Lottery Likely

WASHINGTON, D.C.- Senate Republicans said Monday that the next American youths drafted will probably be selected through a lottery system.

We'll probably get a draft bill this year," Senate minority leader Hugh Scott (R-Pa.) said. "It was dead until the President put the heat on."

Nixon's draft plan, to induct 19-year-olds on the basis of a lottery based on their birth dates, has the unanimous approval of the House Armed Services Committee.

It is likely to pass the House before the week is over. Sen. John C. Stennis (D-Miss.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, has indicated his panel will hold hearings on the measure if it clears the House.

That could open the way for the Senate action which would send it to the White House, where Nixon reportedly has urged its swift enactment.

Senate majority leader Mike Mansfield (D-Mont.) said he thinks the prospects are good for Senate action before the end of the current congressional session.

Sen. Karl E. Mundt (R-S.D.) said that this likelihood plus the cancellation of November and December draft calls, could mean the end of the present selection system.

"This could mean that draft-age citizens will no longer be vulnerable under the old system." Mundt said, "for if Congress follows through on the President's request in the next few weeks, the Administration's reform plan can be operating when it becomes necessary to utilize the draft again."

Absentee President?

AMHERST. Mass.- In a step toward decentralization, the trustees of the University of Massachusetts have endorsed a plan to restructure the highest levels of the university administration.

The new proposal, tentatively approved Saturday, will allow the university president to operate out of Boston. Each of the school's three campuses-in Worcester, Amherst, and Boston-will then have its own chancellor.

Assisting the president in Boston will be four vice-presidents in charge of academic affairs, business and finances, administration, and campus planning.

The sponsored plan will be submitted to students and faculty for comment and then reconsidered at the November 9 trustees meeting for final approval.

Less Grief for Grass

WASHINGTON, D.C.- Possession of marijuana may be reduced to the status of a misdemeanor by a new law proposed yesterday by the Nixon Administration.

Instead of classifying both possession and sale as felonies, the new law would drastically reduce the punishment for possession, while maintaining "intent to sell" as a felony and providing for severer penalties.

In addition, marijuana would be redefined as an "hallucinogenic." It is now considered a "hard drug." along with such others as heroin and cocaine.

The new law was brought before the Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency by John E. Ingersell, director of the Justice Department's Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs.

Under the present law, first offenses for possession are a felony, and convictions call for mandatory jailings of 5-20 years and possible $25,000 fines. The new law would substitute a possible jailing of one year and a maximum fine of up to two years and possible $10,000 fines.

Sellers would be faced with five-year terms and $15,000 fines for a first offense. Should they be identified as "professional criminals," they would incur mandatory sentences of 5-20 years for a first offense and 10-40 years for a second offense.

Baby Suit Backfires

MILWAUKEE, Wise.- The mother of a baby girl, a woman whose birth control pills turned out to be cold tablets, had her $250,000 lawsuit dismissed by a judge who said the result was "a joyous event."

In dismissing the suit Judge Ronald A. Drechsler declared, "The natural birth of a healthy child, with no injury to the mother, is universally considered as a joyous event." He added that he was convinced that the child "certainly is not unloved."

The proud parents, Mr. and Mrs. Leo Szczerbiak, said that they had not wanted any more children and charged in their suit that the druggist filled the birth control prescription incorrectly.

Built-In Bias

BOSTON-"The Peace Corps is lily-white, and we've got to change that," Peace Corps director Joe Blatchford said in a radio interview Monday.

Negroes applying for the Peace Corps have been three times less likely to be selected than whites, Blatchford said. He cited both the elaborate 16-page application form and the written reference system as unintentionally discriminating against minority group members who haven't made a career of filling out forms."

Application forms are now being simplified, and in the future, references will be obtained in person or by phone when necessary, Blatchford said.

He will be leading a discussion on Peace Corps problems in Leverett House at 8 p.m. tonight.