Arizona sentinel., 1917-05-17

How Men Liable To Military Service Are To Be Registered

An official outline of the method l by which military registration is to be carried out under the selective con- scription bill has been made public through the Associated Press, with an appeal from the war department for the voluntary services of state election and other officials in order that there may be no delay in enrolling and clas- sifying millions of men for army duty. Careful preparation has been made to place the whole task in the hands of civilian officials of the states and to remove every suggestion of military force in putting the measure into ef- feet. The only function of the feder- al government will be supervision through the office of the provost mar shal general. The departments state ment follows:
 There was a time in the country's history when military enumerators, backed by bayonets, went out among the people to take a compulsory ser vice census. Today under the prin- ciple of universal liability to service the execution of the law is put into the hands of the people.
 "The approval of the new national army bill and the presidents proclamation hereunder will be coin- cidental. All persons within the age limits prescribed will be required to present themselves for registration at the customary voting place in the vot- ing precincts in which they have their permanent homes, on day which the president will announce. The prob ability is that from ten to fifteen days will elapse between approval of the bill and registration day.
 ""The governor of each state will be the chief of registration therein. The machinery of registration in each county is to be in charge of the sheriff, the county clerk and the county phy- sician, acting exofficio, unless diff ferent board shall be announced by the governor. In cities containing population or more than 30,000 the re- gistration will be under the control of the mayor and selected boards of reg istration. In order that the designat- ed county and city officials and the people generally, can get clear un- derstanding of the census methods the following brief outline is given:
 The sheriffs or other designated officials upon receiving notice from the governor, shall appoint registrars for each voting precinct.
 "The proportion of registrars shall be one for each ITO persons to be reg istered Each age to be registered will comprise about l per cent of the population. If, for instance, all men between 19 and 25 years of age, in- elusive, are to be registered, the regis trar would have to enroll about 2 per cent of the precinct population.
 "It is desirable to accept the s6rv ices of competent vollntee" registrars, to serve without compensation. All registrars must be sworn.
 "The voting place in each precinct must be prepared for registration. Full printed instructions covering every de- tail of registration will be in the hands of sheriffs and mayors on the fifth day after the presidents proc lamation.
 "The mayor of a city containing more than 3O,OOO inhabitants. or the officials designated by the governor therein, shall, swith approval of the governor, appoint for each ward or convenient minor subdivision contain ing about 3O,O0O people, one registra-