.

Gerald A. Berlin, president of the Massachusetts chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, remarked yesterday that to induct demonstrators is "clearly to use the selective service process as a form of punishment." Berlin deplored what he called Hershey's recommendation that the draft boards "take justice into their own hands."

Feeney stated that the concern of the draft boards is "to draft the men, not to jail them."

Disclosure of Hershey's letter, dated Oct. 26, followed student anti-war demonstrations which blocked armed forces recruiters at Oberlin and other campuses.

Hershey told a news conference yesterday that his recommendation applies only to those violating a 1967 law. The law provides for jail sentences of up to five years and fines of $10,000 for those convicted of interfering with the administra-years and fines of $10,000 for those convicted of interfering with the administration of the draft law or regulations issued under it.

Such violations, Hershey said, are a failure to perform the duties required under the Selective Service Act which permits draft boards to revoke deferments and put the violator at the head of the draft list.

A spokesman for a Cambridge draft board emphasized that local boards are not required to follow recommendations from Hershey, as each board determines its own policy. However, in this case they probably will follow the policy prescribed by Hershey, the spokesman said.

Berlin stated that the Massachusetts ACLU would serve as defense counsel if a local student should be inducted under this new policy. The chances of a court victory for the student would be very good, he added.