Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1917-06-25
GENERALEVASION
OF DRAFT DENIED
Returns Show 95.9 Per Cent
of Number in Census Esti-
mates Registered
TOTAL is 9,659,382
Shortage in Some States, Due to
Shifting in Population,
j Made Up in Others
WASHINGTON. June 2h.

ID.
There are 1923 unnaturalized Germans
IN The registration of 9,659,3S2 for the Sc
iective army. Returns from every State,
xith Niagara County New York, and three
nrecincts of Wyoming missing, show that
40 per cent Of the persons contained in
,he census estimate registered.
of the 9659,9S2 reported registered
ss477g4 are white citizens 953,S99 are
negro citizens 1885, S65 are unnaturalized
foreigners from countries other than Ger
many, 1923 are unnaturalized Germans,
Including "declarants"; that is, persons
having declared their intention to become
citizens but not having received their final
naturalization papers, and 60O1 are In
dians The registrars were instructed by
the war Department to include with white
citizens all declarants from countries with
which the United States was not at. war,
hut a comparison of the registration figures
with the reports of the Census Bureau and
the bureaus of immigration and naturaliza-
lion indicates that most of the deClarants
registered as aliens.
There Is nothing In the returns to indi-
cate that there has been any general at
tempt at evasion of registration by any
important element of the population. In
few States the registration was far be-
low the estimates but this shortage was
ofset by registration In excess of the esti-
mates in other States. This is because the
last Federal census was taken in 1910
and only q rev states nave enumerated
their inhabitants since that year, so that
the Census Bureau had few reliable data
as 10 the abnormal shiftings of population
which have taken place between certain
parts of the country in recent years, and
PARTICULARLY since the outbreak of the war
rave so great an impetus to the manufac-
hlre of munitions and other commodities
needed by the bellgerents. The manufac-
turing industries thus affected are located
mainly in the northeastern States, and as
A result the population of these States has
Increased with abnormal rapidity at the eX-
pense of other parts of the country Fur
thermore the increases and decreases have
been very largely in the very class covered
BY the registration-that is, men between
the ages of twenty-One and thirty-one.
II was expected, therefore, that for GER
tain States the estimates-which in the abb
sence of definite information as to the eX-
tent of the abnormal movement of popula-
ton and particularly of the male population
between the ages Of twenty-one and thirty
one just referred to, were necessarily based
on the assumptions that the increase in
population which took place in each State
between 1900 and 1910 has continued since
the latter year and that the proportion OF
males between twenty-one and thirty-one
years of age has remG 'yaed unchanged
would be wide of the mark. The most pro-
nounced discrepancies appear for Wash
to 4S8 per cent of the estimate; for oregon,
in which it was $40 per cent; for North
Dakota with 73 per cent for Wyoming
for which the report with three precincts
missing, indicates a registration of about
65 per cent of the estimate; for Nevada
with 7l.6 per cent, and for South Dakota,
with 72.1 per cent. In no other State was
the registration less than rs per cent of
the estimate. on the other hand, fourteen
AriZopa W.
Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Massachusetts,
Michigan, Montana New Hampshire, New
Jersey, North Carolina. Ohio and Wscon-
sin-eXceeded their estimates. the greatest
percentages Of excess being those for Mich
igan 294; Connecticut, 29.3; Montana
2O4, and Ohio, 144.
It is probable that the population of GER
tain States, particularly Washington and
Oregon, has not declined to so great an ex-
tent as would be indicated by the registra-
ton fgures. since a very considerable pro-
portion of the persons migrating from them
has consisted of young men between the
ages of twenty-one and thirty-one.
The original census estimates are smaller
for some States than those which have been
used by the War Department. This is be-
cause In the compilation of the War De-
partment estimates, which were originally
prepared for use in apportoning supplies of
registration cards to Meyers and Sherffs
throughout the country liberal additions
were made to the official census estimates
Tor places-especially those in which NUM-
uon plants are located-that were believed
70 have grown at abnormal rates during
recent years, whereas no corresponding re-
auctions could be made for the localities
rom which these abnormal accretions of
population were drawn. This did not par
ucuarly matter, since the main object in
view was to insure the sending of an ade-
guate supply of registration cards to each
mayor and Sheriff, but when the city and
county figures were totaliZed, the result was
an exaggeration of the estimates for the
united States as a whole and for certain
OF the States
me following table shows, by States the
eotal registration, the number of unnatural
ited Germans Oncluding those who have
ueelared their intention to become citizens),
end the percentage which the total repre-
sehts Of the census estimate: