Denver labor bulletin., 1918-09-14

THEN DeHln u Idhe Tie Hicsl
| between twenty-one and thirty-one, or
shall we take the unmarried over thir-
| ty-one? (The words married" and
unmarried" are here used collo9uial-
", for the sake Of simplicity; the Sc
| lective draft law takes no account of
marriage, merely as marriage. To it
a man is married only when his wife
is dependent upon him for support,
which, of course, covers the bulk of
the cases. But the selective draft law
does not contain the word married"
] Its somewhat clumsy language is:
Those in status with respect to
persons dependent upon them for sup
port which renders their exclusion or
discharge advisable
As between a married man between
twenty-one and thirty-one, and an un-
married man over thirty-one, there
need be little doubt of the answer.
However much the military men would
rather have the younger men, regard
/ less of their being married; however
freely we may admit that the younger
men would make the better soldiers,
the sentiment of Congress and the
country is such that we shall have to
leave the married men exempt and be-
gin to take the unmarried men over
thirty-one. And while this is still a
probably take them by years, first the
unmarried men of thirty-two, then
those of thirty-three, then those of
thirty-four, and so on. Possibly it
may be decided TO take those from
thirty-two to thirty-five in one INSTALL
ment. All this must be for some time
a matter of surmise. II will depend
partly on the wish of the war depart
ment, partly on public sentiment, part
ly on the urgency of the need for more
men. But it may be taken as fore
gone conclusion that the President
will call the new draft out by ages
The text of the new draft law. as
phrased by the war department, fore
casts this purpose. The new law is
almost exactly the same as the old
law, except for the change of age
limits, and this significant additional
phrase:
THE President may draft such per
sons liable to military service IN such
sequence of ages as he
may determine"
Just how high in the thirties the
President would go before turning
back to the married men in the twen-
ties cannot be predicted. Il viii de-
pend chiefly upon events in France
and elsewhere, upon the number Of
men required. Ii isn't possible to be
definite now. Men over forty or forty
one may rely pretty surely on not be
ing called upon to fight, but they can
rely with equal assurance on being
compelled to go to work at something
which the war department regards as
an essential war industry. Men be-
tween thirty and thirty-five or thirty
SIX, who are not in any of the ex-
empted classes, may rely pretty sure
ly on being called upon to fight 1t
isn't possible to define the exact
boundary where. physically, man
ceases to be what the professional
soldier regards as an effective fighter.
The Swiss "Auszugy includes all men
from twenty to thirty-two; the Land
wehr' from thirty-three TO forty: the
"Landsturm" from forty-one to forty
eight. Where our war department. or
our president, Will draw the line is
not yet determined. Something may
be guessed from the fact that General
Crowder in making estimates for Con-
gress of the number of available men
in the new registration, has made two
estimates. one of men between thirty
two and forty, and another of men be-
tween forty and forty-five. Some
where in the neighborhood of the late
thirties, or possible forty, is a No
Mans Land, with indefinite boundar-
les.