Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1917-07-21
Registrants May Be Called
Up for Examination Within
Next Ten Days.
BIG LOTTERY CONDUCTED
WITH BUT SINGLE ERROR
One Capsule, the 1O,004th to Be
Drawn, Found to Contain Blank.
Involves No Injustice,

With ten million men listed in the
! order Of their liability to service, the
federal government begon today Its last
task Of preparation for organization Of
selective draft army-the task Of de-
termining who among those chosen shall
be exempt.
The drawing to determine who shall nrst
be liable for service ended early today.
after It had been in progress without In
terruption for more than sixteen hours,
and while the officials in charge rested
from their long vigil others took UP the
tabplation Of official figures for forward
ing to local exemption boards over the
country. Most OF this work 1t is hoped to
complete before the day Is over, 30 that
the local authorities can be given their
instructions early next week.
Start Examinations Soon.
Within ten days the men who are SUBJ
ject to the Presidents order for mobiliza-
ton Of a war quota Of $4,000 men may
be appearing before their boards for ex-
animation and for decision as to exemp-
ton, Twice $4,000 are to be summoned
by the boards, on the theory that two
registrants must be examined for every
soldier accepted, and tho number each
registration district must furnish has been
carefully worked out.
The provost marshal generals office was
greatly pleased today over the outcome OF
the drawing, officials declaring 1t an ac-
complishment scarcely less noteworthy
than the successful registration carried
out six weeks ago. Ten million men, they
pointed out. had been assigned places on
tho nations muster role within the space
Of less than a day, and apparently with
only one minor error in the whole COM
plicated process. -.- .......,-
The single error came to light near the
end Of the drawing this morning, when a
blank was found where thsre should have
been number in one Of the 10.600 cap
sules by which the war time fortunes Of
No Injustice to Result.
1t did not materially interfere with the
working out Of the lottery, however, and
all officials agreed that it could work no
injustice to any registrant. It means only
q temporary complication, they said, and
in no way impadrs the equality Of the
lottery.
What serial number should have been
in the place of the blank had not been
determined today, but 1t will be found
shortly by careful rechecking of the
lists. Then 1t will be assigned to the
only place open on the liability lists
No. 10.5oo-at the very foot. Because
Of its absense there only are 10,499
places now. with holders Of the serial
number s217 in last place. The va
cant place was shifted to the end of
the list because when the blank was
drawn in 10.004th place 1t Immediately
was replaced by the drawing of a num-
ber. and that made the numbers lack
one Of filling the 10.500 places.
-
generals office that the error undoubt-
edlv resulted from an oversight and
that no one could be blamed. shift
in plans only few hours before the
drawing began threw on the generals
assistants the task of providing quickly
ten times as many numbers and ten
times as many capsules as had been
counted upon.
Break in the Monotony.
Drawing Of the blank came rather
as q relief than a disappointment to
the tired officials and correspondents
who had become wearied hours since of
the monotonous drag of the drawing
and recording Of numbers. The par
ticipating oficials worked in relays,
but the strain of the tedious process
began to weigh visibly upon all OF
them before the end. Gen. Crowder,
the provost marshal, replaced the
blindfolded official at the drawing bowl
and himself drew out the last number
Scarcely had the historic event thus
reached Its close than the news Of the
last drawing had been flashed over the
country. The te1egraphic feat of trans
mitting the 10000 numbers as raptdly
as they were drawn was pronounced by
ofhcials today as among the most not
| able features OF the whole process The
Associated Press virtually cleared its
! wires of other matter and gave the
right Of way to the draft numbers from
the start OF the drawing. with the re-
| suit that newspapers everywhere were
able to give to their readers promptly
the lists of those chosen in the various
local districts.
No small part in the countrywide
| success OF the lottery plan was played
by the Associated Press operators. who
| worked for long hours with nothing be-
fore them but the eternal groups of
figures. and with the thought in their
minds that a mistake Of a single figure
would be q matter of utmost concern
to thousands of men and thus Of thou
sands among their friends and rela-
tives For that reason no attempt at
unusual speed could be made, with the
result that errors were kept at a mini
| mum.
Some Mistakes Unavoidable.
Some mistakes were unavoidable
however. for in some respects the. Of
fcial tellers' reports were at variance
and a comparison and rectihcation was
proceeding today. The rule followed
was that agreement in. the records OF
two of the three tellers in any case
should be sufficient to show that the
variation was tho mistake of the third
All the records Of the drawing will be
SO rectifed before the oflcial reports
are forwarded to local boards,
In reporting the numbers to the local
boards the federal government also
will provide special lists with the high
numbers which do not apply in the
given district already Cancelled. The
process will not be reduced to the fine
point Of providing a cancelled sheet
that shall exactly, At each district In
the country. but lists with cancella-
tions made by groups of >thousa ndl
| will be used. and one will be supplied
each local board with the line drawn
at the thousand mark next above the
highest number in that district.
With the close Of the drawing the
great bulk Of the business Of making
the new army ready for service will pass
on to the state and local authorfties
They now must post the numbers Of
the men drst to be called from each
district. must summon them for ex.
animation. and later on must take Ut
the subject Of exemptions. Il WIN b
thsir duty. n sAose to turn pysr 60 fhl