Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 256, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 November 1917 — CONSCRIPT WILL CLASSIFY SELF [ARTICLE]

CONSCRIPT WILL CLASSIFY SELF

QUESTIONAIRE TO BE MAILED TO EACH REGISTERED MAN, SIMPLIFYING WORK. Copies of the new army draft regulations came off the press Monday for a final reading preparatory to the mailing to the local exemption boards throughout the country. They will be in the hands of all boards next week to govern all future drafts. Under the new plan the burden of supplying information which will result in being placed in his proper classification under the selective service law rests squarely on the individual registrant. All instructions now in the hands of the boards will be annulled upon the receipt of the new regulations which are ‘greatly reduced in extent and simplified in process. Included in the new book is everything bearing on the draft processes as now organized from the time the questionaire is sent to each registrant, filled out and returned to the boards until accepted men are in the military service. Every book carries a copy of the statutes and also a verified copy of the master list of the drawing. The questionaire is the basis of the plan of grouping registrants in five classes, liable for duty by classes. The boards will be able to classify a man immediately when his questionaire has been received. /The questionaire process will eliminate from consideration for military service probably 95 per cent of the men who have been discharged or exempted under the old plan. Under the first call the average board was compelled to examine five men to obtain one for service. In some cases not more than one out of ten or twelve were sent to the camps. It is expected that under the new scheme the average figures will be reversed and

at most, not more than one man in five called up, will fail to ppss his physical examination and be rejected. The American Bar Association and the American Medical Association are at work now organizing the lawyers and doctors to aid registrants in their vicinity in filling out theirquestionaires. With the aid of these associations it is hoped a high per centage of the questonaires will come back in such form that the boards will have littlA more than a rubber stamp proceeding left to select the men to fill any call.