The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1917-05-11
any FAVORITISM
UNDER DRAFT IS
VERY UNLIKELY
Every Precaution Will Be
Taken to Make Registra-
ton Fair.
EXEMPTION BOARDS
SEPARATE BODIES
List of Those Who Will Be
Excused from the
Service.
CBy Associated Press.)

Washington, May Ito dispose of
any fear that country and city regis
tration boards will exercise favoritism
in enrolling soldiers under the selective
draft act, Provost Marshal General
Crowder issued statement last night
declaring such practices would be vir-
tually impossible because of the ex-
plicit terms in which the act is drawn.
He warned registration officials that
favoritisn easily could be detected and
would be punished with heavy penal
ties.
Every precaution," said the state
ment will be taken to make it certain
that the registration will be conducted
with exact justice.
The law is specific and allows no
latitude to the boards, either in the
matter Of registration or in the later
matter of exemption from service. In
fact, the law is self-executing. Every
man within the age limits fixed by the
selective service act must register, and
the penalty of the law for evasion of
registration will fall, not only on the
man who fails to appear, but on any
member Of a registration board who
may be shown to be in collision with
the person who attempts to escape his
duty.
Exemption Boards.
Further than this. the registration
boards will never act as exemption
boards except in certain specific cases,
such as where a young man who has
registered shall claim to be employed
in a federal, state or local office, and
thereby does come within the exemp-
ton clause Of the statute. In a case
like this the facts must be entered Of
ficially and sattested.
so far as the other reasons for ex-
emptions under the law are concerned,
exemptions for men engaged in pur-
suits in which their work is more val
liable at home than in the service, the
authority will lie with board of higher
jurisdiction. ....
THE law provides the penalty Of i'm
prisonment with no alternative of a.
fine for any official or any registered
man who shall make a false return or
connive at such practice. The safe
guards against favoritism or evasion
are ample"
Those Who Are Exempt.
Exemptions from the selective draft
will probably be left virtually as orig
inally suggested by the general staff
Among those absolutely exempt are Of
ffcers of the United States and any
state or territory, ministers, students
Of recognized divinity or theological
schools and members Of any well rec
ognized religious sect or organization
at present organized" whose existing
creed" forbids participation in war
The last class are not exempt from
noncombatant service. ..
In addition the president is author
lied to exclude or discharge from draft
the following: County and municipal
officers, custom house clerks, postal
employees, workmen in navy yards or
arsenals or armories, others in the fed
eraI governments employ whom the
president may Designate; pilots and
mariners actually employed in a SER.
vice; persons engaged in industries in
Guiding agriculture, found to be neces-
sary to the maintenance of the military
establishment or the effective oper-
alton Of the military forces or the
maintenance of national interest dur
ing the emergency; those having per-
sons dependent upon them for support
and those found to be physically or
morally deficient.
The section relating to tribunals to
hear pleas for exemption provides that
there be civil and not military hear
ings. Tribunals are to be established
in each county Of each state or in
cities, one for each thirty thousand in
habitants. There are to be three per-
sons on each board appointed by the
president. There will be an appeal
tribunal in each federal judicial dis
trict. The president would be the final
court Of appeal.