The Democratic banner. (Mt. Vernon, Ohio) 1898-192?, 1917-06-08


These are the unofficial figures of
the result of Registration Day in Knox
county as compiled by the board of
elections which on Wednesday morn
ing took up the rather huge task of
a complete tabulation of all cards sign
ed by young men of the county be-
tween the ages of 81 and 81 under the
selective conscription law.
Cards from outside sources are ar.
irving hourly and the official figures on
the total registered in Knox will not
be available for some little time yet.
Registration exceeded expectations
in Knox county. Theoretically and on
the basis of the federal census figures,
there should have been registered
1926 young men. This was exceeded
by over 750 when the number of men
enlisted in Battery Il, who were ex.
empt from registration, is counted in.
BY 11:10 O'Clock Tuesday evening
the total registration of the county
was in-two hours after the polls had
closed. Had it not been for two pre-
oincts where the chief registrars, after
trying vainly to telephone the county
board of elections in this city, retired
for the night, the returns would have
been available at least an hour earlier.
AS each card was numbered, it was
known just as soon as the polls closed
how many had registered in the par
ticular precinct.
Not even the slightest disorder nor
any attempts to resist regisua-
zion were reported from any Of the
precincts. This, however was expect
ed as no trouble-maSing elements ex-
ist in Knox county The day passed
off quietly and smoothly without dis,
play
Several features of interest were
encountered in the cards Chief Of
these was the registration in Monroe
ond Pleasant townships In the for,
mer, 30 men registered and all claimed
exemption; in the latter, 10 registered
and adopted a like course,
The board of elections was rather
startled Tuesday evening, in examin-
ing the Pleasant township summarize
tion blank, to discover that all ten OF
those registered were listed as "legis.
| lative, executive or judicial officers"
1t seems that the Pleasant township
clerks put down their results in the
first column on the blank
! The vast majority of claims for ex.
emption We're based on dependents.
These consisted of parents, wives or
children. In number of instances,
however, no claim for exemption was
made by those with dependents. One
| young man, in a city precinct, stated
| that he had wife and five children
| dependent on him for support and an
! swered the question: do you claim
exemption" by stating Il ought to,
but don't" Another young man with
n wife was very emphatic in stating
that he claimed no exemption, using
vigorous adjectives.
A peculiar case was discovered in
Wayne township where young man,
as claim for exemption, presented
his certificate of baptism into the
United Brethren church--a creed op-
posed to war The peculiar feature
was that the young man only affiliated
with the denomination on June 4.
OF the $50 listed in the above figures
as not specifying a claim for exemp'
ton, number failed TO answer the
+, question entirely-a privilege which
was allowed them.
The results in Knox county throw
an interesting light on what might
/ have been expected had the volunteer
system been adopted, instead of select
J i've conscription. over 6O9o of the
young men between q and 81 claim
exemption, while probably a number
of those $50 who failed TO specify a