DRAFT TESTS. "REMINISCENT: OF HITLER"
sovioves: The conseription.:of adolescents.for service in the armed rorces under highly undemocratic. regulations has been an irritant to the ‘American people: Since the practice was instituted in 1940° and then made:permanent in:1948. The deferment provisions on the basis of scholastic performance have recently been singled out for special ‘Fattacks oo Bet Fy, tied ers wees ;
A ‘series “of nationwide tests, the ‘first on ‘May.14, the others May 21, June 3 and the end of June, were scheduled by the Selective Service® System: of: the. U.S.: government. The grades made by those taking! ithe: tests are to be utilized by draft boards as.one of the eleménts%in' deciding on who goes into. the army. and. who is left free to continue. school. a oo _
Adam Clayton Powell, a Democratic congressman from Manhattan, . attacked the: tests-on May. 10- as. "reminiscent of Hitler," as the foundation: fora "racial aristocracy." and a device to. send. a disprotionate number of Negroes: ‘to athe ‘Vietnam slaughterhouse. mee
"Powell made his: comments at a news, conference in the. committee - room of the House Education and Labor Committee, of which he’ ist - ‘chairman. His main point was that the tests. penalize. unfairly the poorly’ schooled: Negro, ‘and: thus. “bring the’ history. of. racial, Giscrimination. fuliveycte. whee. bee bee, = -
"Pirst we provide. an. inferior education for black tudents, “he continued. "Next?we give them.a.series of tests which many. ore flunk because of an inferior education. Then, we pack ‘these acddemic failures ‘off ito Vietnam tobe killed. "
-Wmplicit: ‘im-the draft. ‘deferment tests," said Powell , Nag “the theory of a race of Aryan supermen and the. belief that rare great minds alone are fit to direct the destinies of a nation and to dispose of the lives of its untutored masses.
"Instead of a social democracy where: equality is encouraged to flourish, these draft deferment tests lay the foundation for a racial aristocracy. These tests are reminiscent of Hitler's twin system of eugenics and. education:.+-- weed; out. the intellectually deprived or socially undesirables : by. conseripting. then for. cannon fodder. Deg bene 4 Dok :
Scoring the war in Viewnam, “Powell said that. a “higher péercentage of black.soldiers is a. ‘ready dying in what is. ingloriously being referred to in many areas of the black communities as a ~ "white: man ' s war' against a brown ‘people, ae :
The country" rs} Negroes, Mexican-Americans and other. minority groups are "confused" about U.S. aims-in: Vietnam, Powell declared. He held that the Vietnamese people should be permitted to choose their own political system through. free. elections as soon as pos- Sible.
STUDENTS PROTEST UNDEMOCRATIC 'U.S. DRAFT DEFERMENT TEST
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