Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1917-06-20
HOW A DRAFT WAS EvADED In
1868.
Many Have Boumties Given for En-
Hstments, and Wealthy Sent
Substitutes.

Boston, June 18.-The draft pro-
cess is a very different thing in 1917
from what it was in 1868. In
those days the process was much
simpler. Every county, every city,
every township, was simply assign
ed a quota that it had to fill. So
much population in town, SO many
able bodied men to furnish. If they
volunteered, we'll and good-that
was all that had to be done about
it. If they did not, the names of the
men still liable for military duty
were put in box Or a hat. each on
a separate slip of paper, and one
name after another was drawn out.
sometimes by blindfolded boy. If
your name was drawn. you were Ii
able to serve. provided you passed
the physical examination.
The draft was responsible for a
considerable amount of something
else that sounded a good deal like
it, and that was graft. Some of the
examining doctors were not above
suspicion, and good many men Of
robust appearance turned out to
have strange and hitherto ulsuspect-
ed diseases while the examining doc
tors bought new houses and high
stepping trotters.
There was still another form Of
graft which fiourished in those days.
Before the draft was resorted to, and
even while it was in progress. large
bounties il money were offered to
men to volunteer to fill quotas. State
town and subscription bounties were
sometimes so piled up that men re-
ceived $500 in certain instances as
a bonus to enlist, though $500 was
probably about the average. Well,
a mans name was drawn to serve,
but he was privately clipped Off"
before the name was announced; in
stantly he volunteered, got his
bounty, and had the enlistment dat
ed back one day, SO that it appeared
on the record that he had enlisted
before he was drafted. In that case
he was expected to give the man who
had tipped him off, and also the man
who had antedated his enlistment
(sometimes it was one AID the same
person. a percentage of his bounty
money.
1t is sad to think that such things
were done in that heroic time, but
in few cases undoubtedly they were.
The present draft system seems to
render any such corruption as that
impossible
Evidently the draft in 1917 is go
ing to be different from that of the
civil war days in another respect.
There will be no sending of substi
tutes. In those days man who was
drafted and did not want to go had
the privilege of sending a substitute.
Very few men of wealth actually
served as drafted men. Substitutes
cost them, according TO the local
supply of able bodied men, from
$500 to $1,000. Amengt the distin-
guished men who sent substitutes to
the civil war were James G. Blaine
and Grover Cleveland.
Generally speaking, it was deemed
a reproach after the war to have
sent a substitute but in many cases
lit was so in Cleveland s-the
drafted men had an aged parent or
some other dependent person to sup
port or take care Of, and could not
accept service without condemning
this person to public charity. II took
young Grover Cleveland some years
after the war was over to pay off the
debt occasiSned by this necessity.
The substitute, actually in the
service, often turned out to be man
who had to be watched, for his spir-
it of patriotism generally did not
rank high But he was never as
bad as the bounty jumper. The
bounty jumper was man who en-
listed. got his bounty, entered the
service, deserted, and then enlisted
somewhere else and got another
bounty The eagerness of certain
towns to fill their quota was so great
that they often made no inquiry in
to the identity of the men whom
they furnished, and the business of
bounty jumping was regularly or
gained.
AS things look now, we are going
TO have an honest draft and an hon
est enforcement of it, which shows
that the country has made progress
ninca 1862