Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 88, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 April 1918 — PLAN TO REGISTER MEN BETWEEN 18 AND 50 [ARTICLE]

PLAN TO REGISTER MEN BETWEEN 18 AND 50

A plan to register every man in the United States between the ages of 18 and 50, designed by the provost marshal general’s division of the war department with a view to enlisting the man power of the nation in war work, is reported to be meeting with opposition among some members of congress and the administration. ‘Whether the president has approved or disapproved it has not been announced, but there were indications last night that it may be rejected. The plan involved two prime considerations : Adjustment, through military channels, of the labor situation which now constitutes the greatest menace and handicap to America’s war preparations. Provision for putting into the army every able bodied man in the country wheh needed, with due allowance made for necessary industrial and agricultural workers. The scheme was laid before the president about three weeks ago. It was studied by the general staff of the army, and, it is understood, met with approval. In substance the idea proposed: To have congress enact legislation requiring registration of all men between the ages of 18 and 50, to have these men fill out questionnaires as did those between 21 anti 30; to classify them as to their employment in effective or noneffective industries and to their conditions of dependency; then to give the war department authority to dispose of these men as it sees fit, putting those engaged in noneffective industries into effective industries or into the army. The plan would give the war department absolute control of the labor situation in the United States, and it would also give the military authorities an almost inexhaustible reservior of supply for future armies. V

It is not intended for the present, at least, to put men between the ages of 18 and 21, and between 30 and 50 into the army. The scheme is primarily intended to adjust the labor situation. Under the plan the war department would be able to shift labor to meet any situation, to provide every single man necessary for war work, arid to put to work every man in the United States not engaged in an effective occupation and who might be needed for war work.

Under the proposal the war department would be able to say to a bartender, for instance, “Go across the street and wojk in the munitions factory, where you will do the county some good, or else, we will put you in the army.” It would be able to take, idlers, loafers, men who do not support their wives, I. W. W’s.. parasitic socialists, and all that class and either force such men to go to work in useful occupation or else put them in the army. Furthermore, in many industries in which men are now employed it would be possible to substitute women.