Page:Harris Dickson--The unpopular history of the United States.djvu/25

 the pride of kings, a class apart from, and antagonistic to, the people—a class that marched at the nod of tyrannical monarchs. None of that for us in free America.

We built our military fabric upon an entirely different theory—a small standing army to be used as a nucleus around which the aforesaid fighting citizenship would rally. We believed implicitly in the volunteer. Up to the passage of our present selective draft law, we figured that our ranks would be crowded with youngsters who were craving to fight.

Now we have the selective draft upon our statute books, but no law gets full force and effect unless the people understand and approve. We have changed our entire military system because we had started wrong, and the people ought to know why.

At the beginning we planned that a small body of volunteers should constitute our regular army; the balance, held as a reserve force or militia, remaining under control of the states. Militiamen and officers alike are