The Butler weekly times., 1917-11-15
NO DRAFT BEFORE sPRING7
February IS the Earliest Date That
Call Can be Issued.

SaAl Nan DC 6Sueo.
Washington, Nov. Io.-President
Wilson formally put the new machin-
cry for carrying out the Selective
Draft Bill into operation tonight
with the publication Of the foreword
he has written to regulations under
which the second call will be made.
The regulations themselves and the
questionaires which some 9 million
registrants will be required to fill
out are being forwarded to local
boards, but have not yet been made
public.
War Department officials estimate
that the whole process can be COM
pleted in sixty days. This means
that no second call will be made up
on the draft forces before the middle
of next February, as the period of
classification will not begin until De-
cember IS.
The President describes the new
plan of dividing all registered men
not already mobilized into five
classes, subject to military services
by classes as being intended to pro-
duce "a more perfect organization of
our man power"
THE selective principle must be
carried to its logical conclusion" the
President said, and he added that
there must be made complete in
ventory of the qualifications of each
registrant in order to determine "the
place in the military, industrial or ag-
ricultural ranks of the Nation in
which his experience and training can
best be made to serve the common
good"
THE time has come for a more
perfect organization of our man
power. The selective principle must
be carried to its logical conclusion.
We must make complete inventory
of the qualifications of all regis
trants in order to determine as to
each man not already selected for
duty with the colors, the place in the
military, industrial or agricultural
ranks of the Nation in which his ex-
perience and training can best be
made to serve the common good.
This project involves an inquiry by
HE selection boards into the the deff4es-
tic, industrial and educational quail
fications of nearly 9 million men.
Members of these boards have
rendered conspicuous service. The
work was done without regard to
personal convenience and under
pressure of immediate necessity
which imposed great sacrifices. Yet
the services of men trained by the
experience OF the first draft must Of
necessity be retained and the selec-
ton boards must provide the direct
ing mechanism for the new classi-
iication.
The thing they have done is OF
scarcely one-tenth the magnitude of
the things that remain to be done.
1t is of great importance both to our
military and to our economic inter-
ests that the classification be carried
swiftly and accurately to a conclu-
sion.
"An estimate of the time necessary
for the work leads to the conclusion
that it can be accomplished in sixty
days, but only if this great marshall
ing of our resources of men is re-
garded by all as national war un-
dertaking of such significance as to
challenge the attention and compel
the assistance of every American.
II urge men of the legal profession
to offer themselves as associate men,
bers of the legal advisory boards to
be provided in each community for
the purpose of advising registrants of
their rights and obligations and OF
assisting them in the preparation of
their answers to the questions which
all men subject to the draft are re-
quired to submit. l ask the doctors
of the country to identify themselves
with the medical advisory boards
which are to be constituted in the
various districts throughout the
United States for the purpose OF
making systematic physical exam
ination of the registrants.
1T is important also that police Of
ficials of every grade and class
should be informed of their duty un-
der the selective service law and reg
ulation, to search for persons who do
not respond promptly and to serve
the summons of the local and dis
trict boards. Newspapers can be of
very great assistance in giving wide
publicity to the requirements of the
law and regulations and to the num-
bers and names of those who are
called to present themselves to their
local boards from day to day
Finally, ask that during the time
hereafter to be specified as marking
the 6o-day period Of the classifica-
ton, all citizens give attention to the
task in hand in order that the process
may proceed to a conclusion with