Statement by the President on the Expiration of the Selective Training and Service Act.

THE Selective Service System has rendered the Nation a service of incalculable value. Those who made possible its accomplishments during the emergency--the vast majority of whom served without compensation--deserve the country's gratitude.

The Selective Training and Service Act expires at midnight. Its records and personnel will be transferred to the newly created Office of Selective Service Records.

Since enactment of the Selective Training and Service Act September 16, 1940, the Selective Service System has furnished to the Armed Forces more than ten million men. Those fighting men, comprising approximately two-thirds of all our Armed Forces, were selected by local boards through the most democratic process ever created for the purpose.

But that only begins to indicate the accomplishments of the local boards and other units of the Selective Service System. For every man who was selected to fight, many others had to be selected to stay at home to make the guns and mold the bullets for the successful prosecution of the war. Others had to stay to secure the domestic economy and to care for the health and safety of the civilian nation. How well the process of Selective Service was carried out is recorded not alone by victories won on battlefields, but by the statistics showing the production figures in agriculture and industry--the highest in history.

I extend my heartfelt appreciation on behalf of the Nation to the Selective Service System, not only to the unpaid officials but to the thousands of loyal clerks who have worked so faithfully through those long years.