The Washington times., 1917-07-19

The "war lottery" to select the
national army, will be drawn in
groups. Only 1000 numbers will be
drawn. The 1000, however, will dis
pose Of the entire registered eligibles,
numbering nearly 10000, 900 men.
Gen Enoch c. Crowder, provost
marshal general, so announced to-
day. The 10000. 900 registrants are
divided into groups. These groups
are controlled by key numbers" from
zero to ten. The men to be called
up have been numbered in red ink
on the selective list by the local
boards. These red ink serial num-
bers run from very small figures in
the lightly populated districts TO
more than 10000 in one district.
The red numbers were assigned by
chance. Because OF this General
Crowder has ruled that drawings in
sets OF 1000 will in no way work a
hardship on anyone. But to make
1t fair, the drawing will be divided
into two parts. First will be the
key numbers" to determine in what
order each sheet of 1000 names shall
appear on the master list. Then will
come a drawing OF numbers from 1
to 1000 to determine the order in
side each group OF 1000 in which
the registered eligibles shall be call
ed up.
System Explained.
In explaining the manner in which
the drawing shall take place, GEN.
eral Crowder today issued the fol-
lowing:
"Ten million men are registered
6S7, 900 are needed in the first call.
Who shall go frst?
'If we were dealing with the an
Client draft we should take every
fourteenth man. But we are not con-
scripting. We are selecting for mill
tary service those whose civil Service
can best be spared. Therefore, the
question is not Who shall go first?
but Who shall be called first for ex-
animation And what we must do is
to make a list showing the order OF
examination.
Now, no one knows how many
men must be examined to yield 0SG, 900
soldiers. Therefore no one can say
just how many men II IL absolutely
necessary to put on this list. A mo-
ment's reflection will prove that the
whole 100000 must be given their
places on the list OF order OF exami-
nation
Every registered man is In a state
OF uncertainty. He does not know
when he will be called. He hesitates
to plant a crop for fear he will not
reap IL. Employers hesitate to en-
gage his services fearing they will
be but temporary. This condition
ought to be cured for the repose of
the public mind. Itscan be cured to
some extent by putting every man on
the list.
One Drawing In Capital
at would be possible to have 4,557
separate drawings-one for each
group-but since methods would vary,
and since supervision and absolute IN
surance against the charge OF fraud
ulant manipulation could not be had
in that way, every consideration OF
eXpediency and justice urges one
drawing in Washington.
ain each group every registration
card has a red ink number written
on its face, and these numbers run in
a single series from unity (one) to
the number corresponding to the
greatest number OF cards in the
group. Normally this Is from unity
(oneD to about 5000.
The central drawing must COM
prise over 10000 numbers. because
there are a few groups of over 10000
numbers. and the master list must
contain sufficient numbers to accom-
modate the largest group.
ITO draw 10000 separate numbers
would take ten hours and would null
tiply the chance OF error. Moreover,
II the "ten thousands" the mine
thousands" the eight thousands"
and the seven thousands" and the
six thousands" were scattered all
over the master list Unfortunately,
the cancellation by boards having
small groups would be very tedious,
and would open the way to numerous
errors. All this is easily avoided.
The Actual System.
The actual method follows:
"First-A drawing OF numbers from
0 to 10 to determine the order in which
the sheets Of 1000 each shall appear
on the master list.
aSecOnd-A drawing of numbers