I have consulted a considerable number of members of Selection Boards who advised me in the preparation of the new regulations. It is the estimate of all of them that the present method will reduce the work of members of boards by 70 per cent. In this state of affairs, it is hoped that members of boards can attend to this most important duty without making too great an inroad upon the time necessary for them to attend their respective callings.

As I have said, the Selective Service System is an integral and necessary part of this Government, and you, as members of it, are as essential in the places to which it has best served the common good to call upon you as are the soldiers whom you have sent to camp. You are, in effect, a part of the Army of the United States in that you are the sources of its supply. The Nation is rapidly becoming a great system, and if this part of it were disturbed now it is not too much to say that that system would be shattered so effectively that it would take weeks, if not months, to repair the damage. That, I think, is too clear to require further exposition. But there is a further thought that has not yet been emphasized.

We, as a Nation, have learned much in the last few months. We have, in the words of the President, "drawn close in one compact front against a common foe" and we have found ourselves. We have learned the sacrifice that must be made to make our Nation safe from aggression. The duty of citizenship has taken on a new light for all of us and there has been no hesitation among our people in performing that duty. Whether Germany has taught us or whether we have learned it

ourselves, we know one thing so clearly and so well that we will never again have doubt of it. The volunteer method of raising an army for war is gone. It will never return. The principle of selection has been tried and proved by our people. I am led to believe that they approve it with substantial unanimity. If it is good for this time of peril, it is good for all future emergencies. The wonder is that a people so devoted to business efficiency should have hesitated to adopt it. It is of the essence of democracy and national effectiveness. The present method for its expression integrates with our political system so perfectly, responds so smoothly and so well to our dual form of State and National control that it would be calamitous to have it impaired. The principle of selection is established. The system for selection improved as we can improve it must become and remain a permanent part of our governmental system for war. It is a link which binds closer our Union of States and our resulting General Government. It is for this reason that say that we are standing not at the portals of a past but rather at the threshold of a future.

I

roder