The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1917-05-03
SELECTIYE DRAFT BILL
Is PASSED BY BOTH HOUSES OF
CONGRESS.
Senate Wants Age Limit Fl to -,
House Makes it Fl to 4O.-tree
Conference to Adjust.

overwhelming majority both the SEN
ate and house passed late tonight the
administration bill to raise a war
army by selective draft. The final
roll calls brought into line behind
the bill many senators and repre-
sentatives who had fought for the
volunteer system until routed by the
decisive defeat of volunteer amend
ments earlier in the day in both
houses.
The senate, which had voted down
the volunteer plan, 50 to 1S, passed
the bill by vote of 81 to s. In the
house the vote against the volunteer
plan was 313 to 1O9 and that by
which the bill itself passed was 397
to "a.
AS passed by the senate the meas
ure provides for the draft of men
between the ages of 81 and p years,
while in the house measure the age
limits are fixed at II and 40. This
and lesser discrepancies will be
threshed out in conference early next
week, so that the bill may be in the
hands of the president as quickly as
possible. The war department al
ready has completed plans for carry
ing it into effect.
Both for Draft.
Both senate and house early in the
afternoon voted approval today OF
the administration proposal to raise
a great war army on the principle OF
selective conscription, voting down
by overwhelming majority the volun-
teer army amendments around which
opponents of the administration had
centered their fight. Tonight the bill
was pressed for passage in both
houses.
In the senate the vote on the vol
unteer amendment was So to IS, and
in the house it was 279 to 50, sup
porters of conscription marshalling a
strength which surprised even ad
ministration leaders.
Whether congress finally would ac-
cept the staff's recommendations re-
garding the ages between which con-
scription should apply appeared more
uncertain. In the senate the bills
stipulation that men between 19 and
20 should be liable to the draft was
changed to make the minimum 21
and the maximum 27. The house
voted down all proposed changes in
Guiding the military committee rec
ommendation that the limits be fixed
at 21 and 40.
These and a number of lesser
amendments will be considered as
speedily as possible in conference in
the hope that the measure may be
sent to the president for his sigma
ture by the middle of next week.
Among the more important amend
ments adopted in the house was one
empowering the president to exempt
from the draft in his discretion per-
sons engaged in agricultural work.
This was pressed to success by Rep
.resentative Lever, of South Carolina.
Another would require each State to
furnish quota of men apportioned
according to population, and still an
other provides that no bounty shall
be paid to induce any person to en-
list and that no person liable to
military service shall be permitted or
allowed to furnish substitute for
such service
Talk Of Prohibition.
In the senate there was long de-
bate over the proposal to prohibit the
sale or possession of intoxicating IL
Quor during the war. Several amend
ments were adopted including one to
make it unlawful to sell or give Ii
quor to officers or men in uniform
or to members of congress or other
officials and then the senate reversed
itself and adopted a substitute sim
ply forbidding the sale of liquor to
soldiers in uniform and giving the
president wide discretionary authori-
ty to make other prohibition regula-
tions.
An amendment by Senator Curtis
stipulating that men subject to draft
who voluntarily present themselves
shall be recorded as volunteers was
accepted by Chairman Chamberlain
and went into the bill.
Another long debate was evoked
over amendments by Senators
Thomas and La Toilette to exempt
from CONSUMPTION those having con
scientious objections to military SER
vice. Both were defeated without
roll call, and the bill exemption pro-
meals loft unchangad