New Britain herald., 1917-07-14
SELECTING ARMY NEXT STEP
 IN WAR AGAINST KAISERDOM
Great Lottery, Conferring Honor of Going to France for Old Glory, Drawing Near.

Washington, July 14.-An import ant preliminary step towards the or ganization of Americas new national army was taken with the publication today of President Wilson's order drafting 687,O00 men into military service under the selective conscrip- tion law. The order was issued by the war department.
 Distribution by the governors of the state quota among the local eX- emption districts and the great lottery to establish the order in which regis trants are to be called into the ser vice are the only steps that remain to be carried out.
 The men summoned will be used to bring the regular army and National Guard up to war strength and to form the first half million of the new army. The total of the three forces will be 1,262,9S5 men.
 In computing the allotment required from each state, the government gave credit for the number of men in the National Guard of the state, and of every recruit contributed to the regu- lar army since April 1.
 With 947 of the 4,559 exemption districts still unheard from today, an accurate prediction as to the date of the great drawing under the army selective law still was impossible. Most of the official who are closely watching the situation believed, however, that all would be ready in time for the drawing next week.
 More than 400 districts filled their reports of organization yesterday and last night. The bulk of those missing districts are in large cities and will report about the same time. It has been estimated that New York city reports will be completed. by Wednes- day or Thursday.
 Meanwhile nominations for the dis trict appeal boards still awaited &C., tion by President Wilson. The full list of men recommended for his se- lection has been submitted by Brig. Gen. Crowder, provost marshal gen. eral. There will be no need to delay the drawing for these nominations as the appeal boards will have no func- tions to perform until the actual examination of men by the district boards has commenced.
 Newspapers in the big population centers of the country are beginning to reveal more clearly every day the magnitude of the task before them in announcing the order for appearance of each registrant.
 It seems likely now that a majority of the papers will be compelled to print, on the first day, only the names of the men who are likely to be called to make up the 67S,OOO to be drafted. In each state the number that will mean from each district in the state is now being determined by the governor.
 Any state having the allotment of quota by districts may range widely. One district may be called upon for several hundred men and another for only two or three. due to credits for volunteers distribution of regiments or other factors which the governors are considering in making allotments. The result will be that for one dis trict the papers may be able to pub fish at once names of the men who tional names in order of liability to cover probable exemptions.
 Another factor in the drawing may prove puzzling, is the fact that the rotation numbers will not be the same in every district. For instance: If the lars s~: district has 1000 men regis te /l and the smallest 187 and the others range between, 1000 numbers would have to be drawn. The first serial number might be 6,715. That would mean that number 6,771 would be first up in every district which had 9TH men or more. It would mean nothing to any district with less than 6,771 registrants.
 The second number drawn might