The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1917-07-27
HOW GREAT HUMAN LOTTERY
WILL BE CONDUCTED; DRAWING
SCHEME GIVEN TO The PUBLIC

Il
1000 soldiers. Therefore, no one can
lsay just how many men it is abso-
!lutely necessary to put on this list.
] ga moments reflection will prove
that the whole 100000 must be
|given their places on the list of or
der of examination
Every registered man is in a state
of uncertainty. He does not know
when he will be called. He hesitates
to plant a crop for fear he will not
reap it, employers hesitate to en-
gage his services, fearing they will
be but temporary. This condition
ought to be cured for the repose of
the public mind it can be cured to
some extend by putting every man
on the list.
"For this reason the whole 10000
900 names are to be given places on
the list of order of examination.
| The Segregation Into Groups.
! obviously no single agency could
examine 100000 men. Therefore,
the 100000 are segregated into
groups of suitable size for convenient
examination. There are 1857 of
these groups. For each group a
board has been appointed to examine
for selection. BY far the greater
number of these groups consist of
approximately 5000 men.
"Since this is so, our problem is
not to put the whole 100000 names
in one list arranged in the order Of
examination. 1t is to determine the
order of examination in each group.
"Since all registered men stand in
an equality of right and duty, the
question of priority can only be de-
ltermined by lot or drawing. 1t would
be possible to have 1857 separate
ldrawings-one for each group-but,
since methods would vary and since
supervision and absolute in
surance against the charge of fraudu
lent manipulation could not be had
in that way, every consideration of
expediency and justice urges on
drawing in Washington.
| Gin each group, every registration
card has red-inked number written
on it's face and these numbers run in
a single series from unity Cd to the
number corresponding to the greatest
number of cards in the group. Nor
mally this is from unity (D to about
5000.
Exact copies of the cards in each
group have been attested and sent
| to the various state capitols. Lists
showing the name Of each man in
each group and the serial number of
| his card have been posted in the Of
| flee of the board, published in the
press, and one copy is on file in
Washington. There is therefore, no
chance of any mans. number being
card being lost beyond replacement.
Idea of Central Drawing.
Suppose there were just 5000
names and numbers in every group.
It is at once apparent that it would
be very simple thing to have a CEN
| trail drawing that would control the
order of every name and number in
every group of the whole 100000
Just put 5000 numbers into a bowl
and draw them out one at a time.
The first number drawn out would
place the 1857 cards bearing that
particular number at the head of ev-
cry list in the United States. The
second number drawn would put the
cards bearing that number second on
all the lists, and so forth.
"Now, the thing cannot be done in
precisely this way, because there are
not precisely 5000 numbers in every
group. But the same idea with a few
necessary notifications is the idea
on which the present drawing is
based.
Drawing BY Thousands.
| "To draw 10000 separate numbers
would take ten hours and would null
tiply the chance of error. Moreover,
if the 'nine-thousands,' the eight
Thousands the thousands and
the 'six-thousands' were scattered all
over the master list unfortunately
the cancellation by boards having
small groups would be very tedious
and would open the way to numerous
errors. All this is easily avoided.
Suppose we drew only 1000 num-
lbers. We could then provide that the
drawing of the number 878 would
also draw the numbers 1878, 2878
1878, 1878, 1878, 6878, 1878, 1878 and
1888.
"In that way only 1000 numbers
need be drawn, and by making ou1
master list consist of one sheet fol
each 1000 we could provide mas
ter list easily applicable to lists with
only 5000 numbers, since such boards
could disregard all except the first
three sheets.
I'VE should do this but for the
fact that this makes it certain thai
: men in the first thousand would be
: called first, men in the second thou
sand next, and men with high seria
!, numbers last of all.
"Since the assignment of numbers
is also done by chance, this does mo-
interfere very greatly with the ever
/, chance of all men, but it does inter
: fere to some extent. For this reason
| it was decided to have one drawing
to determine the order in which the
. sheets of 1000 each should appear
r on the master list, instead of arbi.
4 trarily assigned the sheets OF LOO
s in their natural order. This reduces
e the whole matter to an absolute
$ Equality.
The Details Of the Drawing.
"One group of numbers, from 1 II
e 1000, and a second group, from
naught to nine, have been CAREFUL!
q imprinted on Opaque slips of paper
r black on one side, counted ant