Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 157, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 July 1917 — ONE CHANCE IN THREE OF BEING CALLED TO ARMY [ARTICLE]

ONE CHANCE IN THREE OF BEING CALLED TO ARMY

How National Army Will Be Raised Under Universal Service System. > HEADY TO START THE WORK Rules for Exemption Boards Will Be Ironclad and Every woesibility of Misunderstanding Eliminated —First Call Probably Will Be for 750,000 Men. Washington.—Of nearly 9,500,000 men of military age who have been registered in accordance with the selective draft law, those who are physically qualified and- are not exempted will have one chance in three of being called to the colors this year.

This is the estimate that has been made by the military authorities in Washington. _ ; The first phase of the great task of raising an army under the universal service system has been More than 10,000,000 men have actually been enrolled and, taking into consideration the number of men of registration age who are now serving either in the army or navy or National Guard, the estimates made by the census bureau upon the basis of population have been attained. All of the men subject to the law have responded to the call. Wait for Army Regulations. The second phase of the problem of raising a national army will begin as soon as the president has approved the exemption regulations which have been drafted by a special board under the direction of the provost marshal general. In many respects it is the more complicated, and difficult portion of the task. Approximately 4,800 boards —one for every 30,000 of the population of the country—are to be appointed to pass upon the exemptions, to decide who shall be subject to the call of military duty and who shall not. Boards of appeal for every federal judicial district must also be designated by the president. When this has been accomplished the instructions to theprimary boards, which are to act in the capacity of courts of first instance in passing upon exemptions are to be issued. Maj. Gen. Enoch I. Crowder and his assistants —among them some of the most distinguished lawyers of the country — have virtually completed the preliminary draft which is now before the president and the secretary of war. As soon as it is approved and the word is given the huge machine will be set in motion grinding out the first increment of 500,000 men for the new national army.

No Comment in Advance. For fear of confusing the 9,500,000 men .who will be subject to the call. General Crowder has been"'unusually careful not to discuss for publication the system that has been tentatively devised. He himself has a very clear idea, he said, of what is to be done, but before the Instructions are to be sent out every possibility of misunderstanding is to be weighed and every chance for complication is to be eliminated. The rules are to be ironclad and as specific as human ingenuity can make them, so that there will be no possibility of charges of discrimination and favoritism in the selection of the men who are to take up arms with the first 500,000.

Military authorities estimate that the first draft will be for considerably more than that number; In addition to the national army, the regular army and the National Guard will probably be brought up to war strength. There also must be reserve training camps, which may be’drawn upon to fill vacancies in the active ranks. It Is not Improbable, therefore, that the number to be selected will be nearer 750,000 than 500,000. —Placing the number of men registered at 10,000.000, it is estimated that 5,000,000 will be exempted for general reasons; of the remaining 5,000,000, 2,500,000 will be rejected for physical

disability, according to the standards now prevailing for recruits. There will remain, therefore, subject to call for duty at any time 2,500,000 men, who will be ready at any time to begin their military training. If 750,000 are to be called, the man who has registered and is physically fit and cannot claim has a. little better than one chance in three to go into active service. General Exemptions. It is probable that a certain proportion of those who have registered will be exempted in classes —foreign sub-

jects, those who are obviously physically unfit, and in general persons employed in the public service, mariners, workmen in arsenals, armories and at the navy yards. The regulations will designate specifically how these general exemptions are to be made. Those who do not fall within these general Classes must appear before the exemption board within their district and set forth their claims. The mere fact, for example, that a man is married and has children will be no bar to his selection for service. He must demonstrate that he contributes to the support of his family. The village idler whose wife takes in washing will probably have difficulty in convincing the board that he should not go into.

The call will be made by the president for a certain number of men sufficiently large to make it certain that the necessary number for actual service will b£ obtained after eliminations for one cause or another. The board which is now devising the scheme by which the men may be chosen has experimented with various devices for drawing by lot. It is probable that this phase of the draft will be made a public ceremony, which will be carried out at the capitals of the states or in some other public place. If the registrant has run the exemption gantlet he will present himself before the military authorities for physical examination. If rejected, he will be dismissed, but a record of his case will be kept. If accepted, he will be sent to one of the sixteen cantonments where he will undergo training to fit him for the rigors of war or held in readiness to enter one of the training camps which will be drawn upon to fill gaps in the ranks. A Tremendous Task.

Army officials do not minimize the difficulty of the intricate task ahead of them. The president is wrestling with the problem of selecting the exemption boards, so that there will be no basis for changes of favoritism or political preference. The normal board probably will be the same as that which conducted the registration, but there will probably be many exceptions to the general rule. An effort is being made to obtain men only of the highest character for the appellate boards. General Crowder and his assistants are very careful not to disclose even the most general features of the system upon which they have virtually agreed. They-fear that if it were explained now changes that might be made before its final approval by the president would lead to confusion. For that reason the word is not to be given until every detail has been pondered carefully, and when it is given there is to be no retracing of steps.