Connecticut western news. [volume] (Salisbury, Litchfield Co., Conn.) 1871-1970, 1917-07-12
PLANS READY;
DRAFT DELAYED
Exemption Boards Slow In
r Sending In Cards.
POLITICIANS REFUSE WORK

Many Appointed to Direct District
CONSUMPTION Fear Effect if They Re-
fuse to Exempt Their Constituents.
n President and Cabinet to Be Present
at First Drawing In Washington.
Final plans for the draft have been
completed by Secretary of War Baker
and Provost Marshal General Crowder.
Pending complete organization of the
exemption machinery throughout the
country Secretary Baker withdrew for
the present his promise to make public
the plans for the drawing. He did,
however, give an insight into the meth
cd which will be employed
! Every local board is to take the reg
istration cards under it's jurisdiction
and number them in serial form@ Start
ing at No /, the board will number
each in turn until all the cards have
their numerals.
The cards themselves will then be sent
to the adjutant general of the state in
which the district is located. and du-
plicate set of cards. numbered the same
as the originals. will be forwarded to
) the war department in Washington.
- Same Numbers For Districts.
Say the number of registered men III
the Eleventh district of Alabama Is
300. That district will send it's 300 du-
plicate cards to Washington. The One
Hundred and Twentieth Pennsylvania
district also sends its cards, and so on
in every state.
When the drawing is made there will
be numbers to correspond to the larg-
est number of enrolled men In any one
district. The drawing will be made by
states Say there are thirty districts
in state When number is drawn
call it No. 8-the man whose card is
No. in each of the thirty districts
will be the c6nscript That would
make thirty men at drawing. The
officials in charge of the drawing Will
go on pulling out numbers until the
state quota is filed.
Indications are that the CONSUMPTION
machinery Is not going to work with
as much speed as the war department
had anticipated After the conference
between Secretary Baker and General
Crowder it was plainly intimated that
considerable delay in the draft might
be expected as the result Of apparent
inability of the local boards to get their
cards numbered and forwarded to
Washington on schedule time.
President Wilson himself will be
present when the first number is drawn.
Tie will not make the drawing himself,
but will lend his presence to the his
torfc occasion. The entire cabinet also
will be present as well as members OF
the congress.
The occasion will be one of great So
lemnity. = and preparations are being
made for it.
Politics Hampering> Work.
Secretary Baker said it was impossi-
BILE to set a definite day for the draft
at this time owing to the delay in the
making ready of cards. Some of the
exemption boards are not yet organ
ICED, according to dispatches to the
war department, and in a number of
cases men appointed to the boards are
resigning because of political reasons.
They feel that they will lose political
preferment if they are in any way con-
nected with the drafting of their con-
stituents or if they are forced to refuse
exemptions to their followers or mem
bers of the families of such.
"All information published concern
ing the date for the draft is mere sur
mise" said Provost Marshal Crowder
"We are not mating public any infor-
nation until we are sure there will be
no slip in the plans"
General Crowder is working on quo
tas> which each state will be called
upon to supply. Exact figures will not
be made public for several days.