Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1917-10-24
NEW DRAFT PLAN.
CLASSIFICATION OF MEN BE.
FORE EXAMINATION.
WILL GREATLY SIMPLIFY WORK OF
LOCAL BOARDS AND EXPEDITE
MOBILIZATION - THE FIVE
CLASSES.

Announcement OF new system OF clas-
sification of drafted men was made Satur-
day by Provost Marshal General Crowder.
Under the new scheme, every registered
man will be catalogued with his local
board, with complete history that will
enable the board to determine what class
OF service he is best fitted for.
The men subject to draft will be put in
to five separate classes, running from
those who have no dependents to those
who are physically or otherwise incspac-
tit and with no dependents, who will be
in Class l, are to be called out first, until
the entire class is exhausted. After that,
Class 2, comprising men with q small
family dependent upon them or men
partly skilled, will come. Class will
take in highly skilled men or those with
aged parents dependent upon them, while
class will include those with large
families. Class will embrace men who
are in no way fitted for active service.
The new method will not affect the 6S7,-
900 men already taken into the national
army, but will apply to all others hereto
fore drafted and awaiting call. Under
the system, the order number OF draft
will not be changed, the men being called
up before their boards exactly in the
sequence in which their names were
drawn from the draft bowl. The change,
however, will slit the drafted men into
the five different classifications 40 that
men whose names appear early in the
list may be put by the local boards into
classes that will delay their actual call for
service until classes ahead of them have
been exhausted.
The new system is the scientific work.
ing out OF a method by which men will be
assigned to the character of work they
are best adapted to and at the same time
nation by delaying the time when the
skilled workers or men with families
greatly dependent upon them, are called
up.
Under this system, local boards will
send out to each enlisted man a list OF
questions, going into minute detail as to
the life, family, responsibility, and adapt
6Dll1ty OF tn0 luulVlQual. L ne .lnQl-
vidual will fill in the blanks with answers,
and return them to the local board within
seven days.
After that, the local board will de-
eide in what class to put the drafted
man, notifying him OF it's verdict.
The man, if not satisfied with the decision
of the board, may appeal to the district
board, whose verdict will be final.
In addition to the classification by the
local boards, there will be inaugurated an
entirely new method of physical examine
ton, which will not come until after the
local board has acted and the men called
up. The physical examination will be
conducted in q way that will eliminate
any possibility of collision. The new
method will also do away with repeated
examinations, entailing loss Of time and
involving expense.
In announcing the new system, Cen
eral Crowder explained that much time
will be saved through its operation. 1t
will not apply to the 6S7, 600 men already
| called up, he said, as they must be hur-
ried on through their training. But the
method will affect every other man
| drawn under the selective draft. The
entire new system can be put into effect
within twenty-four hours.