Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 166, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 July 1917 — Draft Dodgers to Get Places In Front Ranks. [ARTICLE]

Draft Dodgers to Get Places In Front Ranks.

Washington, July 30.—Prompt and efficient work by district exemption boards is expected by government officials as a result of stripping all red tape from the procedure of the tribunals. President Wilson's executive order outlining the principles to govern exemptions, coupled with instructions to the' boards from Pro-vost-Marshal General Crowder, are regarded here as setting in motion the last phase of the selection process with a momentum that insures a minimum of confusion and delay. \ The object of instructions is to impress the boards with the view that their primary purpose is to select the personnel for the national army from the great reservoir of registered men in the shortest possible time. To that end they have been informed that no legal precedents bind them and that there need be no adherence to rules of evidence or other technicalities of court procedure. Attorney-General Greggory set in motion today further machinery to increase the size of the registration reservoir from which the 687,000 men for the first call are to be drawn. Thousands of men failed to register, it has been found, for one cause or another. Through the district attorneys, the department of justice is rounding up these men and when found they will be assigned numbers which will insure their being called up for examination at an early date. They will be given the serial numbers of men near the top of the list alraedy permanently discharged for physical reasons. The first reports of the boards on physical examination are beginning to appear. As yet, however, they are not complete enough to make any logical deduction as to the probable average of rejection for this reason.