New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-09-17
Draft Inequalities

General Growers leller III hHe"eA W
certain criticisms of the draft law and its
application does not successfully explain
away the laws inequalities. These in
CAPABILITIES, in fact, cannot be explained
away.
The most obvious complaint against the
law is that it penalties the citizen popula-
ton of states and cities in which there Is
a large alien population. Draft quotas
being based on population, without regard
to political allegiance, the citizens in
community where there are many aliens
must furnish not only their own proper
ton of conscripts, but supply the quota
assessed against the considerable mass of
exempt aliens.
General Crowder suggests that draft
based on citizen population alone would
also work injustice. So it would, though
In a lesser degree. Take the case of two
states of the same size. One has an alien
group amounting to 10 per cent The
other has an alien group amounting to Az
per cent. If quotas were based on citizen
nopulation exclusively the first state would
have to supply a third more conscripts
than the second state would, the ratio be-
ing 90 to 60. The second state would re-
tain so per cent more of its workers and
be benefited industrially to that extent.
But, as the provost marshal general
himself admits, the present unequal draft
apportionment cannot be excused by say
ing that Congress might have approved
another apportionment scheme almost as
UNEQUAL. Neither Of these two methods OF
appointments is justifiabe. In the first
place, there is no discoverable reason for
including enemy aliens in the population
subject to draft. They are automatically
exempt; and that exemption ought to ap-
ply not only to German subjects, but to
Austro-H Hungarian, Bulgarian and Turk
ish subjects as well.
Until some understanding had been
reached with the governments of the coun-
tries allied with US as to the CONSUMPTION
of their citizens and subjects, and until
Congress had laid down a definite policy
as to the treatment Of the citizens and
subjects of neutral governments, 1t was
bad Judgment to include these aSen ele-
ments in the population on which conscrlp-
ton quotas should be based. Congress
made a mistake in gathering all these
aliens into the CONSUMPTION net. The way
10 rectify that mistake is to amend the
draft law by excluding enemy aliens from
the population assumed to be eligible for
drafting, to provide for the drafting Of
- c,1bi
include or exclude neutral aliens. Then
each state would stand on the same basis.
The CONSUMPTION burden would be equita-
bly, distributed. Congress is now seeking
to fix definitely the status of alien resi-
dents. 1t thus confesses that the original
scheme Of universal inclusion for appor-
tionment purposes was blunder.
General Crowder, moreover, fails to take
/ notice in his letter Of an injustice in the
N application Of the draft law for which the
v Administration, not Congress, is respon-
sible. That is the method by which the
Census Bureau determined the population
Of the various states prior to the allot-
ment An arbitrary and fictitious popula-
ton total was created for each state by
multiplying the total number of registra-
tons by a fixed number, standing for the
proportion between the males of twenty
one to thrty-one years Of age and the rest
of the population. The states in which
registration was fairly complete were
thereby penalzed and those in which there
was MISREPRESENTATION were let off with
inadequate quotas. There was no attempt
to fix the actual population of states and
cities. New York City was credited with
about 100000 more inhabitants than it
Low has. Equally grotesque mutations in
Chicago, Cleveland and Detroit were ac-
cepted by the War Department without
question. On the other hand, the appor
tionment figures which the Census Bureau
produced and which the department used
in the first draft call credited many
Southern states with smaller populations
than they had in 1910. 1t is preposterous
10 assume for purposes Of conscription
that Mississippi, for instance, has lost
$4,000 inhabitants in the last seven
wears; that Kentucky has lost 260,oOO'and
that Alabama has lost 100000.
1t is the duty of Congress to direct
reimbursement of the estimates which the
War Department is using. They do not
represent actual population. They are
much further away from the mark than
any other guesses which the Census Bu-
reau has ever made They conflict start
lingly with the statements Of population
for 1915 and 1916 issued by the Census
Bureau.
New York has suffered more than any