Last week I suggested that mandatory national service, perhaps in an updated form of FDR's Civilian Conservation Corps, would be a good way to bridge the gap between high school and the real world. My perspective was to provide a work force for national parks and other conservation agencies. I thank everyone who answered my call to point out flaws in my thinking.

My big mistake was to suggest "mandatory" national service. I began to wonder if it would even be constitutional. I asked my son-in-law, Josh Carpenter, if the subject ever came up during his years in law school. He told me of a 1918 Supreme Court decision (Arver v United States) that upheld a military draft during World War I.

"The Constitution," he explained, "grants Congress the power to raise armies and make war, and those powers encompass the power to impose a military draft."

The Constitution makes no mention of any other type of national service. So I'll focus on expanding the opportunities for voluntary service. Imagine a corps of volunteers available to conservation agencies to address both new projects and the b acklog of routine maintenance that never gets done. A new CCC could breathe new life into our nation's natural treasures.

One reader asked why the National Park Service couldn't function like private industry.

"Perhaps the National Park Service can do what any other private industry would do when faced with similar circumstances -- raise fees, cut costs or reduce services," he wrote.

In recent years the National Park Service has raised fees, cut costs and reduced services. But it is not a private business. It is a governmental agency financed by taxes and fees and mandated to provide services that are not economically practical for private industry to offer. Conservation agencies acquire land, and manage and protect natural resources for future generations to enjoy. These agencies promote and protect the public good.

Commercial industries that require large tracts of land, on the other hand, consume natural resources for private gain. Their primary purpose is to make a profit for owners and stockholders.

Without governmental conservation agencies, I shutter to imagine what the American landscape would resemble today. Voluntary, conservation-based national service would appeal to citizens who share this view.

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