The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1917-07-21
DRAFT COMPLETED, NATION NOW PREPARING
 FOR EXAMINATION OF TWICE 687OOO MEN

S~OAAAAA19
 gin Presenting Them ~ selves Before Exe1np-
 ton Boards for Exam
 ination and Decision as
 to Desirability for Ser
 vice-Only One Slight
 Mistake Made by War
 Department Officials
 in Gigantic Undertak-
 ing.
 Washington, July 2i-With 1O,OOO,000 men listed in the order of their liability to ser- vice, the federal governmant began today it's, last task of preparation for organization of a ,selective draft army-the task of determining who among those chosen shall be exempt led.
 The drawing to determine who shall first be liable for service ended early this morn-s ing after it had been in pro- gress without interruption for more than 16 hours, and while the officials in charge rested from their long vigil others took up the tabuIation of Of ficial figures for forwarding to local exemption boards over the country. Most of this work it is hoped to complete before the day is over, so that the local authorities can be given their instructions early next |week.
 within 10 days the men who are subject to the Presfd dent s order for mobilization of a war quota of 6S7,-, poo may he appearing before their boards for examination and decision as to exemption. Twice S7,e00 arc to be summoned by the boards, on the theory that two registrants must be examined for every soldier ac- 1 cepted, and the numbr each regis tration district must furnish has been Ecarefully worked out.
 I The provost marshal generals of- l flee was greatly pleased today over the outcome of the drawing, officials l declaring it an accompHshnsent
 scarcely less notweorthy than the successful registration carried out six | weeks ago. Ten million men, they pointed out, had ben assigned places
 on the nations muster roll within the
 space of less than day, and appar- -l ently with only one minor error in the whole complicated process. I The single error came to light near the end of the drawing this morning. lwhen a blank was found where there ishould have been a nun1berein one Of lthe 1O500 capsules by which the war time fortunes of Amerfca's youth werS determined. All officials agreed that it could work no injustice to any reg Iistrant It means only temporary icomplication, they said, and in no way impairs the equality of the lottery. I What serial number should have libeen in the place of the blank had not been determined today, but. it will be found soon by careful re-checking of the lists. Then it will be assigned to the only place open on the liability lost-No. 10,500. at the very foot Be- cause of it's absence there only are 10, ,499 places now, with holders of the serial number 3,217 in last place. The vacant place was shifted to the end of the dist because when the blank was drawn in the 10,004th place it immedi- ately was replaced by the drawing of a number, and that, made the num- , bers lack one of filling the 1o,s0O places.
 Provost Marshal General Crowder's
 office said that the error undoubtedly resulted from an oversight for which no one could be blamed. A shift in . plans only few hours before the , drawing began threw on the generals
 assistants the task of providing quick ly 10 times as many numbers and 10 , times as many capsules as had been counted on.
 The participating officials worked in relays, but the strain of the tedius
 process began to weigh visibly on all of them before the end. Gen. Crow- l, der, the provost marshal general, suc- ceeded the blindfolded official at the
 drawing bowl and himself drew out the last number.
 i Sea -.cely had the historic event thus
 reached its close than the news of the last drawing had been flashed ] over the country. The telegraphie feat of transmitting the 10.500 num- bers as rapidly as they were drawn
 was pronounced by officials today as among the notable features Of the
 whole process The Associated Press
 virtually cleared its wires of other matter and gave the right Of way to
 the draft numbers from the start oi the drawing, with the result that newspapers everywhere were able to f give to their readers promptly the l lists of those chosen in the various local districts.
 No small part in the countrywide . success of the lottery plan was played , by the Associated Press operators, whe
 worked for long. hours with nofhins before them but the eternal groups ot , tf1gures and with the thought in thei1 minds that a mistake of a single fig. , | ure would be a matter of n.==s.ost con cern to thousands of men ana tens of thousands among tnsSr friends ant i. relatives. For that reason no at. ? tempt at unusual speed couis be ms4e eConSinuad eA RaM d <.