The Manchester journal. [volume] (Manchester, Vt.) 1861-current, 1917-06-21
REGULAR ARMY TO BE FILLED
win BE Brought to Full Strength by
First Draft

First Draft
Washington, June i6-Tho first
draft OF the army TO be drawn by Sc
lective conscription will be used 10
bring the regular army TO war
strength The second draft will be
used to fill the ranks Of the National
Guard. The third and largest draft
will be TO furnish the national army
of 5000, which will go into training
September ist to prepare for Euro
pean service.
Failure of army and National Guard
recruiting TO measure up TO war de-
partment expectations brought this
definite announcement of army plans.
July | has been set as the limit OF
the period in which the regular army
must be brought to war strength.
The regular army lacks nearly 10000
of war strength and from the present
rate of recruiting the ranks will be
about $4,000 short July lst.
The National Guard is short l0l 600
of war strength and is filling its ranks
at about the rate Of |, 400 a day. Since
the Guard is not to be called out for
more than a month there is yet time
for stimulated recruiting campaigns
to reduce the number that must be
drafted, but war department officials
believe it will be necessary to draw
at least $4,000 by conscription to fill
these ranks
With the 625,000 which Provost
Marshal General Crowder says will
be called out as the first draft for the
national army this will make the total
number TO be drafted on the first
drawing 725,OO0, the exact number de-
pending on the result of the next few
weeks recruiting.
Decision to utilize the first men
drawn by conscription for the regular
army means that these men will not
be sent to training camps in their own
localities for training with men from
their own neighborhoods, but that
they will be sent TO one Of the army
posts where the regular army is being
expanded by the organization of ffty-
one new regiments.
The men taken in the second draw
ing for the National Guard will be
sent to training camps in the south.
Men drawn for both these arms of the
service probably will be sent to
France before the men drawn for the
national army are sent abroad.
Total registration figures reported
to Crowder from forty-four states
and the District of Columbia aggre-
gate 9,365,59l. Several precincts in
Montana and the states of Arizona,
Kentucky, New Mexico and Wyom-
ing still are to be heard from. APP
proximately 275,O00 registrations are
expected from these states, which Will
bring the grand total to more than
9,640,000.
Of the total reported 4,S09, 1868 prob
ably exemptions from military service
are indicated, which leaves at least
a 800 900 men from which to draft the
new national army of 100000 pro-
vided for in the selective draft law.
Crowder was besieged with queries
from members Of congress and other
officials regarding the probable date
of the draft.
He could give no information on
this subject, because the president
has not yet proclaimed the date for
this momentous undertaking in the
nations history
There has been some discussion Of
naming July 4th, Independence Day.
for drawing the nations new defend
ers, but no definite time will be fixed
until the president and secretary Of
war have given final approval to
draft and exemption regulations now
in their hands.