Malvern daily record., 1917-08-14
PROVOST MARSHAL
 ISSUES STATEMENT

Washington, D. c. Aug.9-
 Governor of Arkansas,
 Little Rock Ark,
 Number three thousand and seventy. Section two of the selective service law exempts no person from military ser- vice on the ground of dependency. It only authorizes President to exclude or discharge from draft, "those in status with respect to persons depen- dent upon them for support which ren- ders their exclusion or discharge ad- visable." The controlling necessity is to raise an army. It is advisable to disturb depends just as little as tho necessity of raising an army will per- init. To this end section eighteen of the regulations was complied care fully and after the most earnest con- sideration. If experience is to prove that the generous conditions preserib- ed by section eighteen, or any abuse or them, will interfere with raising of an army, then it is no longer advisable to discharge so wide class and the con- ditions stated therein will have to be restricted until an advisable rate is reached. Nothing has happened to change the belief that the persons en- umerated in section eighteen could be discharged without interfering with the raising of an army, but there are indications that abuses of section eighteen may render it's continuance no longer advisable. Reports are to the effect that in some districts, as high as eighty percent of persons call ed before local boards are filing claims for discharge on the ground of depen- dent relatives. Such a percent of claims when viewed in connection with all available statistics indicated be- yond question that advantage is being taken of the provisions of the law and regulations which were intended to re- duce to minimum the misery at home normally attendant upon the war. There is moral certainty, in the ex- travagence of this percentage that hundreds of unfounded claims are in- cluded in these totals. This state of affairs greatly increases the burden of local boards for, if so high a percent age of registrants claim exemption, only the uncompromising action of To- cal boards can prevent new regula- tion on the subject of dependency which shall reduce discharge for de- pendancy to far more restricted class and to very necessitious and clearly defined circumstances. In the absence of stern repression by local boards of unmeritorious claims this result is inevitable since any such percentage of exemptions as reports of claims in- dicate would nullify the law and pre- vent the raising of an army. It is thus apparent that the filing of these i'm proper claims will react directly and injuriously on persons whom the pres ent regulations were designed to pro- tect and that the welfare of persons who have filed bonafed claims under the present rules, lies in the power of local boards to refuse exemption in un- doubtful cases. 1t is true that cases of discharge on the ground of depend eney re appealed to the district board, but this clause is only inserted to se- 1 cure uniformity of action. District boards are to examine these cases to discover departures from the law, reg ulations, and rulings; and they will not and cannot open every case on its merits. It is in the local boards alone, therefore, that the solution of the difficulty and the protection of deserv- ing claimants lie. CROWDER.
 LLOYD ENGLAND,
 The Adjt. Gen.
 Official:
 Henry F. Fredeman,
 Maj. Asst. Adjt. Gen.
 with us tonight, Rev. J. A. May, the