The Parker post., 1917-08-18
j. s. ABANDONS
ITS FIRST PLAN
RELATING TO EXEMPTION BE-
CAUSE THIS PRIVILEGE IS BE-
ING ABUSED BY SLACKERS ALL
OVER THE UNITED STATES.

Those who are claiming or intend
| to claim exemption from military
service on the grounds of having de-
pendents to support, face the possi-
b1llty of having the section OF the
| law relating to exemptions on this
ground, so revised as to cut down
appreciably the general class of men
who are entitled to make such
claims.
An intimation of such action on
the part of the government is con-
talned in telegram. received by Col.
Breen from Provost Marshal General
Crowder, in Washington. The wire
has been transmitted to the heads of
all local and district boards through
out the state, calling attention to the
fact that, "Only the uncompromising
action Of local boards can prevent a
new regulation on the subject of de-
pendency which shall reduce dis
charges for dependency to far more
restricted class, and very necessitUus
and clearly defined circumstances.
So many claims are being filed for
exemption, according to the state
ment given out, that in the minds of
those in Washington, advantage is
being taken of the law and regula-
tions. 1t is stated that in some To-
calities as high as 80 per cent of the
men examined have filed claims for
exemption on the ground of having
dependent relatives.
The telegram from General Crow
der is as follows:
Section 2 of the selective draft
law exempts no persons from mill
tary service on the ground of depen-
dency. 1t authorizes the president
to exclude or discharge from draft"
those in a status with respect to per-
sons dependent upon them for sup
port which renders either exclusion
or dtcharge advisable.
1.-The controlling necessity is to
raise an army. 1t is advisable to
disturb dependents just as little as
the necessity of raising an army will
permit. To this end section 18 of
the regulation was carefully compil-
ed and after the most earnest con-
sfderation. If experience is to prove
that the generous conditions pre-
scribed by section Is, or any abuse of
them, will interfere with the raising
OF an army, then it is no longer ad-
visable to discharge so wide a class
and the conditions stated therein will
have to be restricted until an advis-
able rule is reached. Nothing has
happened to change the belief that
the persons enumerated in section
Is could be discharged without the
raising OF an army, but there are in
dications that the abuses of section
Is may render it's continuance no
longer advisable.
Reports are to the effect that in
some districts as high as 80 per cent
of the persons called before the local
boards are filing claims for discharge
on the ground of dependent relatives.
Such a percentage of claims, when
viewed in connection with all avail
able statistics, indicates beyond
question that advantage is being
taken of the provisions of the law
and regulations, which were intend
ed to reduce to a minimum the mis-
cry at home normally attendant upon
war
There is a moral certainty in the
extravaganza of this percentage, that
hundreds of unfounded claims are in
cluded in totals. This state of af-
fairs greatly increases the burden of
local boards, for if so high a percen-
tage of registrants claim exemption,
only the uncompromising action of
local boards can prevent new regu-
lation on the subject of dependency
which shall reduce discharges for de-
pendency to a far more restricted
class, and very necessitous and
clearly defined circumstances.
in the absence of a stern repres-
sion by local boards of unmeritorious
claims, this result is inevitable, since
any such percentage of exemptions
as reports of claims indicate, would
nullify the law and prevent the rais-
ing of an army.
1T is apparent that the filing of
these improper claims will react di-
rectly and injuriously on persons
whom the present regulations were
designed to protect,and that the vel