Jasper County Democrat, Volume 21, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 May 1918 — FIGHT OR WORK IS U. S. ORDER; SPORTS ARE HIT [ARTICLE]

FIGHT OR WORK IS U. S. ORDER; SPORTS ARE HIT

Baseball Players, Theater, Club Employees and Clerks lo Get Rifles. CROWDER IN DRASTIC EDICT Sweeping Amendment to Selective Service Regulations to Make Nation Efficient in War May Solve Great Labor Problems. i. ...... ' • : Washington, May 24.—The war department issued a statement regarding baseball players and other professional sportsmen, which said: “No ruling as to whether baseball players or persons engaged In golf, tennis or any other sport collie under the regulations regarding Idlers and npnessentlal pursuits will be made until a specific case has been appealed to the provost mar* shal general’s office.” Washington, May 24. —Every mail of draft age must either work or fight after July 1, under a drastic amendment to the selective service regulations announced by General Crowder, provost marshal general. Not only Idlers, but all draft registrants engaged In what are held to be nonuseful occupations are to be haled before local boards and given the choice of a new Job or the army. Local Boards to Decide. Gamblers, race track and bucket shop attendants and fortune tellers head the list, but those who will bo reached by the new regulations also Include waiters and bartenders, theater ushers and attendants, pusseuger elevator operators and other attendants of clubs, hotels, stores, etc., domestics and clerks In stores. Deferred classification granted on account of dependents will be disregarded entirely in applying the rule. A man may be at the bottom of class 1, or even in class 4, but if lie fallb within the regulation and refuses to take useful employment he will be given a new number in class 1 that will\sena him into the military service forthwith. Local boards are authorized to use discretion only where they fink that enforced change of employment would result in disproportionate hardship upon Ids dependents.

May Solve the Labor Problem. It lias been known for some time that some form of “work-or-flght” plan has been submitted to President Wilson, but there has been no intimation that it was so far reaching In its scope. Both the military authorities and department of labor officials believe that It will go a long way toward solving the labor problem for fanners, shipbuilders and munition makers and will end, for the present at least, talk of conscription of labor. The announcement gives notice significantly that the list of nonuseful occupations will be extended from time to time as necessity requires. The statement of the provost marshal general’s office Is as follows: “Provost Marshal General Crowder today announced an amendment to tne selective service regulations which deals with the great question of compelling men not engaged in a useful occupation Immediately to apply themselves to some form of labor contributing to the general good. The idler, too, will find himself confronted with the alternative of finding suitable employment or entering the army. “This regulation provides that after July "1, any registrant who Is found by a local board to be a habitual idler or not engaged In somg. useful occupation shall be summoned before the board, given a chance to explain and, in the absence of a satisfactory explanation, to be inducted Into the military service of the United States. How It Would Work in Chicago. “Any local board will be authorized to take action, whether it has an original jurisdiction of the registrant or not; in other words, any man loafing around a poolroom in Chicago may be held to answer to a Chicago board even though he may have registered in New York and lived there most of Ids life. “The regulations which apply to idle registrants will be deemed to apply also to gamblers of all description and employees and attendants of bucket shops and race tracks, fortune tellers, clairvoyants, palmists and the like, who for the purpose of the regulations shall be considered as idlers. New Rule Is Sweeping. “The new regulation will also affect the following classes: “(a) Persons engaged In the serving of food and drink, or either, in public places, Including . hotels and social clubs. ••

"(b) Passenger elevator operators and attendants, doormen, footmen and other, attendants of clubs, hotels, Stores, apartment houses, office buildings and bath houses. "(c) Persons, including ushers and other attendants, engaged and occupied in, and in connection with games, sports and amusements, excepting actual performers in legitimate concerts, operas or theatrical performances. "(d) Persons employed in domestic service. “(e) Sales clerks and other clerks employed in stores and other mercantile establishments. “Men who are engaged as above or Who are idlers will not be permitted to seek relief because of the fact that they have drawn a late order number or because they have been placed in Class 11, 111, or IV on the grounds of dependency. The fact that he is not usefully employed will outweigh both the above conditions. To Extend Nonuseful List. “It is expected that the list of nonuseful occupations will be extended from time to time as necessity will require so as to include persons in -other employments. “Temporary absence from regular employment not to exceed one week, unless such temporary absences are habitual and frequent, shall not be considered as idleness. Regular vacations will not be considered as absences in this connection. “The regulation throws a further Safeguard around men not usefully employed provided that where there are compelling domestic circumstances that would not permit change of employment by the registrant without disproportionate hardship to his dependents or where a change from nonusefui employment or occupation would necessitate a removal of the registrant or his family, local boards may give consideration to the circumstances. “The regulation further provides that where such a change of employment would compel the night employment of women under circumstances Which a board might deem unsuitable for such employment of women the board may take such circumstances Into consideration in making Its decision.”

General Crpwder Explains Plan. Explaining the new regulation and the necessity for it, General Crowder said: “The war has so far disorganized the normal adjustment of industrial man power as to prevent the enormous Industrial output and national organization necessary to success. “There is a popular demand for organization of man power, but no direct draft could be imposed at present. “Steps to prohibit idleness and noneffective occupation will be welcomed by our people. “We shall give the idlers and men not effectively employed the choice between military service and effective employment. Every man in the draft age at least, must work or fight. “This is not alone a war or military maneuver. It is a deadly contest of Industries and mechanics.

j| Must Copy German Machine. "Germany roust not be thought of as merely possessing an army. We must think of her as being an army—an irmy In which every factory and loom In the empire is a recognized part in a complete machine running night and day at terrific speed. We must make of ourselves the same sort of effective machine. “It is not enough to ask what would happen if every man in the nation •turned his hand to effective work. We must make ourselves effective. Me must organize for the future. We must make vast withdrawals for the tarmy and immediately close up the ranks of industry behind the gap with an accelerating production of every useful thing in ne'cessary measure. iHow is this to be done? "The answer is plain. The first ifitep toward the solution of the difficulty is to prohibit engagement by able-bodied men in the field of hurtiful employment, idleness or ineffectual employment, and thus induce and persuade the vast wasted excess into useful fields. “The very situation we are now considering, however, offers great possibilities in improvement of the draft as well as great possibilities for the composition of the labor situation by effective administration of the draft. Considering the selective service law, we see two principal caused of deferment of the call to military service—exemption and the order numbers assigned by lot. Exemptions in Two Categories. The exemptions themselves fall into two conspicuous categories—dependency and industrial employment. One protects domestic relations, the othdr the economic interests of the nation. Between the two there is an inevitable hiatus, for it is demonstrably true that thousands, if not millions, of dependency exemptions have no effect of industrial protection whatever. , “One of the unanswerable criticisms of the draft has been that it takes men from the farms and from all use-

ful employments and marches them past crowds of idlers and loafers away to the army. The remedy is simple—to couple the industrial basis with other grounds for exemption and to require that any man pleading exemption on any ground shall also show that he is contributing effectively to the industrial welfare of the nation. "The regulation itself makes plain the determination of the war department. The great organization of local and district boards which has already accomplished a notable work may be relied upon to catch the spirit of the movement, and sorely needed man power will soon be flowing into the fields of useful endeavor or into the other direction of military strength.”