The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1917-07-20
DRAFTING OF BIG MA TTONAL
ARMY BEGAN THIS FORENOON
CHANGE IN DRAWING
Plans for Big Lottery Shifted at Last
Hour.


Plans for the drafting to fix the
order of military liability for nearly
10,000,000 registered men through.
out the country were materially
changed late yesterday and the intri
cate method of double drawing work.
ed out by officials to lessen the ply.
sical task was abandoned.
Instead OF process recurring not
more than an hour and involving one
set of numbers from / to 1000 and
another from 0 to 10, it was neces-
sary to draw, one at a time, at least
10,263 numbers. 1t will require at
least 10 and half hours, and officials
in charge believe it will take II.
Following is Provost Marshal Gen
eral Crowder's explanation of the
sudden abandonment of the double
drawing plan which it had taken
weeks to work out in detail and
which was made public only few
hours before it was discarded:
'Advices received by long-distanee
telephone this afternoon indicate that
in certain areas the boards, in mum.
bering registration cards, have kept
the cards segregated by election dis.
tricts and that serial numbers have
been assigned to the whole group for
a board while the cards were thus
segregated. II the drawing is con.
Quoted as originally planned, in
groups of 1000, the result will be that
considerable proportions Of certain
election districts will be brought up
for examination together.
This will result in drafting per.
sons from one locality within the jur-
isdiction OF board before any per-
son is drawn from another locality
within the same jurisdiction
For this reason, it has been decid.
ed to abandon the drawing by thou
sands and to draw 10500 numbers,
which is in excess of the highest nun
ber of cards under the jurisdiction OF
any board
"The only change in the plan will
be that there will be one drawing in.
stead of two
The advantage will be greater
simplicity The disadvantage will be
that the drawing will require 1C
hours to complete"
The stage setting for the great lot
terry has not been changed. II took
place in the public hearing room OF
the Senate Office building. Among
the invited guests who sat with Sec
retary Baker of the war depart
ment and watched the proceeding:
were members OF the Senate anC
House military committees. The only
other persons present, according t.
plans last night, were to be a limited
number of newspaper correspondents
photographers, and the officials o
Gen Crowders office who will con
duct the drawing.
The drawing today was fixed a
10.5G0 numbers because an eXemp
tion district in Lansing, Mich, has
l0,263 registered men. That is the
largest district on record at Wash
ington Seven states have failed
thus far to report their maximum di.
, tricts. however, and 10,500 name,
will be drawn to take care of the i'm
probable possibility that larger dis
trict will show up later.
The change in plan throws al
enormous burden of work on Gen
Crowder's office, which had to b,
completed last night. In one room
score of clerks pounded away wit
numbering machines through tn
night. making up the $500 additiona
key numbers necessary In anothe
room 81 men. girls and boys toile,
over bowls OF black capsules, rollin
up the numbered slips as they wer
registered and slipping them into tn
concealing gelatin covering fror
which they will be taken by the al
nouncers today.