Morris tribune., 1917-10-26
NEW DRAFT PLAN TO
BE ANNOUNCED SOON
Will Divide Men into Five Glasses
According to Industry and
Dependents

A washington QlSpaLcn OF SaCuf-
day announced a sweeping change in
the machinery of the selective draft,
based on division of the 100000
remaining registrants into five
classes in the order of their eligibil-
ity for military service.
Details of the plan, which has
been approved by President Wilson,
are not disclosed. 1t is calculated,
however, to do away with virtually
all the complicated machinery Of
the first draft and to make the oper-
ations of the local boards hereafter
little more than rubber stamp pro-
ceedings.
The plans chief features are that
every registered man will know his
exact position and be able to arrange
his affairs accordingly, and that no
man deemed necessary in any i'm
portant industry or needed at home
to support his family will be called
to the cOlors unless the military
situation is desperate.
Detailed regulations to govern the
new system are being made ready
for distribution to local and district
board members. General Crowder,
in a formal statement, assures them
that they will be given ample OPP
portunity to familiarize themselves
with these regulations before the
machinery provided is called into
use.
AS the next call to the colors is
to be made under the new plan, this
assurance is taken to indicate that
the second call is not to be expected
before the first of the year, although
no authoritative statement on this
point was available tonight
The announcement says in part
with the completion Of the draft
of the first army of $4,000 men a
new system will be installed for the
creation of succeeding armies, which
will lessen greatly the Iabors of the
local and district boards.
$50 far has this been accomplished
that it is believed that under the
system 80 per cent of the work will
be eliminated, while the forms to be
| used will not exceed twenty in num-
Der, as compared with approximate
ly 1872 forms which the present sy-
stem requires.
along with the reduction of lab
or there will be provided system
which will classify each one of the
100000 men who have not yet
been indicted into military service,
and each man will have been given
his place in the national scheme of
| defense.
''To do this it has been determined
to obtain from each man complete
| information of a character which
will definitely fix his economic worth
as compared with his fellow regis
trant, and from the information thus
obtained to place him in one of five
classes, each to be called in turn as
the need arises.
'"The method of obtaining this in
formation is through a question
naire,' a series of questions calculat-
ed to produce the information re-
quired.
"This document will be mailed to
every registrant not yet in service
on a day to be fixed, seven days be-
| ing given to each registrant to COM
plete and return the same. Every
opportunity will be offered to each
man to complete his QUESTIONABLE
fully without error.
1.-The local boards then will ex-
anime each QUESTIONABLE and assign
each registrant to one of five classes.
"These classes will be based on
every conceivable condition, from
the family or occupational stand
point, that should properly be ad-
vanced by man desiring to be ex-
cused from military duty. Glass one
will be the first called for physical
examination and service, and when
it is exhausted, if the nations needs
are such as to make it necessary,