The sun., 1917-07-20

WAsuINGToN. July 19--With prepara-
tons all made for the drawing of the
numbers tomorrow by system under
which only 1000 numbers would have
been drawn to determine the order Of the
liability OF service in the new army ~
approximately the 100000 men reg
istered. the discovery was made late
this afternoon that in New Jersey and
few other communities the registration
cards had been numbered wrongly,
thereby requiring the abandonment OF
the carefully worked out system.
Provost Marshal General Crowder in
charge Of the draft. issued this state
ment this afternoon
'"AdVces received by long distance
telephone this afternoon indicate that In
certain areas the boards. In numbering
registration cards. have kept the cards
segregated by election districts and that
serial numbers have been assigned to
the whole group for a board while the
cards were thus segregated. If the
drawing Is conducted as originally
planned in groups of 1000. the result
, will be that considerable proportions OF
( certain election districts will be brought
up for examination together.
/ Ten Hours to Complete Drawing.
: This will result in drafting persons
/ from one locality within the jurisdiction
| Of a board before any person is drawn
| from another locality within the same
| jurisdiction.
! For this reason II has been decided
! TO abandon the drawing by thousands
and to draw 10,500 numbers, which IS
! In excess OF the highest number of cards
| under the jurisdiction of any board.
"The only change in the plan will be
! that there will be one drawing instead of
two.
THE advantage will be greater sim
plcity The disadvantage will be that
the drawing will require ten hours to
complete
The drawing OF numbers will take
place tomorrow in the minority caucus
room of the Senate office building. II
will begin promptly at 80 A. NJ In
stead of the whole draft being consum-
mated in one hour there is confronting
the draft officials the task now of eN-
tracing from a large glass bowl l0,5O0
little gelatine capsules instead of 1000,
each containing a number, and recording
these numbers on three sets of tally
sheets.
Except for imposing this additional
labor on the officials in charge the
change will have no effect so far as the
II AFFECT in any way those liable to be
drafted But it will make 1t almost I'M
: possible for the newspapers, especially
in large cities. to print the names of
those drafted,
why 1O,6OO VIII He Drawn.
A total OF 10000 numbers must he
drawn because that is the highest num-
ber of registered persons In any one
H..ts s.I NuN Nha
Y numbers drawn will be applied TO all OF
! the 4,b57 divisions of the country.
The process will be as follows: The
4 numbers will be drawn and their order
noted on the chart. These numbers and
! their order then will be sent to each
I division 70 be applied to the registration
lists II each district had exactly the
same number registered the matter
d would be simple and the order OF every
g name would be determined just as they
Y come out Of the bowl But as some o.
the numbers drawn will be in excess O
}, the highest number of registered per
a sons in any one division, the order vii
t not be the same in any one district,
@ For example, there are only n few
t. districts having as their highest red inl
r number $500. II $500 is drawn tirs
e those having this number become No,
l. I'm the order Of call in these district
n only. II the next number is a low mum
J. ber such as al, which is found in ever,
division. 81 becomes No | in the orde
OF call in all of the divisions excep
those which had the highest number, |
NJ those districts which had the highes
,t number first drawn No. 81 becomes NJ
a in the order OF cell,
,e How New Jersey Made Mistake.
Is The system which had TO be absE
~ doned grouped the numbers by tens,
involved tyo separate drawings, one
determine the order OF each group a