The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1917-10-18
BAcHELORS!GO
TO WARDEFORE
/ MARRIED MEN
New Plan for Operation of
SeIectlve Draft Law
NO GLASS EXEMPT
Valuable Men to Sc Held Until Need
For Soldiers Becomes More
Urgent.
NO CLASS EXEMPT

henslye new plan FOR applying the
army selective draft which would
take first only men without depen
dents and of no particular value to
war industries and establish various
grade of dependence and industrial
value from which future drafts would
be made strictly on the selective
basis, has been worked out tentative,
ly by the provost marshal-generals S
Office and discussed with the presi-
dent. The plan, it was learned yes
terday, was submitted recently to a
conference of civilians who directed
exemption board activities in mum
ber OF states and received the approx
al of most of them, who are now dis
cussing the proposed plan with their
state governors.
1t is proposed to formulate in each
local draft district table of all regis
trants, placing each in a column de.
noting his dependents and industrial
value in the wars prosecution. For
instance, horizontal columns or elias.
sifications would be based on depen.
dency. Men with no dependents
would be placed in the first class,
those with dependent distant rela.
tiyes in the second class, those with
wives in the third class, those with q
wife and one child in the fourth class
and so on.
Similarly, the vertical columns
might represent certain industries ar
ranged according to their respective
merit as war necessaries. Industrial
classes under consideration in this
condition are farmers, shipyard EN-.
ployes, munition workers, railway
and transportation employees, miners
steel plant and motor industry work
men and certain other individual
plants or industry branches to be
designated from time to time by the
president or the war department as
temporarily essential The latter
classification might include plants
making military clothing harness
first.aid materials or professions such
rs chemists and other scientific men
more needed for war research than
to carry arms.
Thus the table with horizontal de-
tendency classifcations and vertical
industrial classifications would hold
place for each registrant in accord
ance with his dependency or indus
trial value claims. In selecting men
for examination boards would first
take physically fit having neither
dependents nor value in essential war
industries. When this class was ex.
hausted, draft authorities would draw
on the classes having the slightest
dependency claims and the least val
ne in essential industries. Theoreti.
cally. the draft would work down
through the table to the classes with
most dependents and highest indus.
trial value.
No class would be exempted as
such, but the valuable men would be
placed so that they would not be
called until the need for soldiers be-
came more urgent and all the less es
sential classes were exhausted. The
plan involves a determination by the
government of what industries are
the most valuable and this is giving
officials considerable difficulty. Far
mers' organizations, shipping board
officials and shipbuilders, munition
makers, railroad heads, coal opera
tors and many others are insisting on
the prime importance of their own
employees in civil work.
1t is understood the entire pro-
gram will be made known as
soon as it is completed and approved
by President Wilson, to allay the
anxiety prevailing throughout many
industries over the next draft Be.
fore the new plan was proposed the
next draft was planned for as early
MS December, but it now may be de
layed,