The Tomahawk. [volume] (White Earth, Becker County, Minn.) 1903-192?, 1917-07-26
Plan to Determine Liability.

| Plan to Determine Liability.
| Each registered man can learn from
| the local board of his district the num-
Der of registrants in the distict. He
| can determine his liability to call by
simply scratching all numbers higher
| than the number Of registration cards
| in this district. This will give him
his exact pesition in relation to his
own district.
| Each district is called upon to sup
ply 200 per cent Of it's quota, General
| Crowder has announced. Thus, if the
registered number in a district is 200
and the quota is 20, forty men will
be called for examination. This means
that the man who stands forty-frst on
the list will be exempt from the first
call. The only provision is that out
of the 40 men called 20 are found
physically fit and free from exemption.
Should more men than 40 be required
in order to secure 20, the next men
! in line will be called.
Preparations Are Completed.
Preparations for the draft were COM
pleted when New York, Pennsylvania
| and Michigan, the last three states
| to get ready, announced by telegram
| that they were at last prepared.
General Crowder, in anticipation Of
these announcements, had conferred
with Secretary Baker Immediately up
on his return from a trip down the
Potomac with several OF his war
| chiefs. Immediately after this confer
ence, the general released for publi-
cation his plan for the draft which
contemplated the drawing of 10 mas
ter numbers and 1000 key numbers,
a process which would have occupied
only an hour, and which would have
fairly and squarely determined the Ii
ability of every registered man to ser.
vice.
The plan was telegraphed all over
the country and printed in afternoon
papers. General Crowder then an
nounced that the hour for the draft
had been definitely set for $3.50, and
invited newspapermen who were as
signed to report the event to attend
the trial drawing in his office at 5
o'clock ir the afternoon so that they
might be thoroughly familiarized with
every detail OF the plan.
LONG Distance Calls General.
1t was just about 4 o'clock that the
telephone on General Crowder's desk
rang and "Central". told him there was
long distance call from Trenton for
him.
Just what words passed over the
wire only two men-and possibly Gen.
tral-knoW One was General Crowd.
err. He would not tell who the other
was. Indeed, he would not even tell
the name of the state which had up
set the draft plan. Secretary Baker
did that later. The message was sent
by the adjutant general of New Jer-
sey. But as result Of that message
there was a hurried call over the tele-
phone for Secretary Baker. General
Crowder informed him of the news.
1t was that several of the Jersey
boards, each one Of which represent
ed several election districts, instead
of shuffling the registration cards OF
all the districts together before plac'
ing the RED Ink" number on them,
had taken whole districts by them
selves and numbered the cards in or
der, right down the line.
Errors in Many States.
A hasty conference of officials was
called behind locked doors and q
quick search made in the local board
records of many states which have
been received here. A similar situa-
ton was found to exist to many parts
Of the country. In some lists negro
and white registrants had been clas-
sified in separate groups and the Sc
rial numbers ran accordingly. In 9TH
ers aliens We're separated and given
their own group of serial numbers. 1t
was hopeless tangle. If the double
drawing system were carried out one
election district in any exemption di-
vision might be swept clean of all its
young men to fill the quota while the
other election districts in the same ex-
emption area furnished no men what
ever. In other cases it might be nec'
essary to pass upon and exempt a
thousand aliens before a single Amer
lean was called to service. In others
thousand negroes might be taken for
exemption before a white man was
called or vice versa.
"Fair" Deal Expectation.
The whole fair deal" aspect of the
draft would be destroyed; there would
follow charges Of unfairness which
would be national scandal, and the
whole drawing might be invalidated-
after hundreds of thousands of homes
had been caused suffering by the
Threatened departure Of members of
the family.
Officials Of General Crowder's Office
congratulated themselves that the diff
ficulty in the way of double drawing
| was found before rather than after
the drawing. 1t was certain to have
been discov Immediately after
ward, and then it would have been
necessary to declare it's results can
celled and draw again.
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