Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 129, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 June 1917 — FIRST DRAFT FOR REGULAR ARMY [ARTICLE]

FIRST DRAFT FOR REGULAR ARMY

SECOND UNIT TO FILL GAPS IN MILITIA; 725.000 TOTAL TO BE CALLED.

Washington, June 15.—The first draft of the army to be drawn by selective conscription will be used to bring the regular army to war strength. The second draft will be used to fill the ranks of the national guard. The. third and largest draft will be to furnish the national army of 625,000 which will go into training Sept. 1 to prepare for European service. Failure of army and national guard recruiting to measure up to war department expectations brought this definite announcement of army plans today. July 1 has been set as the limit of the period in which the regular army must be brought to war strength. The regular army lacked nearly 70,000 today of war strength, and from the present rate of recruiting the ranks will be about 50,000 short on July 1. The national guard was short 101,000 of war strength today, and is filling its ranks at about the rate of 1,400 a day. Since the guard is not to be called out for more than a month, there is yet time for stimulated recruiting campaigns to reduce the number that must be drafted, but war department officials believe it will be necessary to draw at least 50,000 by conscription to fill these II Icfc JfI tl with the 625,000 which Provost Marshal Gen. Crowder says will be called out as the first draft for the national army, this will make the total number to be drafted on the first drawing about 725,000, the exact number depending on the result of the next few weeks’ recruiting. Decision to utilize the first men drawn by conscription for the regular army means that these men will not be sent to training camps in their own localities for training with men from their own neighborhoods, but will be sent to one of the army posts where the regular army is being expanded by the organization of fiftyone new regiments. The men taken in the second drawing for the national guard will be sent to training camps in the south. Men drawn for both these arms of the service probably will be dent to France before the men drawn for the national army are sent abroad. Gen. Crowder today was besieged with queries from members of congress and other officials regarding the probable date of the draft. * He could give no information on this subject because the president has not proclaimed the date for this momentous undertaking in the nation’s history.