The Butler weekly times., 1917-08-16

6s7, 900 IN FIRST DRAFT WILL
BE AT CAMPS IN OCTOBER

Forces Will be Called Out in Three
| = Increments, First September S
and Second and Third in
| Same Month.
Washington, Aug. 13.-The entire
687 900 men composing the first in
crement of the army draft forces will
be under training early in October.
| Under orders issued today the first
80 per cent of the quota of each dis
trict will begin entrainment for can
tonments September S; the next 3ol
percent September IS, and another 80
per cent September 30. The remain-
ing 10 per cent will be mobilized as
soon after that date as possible.
The plan to assemble the new
forces in three increments distrib~l
utes the task OF furnishing supplies
and equipment through September.
1t will also prevent serious Short
age in any camp, and will give the
new officers from the training camps
time to familiarize themselves witt,
their duties gradually before re-
sponsibility for great body Of men
falls on them.
The order issued today means
that about $4,000 men will reach
each of the sixteen cantonments soon
after September S. They will first
be examined physically by army doc
tors and finally accepted or rejected.
| This will take some time and the
men will have to be furnished with
temporary quarters and rations while
awaiting examination If the full
quota were assembled at one time
great confusion would result.
Presumably the first increment will
have been organized into skeleton
companies, battalions Of regiments
before the second arrives. The new
j corners can quickly be absorbed by a.
going concern in that case, and the
third lot can be taken into the war
machinery with even less disturbance
when it reports fifteen days later.
i In farming communities local
boards now will arrange the lists Of
those to fill the first increment with
local crop conditions in mind. Har-
vesting is in progress in many Sec
tons. Draft men engaged in that.
work and who otherwise would go
with the first third Of the district
quota will be passed over to the sec
ond or third as may be necessary.
Reviewing the question of. dis
charge for dependent relatives, Pro-
vost Marshal General Crowder is
sued a supplemental ruling today,
holding that persons should not be
discharged because of dependents
! resident abroad. That conscientious
4 objectors to war are not to be ex-
cused entirely from serving the coun-
4 try was made clear in another ruling
by the provost marshal, holding that
such persons should be sent to mo-
bilization camps along with others
drafted, to be assigned later to non
combatant branches of the service.
II Only in rare cases are railway mail
clerks to be exempted. Today, the
postoffice department announced that
published reports of blanket exemp-
ton, for this class of postal employ.
es were based on a misinterpretation
of the department ordering postal ex-
emptions. Only scheme clerks and
assistant chief clerks of the railway
service will be\given exemption and
most of them axe above military age.
The postoffice department an
nounced also that it would certify
exemptions of postoffice inspectors
but not for postmastefs. Postmast
ers of the first, second andN third
classes, however, are exempted spe-
officially under the law.
H 1t developed today that the navy
department, misunderstanding the
war department ruling as to volun-
tary enlistment of registered men,
had instructed its recruiting officers
to accept registrants into the navy
even If they had been called before
their local selection boards for ex-
animation. The mistake quickly was
correctsl, recruiting stations being
II told that no man called for examina-
ton Under the draft law could be
accepted into any branch of the mil
4 itary or naval service as voluntary
recruit. Until called, however, regis
| trants are free to enter the army.
navy or marine corps.