The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1917-08-10
DISCHARGES FOR
.DEPENDENCYMUST
BE RESTRICTED IS
CROVDER'SORDER
Claims For Exemption Run
as High AS 80 Per
Cent
FIRST NEED rs TO
DRAFT AN ARMY
Abuse of Section 18 May
Result In Much Stricter
Methods
FIRST NEED rs TO
DRAFT AN ARMY
CIV Associated CT. 3 rress.l

h Washington, Aug: 10.--Wholesale
claims for exemption from the army
draft, reported from many sections,
caused Provost Marshal General
Crowder to telegraph the governors
OF the states last night directing
that local boards reduce discharges
for dependency to a far more re-
stricted class and to very necessitous
and clearly defined circumstances"
In some districts as high as 80
per cent of the registrants called
for examination are, filing claims for
discharge en- the ground of depend
ent relatives. Such a condition indi-
Gates, General Crowder said, that
unfair advantage is being taken OF
the regulations designed to protect
men who properly should be ex-
empted from military service and ac-
tually threatens to interfere serious
ly with the raising of the national
army, - "t a'
The message to the governors fol-
lows" 81. ~- aa - ..Ts ID
Section 2 of the selective service
law exempts no person from military
service on the ground of dependency.
1t only authorizes the president to
exclude or discharge from draft
those in a status with respect to
persons dependent upon them for
support which renders their exclu-
sion or discharge. advisable
First Need Is Army. ~
The controlling necessity is to
raise an army. 1t is advisable to dis
turb dependents just as little as the.
necessity of raising an army will
permit. To this end section Is of the
regulations was compiled carefully
-
alton. If experience is to prove that
the generous conditions prescribed
by Section Is, or any abuse OF them,
will interfere with the raising of any
army, then, it is no longer advisable
to discharge so wide @ class and the
conditions stated therein will nave
to be- destricted, until an advisable
rule is Leaca.cd. eFi 49,
Nothing has happened to change
the belief that the persons enunlei-
ated in Section Is could be 6iscn2rE-
ed without interfering with the ra,s-
ing of an army, but there arc i1id.-
cations. that abuses of Section is
may render its continuance no lons-
err advisable. ! - !" 1000
II Abuse or Law. ~,
Reports sie to the eject. that in
some, districts as high as eighty per
cent of persons called before local
boards are fling claims Tor dis,
charge on the ground of depends emit
relatives. Such a percentage of
claims, when viewed in connection
with all available statistics, Indicates
beyond question that advantage is
being taken of the provisions OF the
law and regulations which were in
tended to reduce to minimum the
misery at home normally attendant
upon war.
There Is a moral certainty, in the
extravaganza Of this percentage,
that hundreds of unfounded claims
are included in these totals.
This state of affairs greatly in
creases the burden: of local boards,
for if so high a percentage of regis.
trants' claim exemption, only the lin-
compromising action of local boards
can prevent new regulation on the
subject of dependency which shall
reduce discharges for dependency to
a far more restricted class and to
very necessitous and clearly befined
circumstances. ,a
I'm the absence of a stern repres-
sion by local boards of unmeritoliOus
claims this result is inevitable, since
any such percentage of exemptions
as reports of claims indicate would
nullify the law and prevent the rails
ing of an army.
1T is thus apparent that the filing
of these improper claims will react
directly and injuriously on persons
whom the present regulations were
designed to protect, and that the
welfare of persons who have filed
bonafide claims under the present
generous clauses of the regulations
Is seriously imperiled by persons
who have filed claims without merit,
and that the only protection of per-
sons whose cases are within the
meaning of the, present rules lies in
the power of local boards to refuse
exemption in every doubtful case"