The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-09-14
Many Believed to Have Bought
Exemption From Service.
One Man COnfesses He Pur-
chased Immunity for $3.50.
INVOLVES COUNTY OFFICIAL
Detectives Find Secret Box Con-
tanning $500 in His Office.
Exemptions There 75 Per
Cent; Elsewhere About go.

Kansas City, Sept 14.-Frauds un-
der the selective draft law which
threaten to involve a dozen exemption
officials in St Joseph and Buchanan
county have been uncovered, Francis
M. Wilson, United States district at
torney, announced today. high
county official and a subordinate IN
his office are already involved. Mr..
Wilson asserted.
Other draft officials are under sur
veillance and will be drawn into the
governments inquiry, according to the
district attorney. The fraud reveIa-
tions are the result of a months in
vestigation by govel nment operatives.
The large number of exemptions for
physical disability in Buchanan coun-
ty first led 70 the sending of secret
service men to st. Joseph. the gov
ernment officials said. The per cent
there during the first week was 70,
, they asserted, while in Kansas City
exemptions for physical disability
were Is per cent. One man who
wished to escape draft confessed, the
| operatives say, that it cost him $3.50
for his release. The man was fit for
service in every way, they said. Other
| disclosures led the operatives to the
office of a county official where they
1
box which the secret service men be-
lieve was obtained by the same means.
! Agent for County Official.
The confession of the man, who was
exempted for physical disability, the
| operatives declare, named a subor-
| dinate to the county official who told
him that he could obtain a release for
$3.50. He asked that it be paid in
cash.
Tho subordinate, it is said, at first
denied the charges and then admitted
that he had taken the money He
said that it was an attorneys fee"
/ He told the secret service men that
the money was in the office of his
superior, a county official.
/ A search revealed the $500 in cur
rency in a tin box. The county Off
cial when questioned, the operatives
say, told them that the money was
the savings of his subordinate.
No arrests have been made but all
involved are under surveilance. the
officials say. They assert that their
theory is that the subordinate was
working as an agent for the county
official. The district attorney in his
announcement said that this disclosure
was only a part of general investiga-
ton which is expected to involve a
half dozen other draft officials in Bu-
chanan county
Until the case was more fully pre-
pared, he said, none of the names of
the Ilen lHNOlNcO WOulu Do puDllSucQ.
Grand Jury Will Act.
st. Joseph. Sept. 1.-THE statement
J was made by federal authorities to-
day that conspiracy to evade the
i draft has been uncovered in st. Joe
and Buchanan county, and that there
has been bribery in connection with
exemptions here. They assert that
/ one man has confessed to implication
in the plot and revealed where $500,
said to have been paid by a young
| farmer to obtain exemption, was
found.
: An investigation will be made BY
the grand jury at the term of the
5 United States court to open here next
Monday. The suspicion of the gov
ernment's agents was aroused by the
fact that while the average number
of exemptions by the Missouri boards
outside of St. Joe and the county haz
been about 20 per cent, the numbez
of exemptions here has been about "a
Der cent