Shoshone journal. [volume] (Shoshone, Idaho) 1884-1931, 1918-09-27
CALL TO EMPLOYERS
Paramount Duty to Aid Work of
SeyeCtive Boards.
Can Perform Great Service to coun-
try by Helping Work Of Classifying
Registrants Under the Sc
lecfive Service Act.

dressed TO employers of labor and 9TH
er representatives of industry through
out the country concerning their share
Of responsibility in the classification
Of the new registrants under the Sc
lectiye service act.
General Crowder says:
| have noticed, in the general ex-
| pressions Of the public attitude which
reach this Office, two frequent features
which lead me 10 the present COM
ments. One OF these features Is the
belief that the process Of awarding de-
ferred classification TO a registrant re-
quires merely the filling out Of the
| questionable. and that the seiective
service boards will perceive the pro-
priety of making the deferment, with
! out the assistance furnished By the
registrant's formal claim indicating
the deferment desired. The other fea-
ture is the employers failure to real
lie his responsibility to intervene in
aiding the boards determination. and
therefore to inform himself fully or ell
the considerations which should affect
the decision as to deferment.
1. AS to the first mentioned belief,
1t must be pointed out that if 1t were
universally acted upon. the process OF
classification would be seriously ham,
pered and delayed. Someone must in
dictate that the Individual case is one
which should arrest the special atten-
ton of the boards in respect to the reg
lstrant's occupational status. The
boards do not possess a superhuman
omniscence.
Boards Will Make Examination.
The boards will do all that they pos
sibly can. on their own initiative, TO
reach a Just decision by a complete ex-
animation Of the questionable. even
where no claim IS expressly made.
registrant Is therefore at liberty. II he
sees fit. to trust To the scrutiny of the
boards TO discover the necessity for his
deferment.
Nevertheless. the boards will vel
come and will need all the aid that can
be furnished by the Indication of
claim made for deferment. With this
aid. the process will become a simple
and speedy one.
.. Why should the employer. or 9th
er third person. in such cases. make
the claim? Because the employer in
this situation represents the nation.
because lin the statutory phrase)
1.-THE maintenance of the military es-
adjustment or of national interest
during the emergency requires that
some well-adviSed third person should
look after that national interest which
the resistrant himself may not have
sufficiently considered.
Tt Is often forgotten that the selec-
tive draft IS only one element in the
depletion Of particular industry's
man-power. A second and large ele-
ment is found In the voluntary with
drawals for enlistment: how large this
IS may he seen from the circumstance
that the total inductiOnS by draft have
reached some 2.oO0.OQ0 while the total
enlistments in army and navy amount I
70 some | 400. 0O0-neariy three-quar
ters as many. A third element. very |
large. hut unknown as To its precise /
extent has been the transfer OF labor /
power from one industry to another. |
namely. into the distinctively war In /
dnstries Offering the inducement Of /
higher wages. How relatively small. /
I'm actual effect. has been the effect OF
the selective draft is seen in the fact
ed in the 100000 classified regis
trants of January. 1918. the percen-
tage of the entire industrial popula-
ton represented by the class l regis
trants amounted 10 only per cent. II
ran as low rs g per cent for some oc-
and CORRESPONDENCE higher
FOR some other occupations: but the
national average was only per cent.
Any notably larger depletion In partic-
Mar industries must therefore have
been due. partly to enlistments. and In
probably greater degree. to voluntary
transfers. into other Industries.
Must Remember Nations Needs.
These other Influences are therefore
to be kept in mind by employers and
others. in weighing the question wheth
Or the best solution, in the national
interest. is to ask for the defermeni
# individuals or groups of men. Such
leferments may assist the immediate
situation in the particular establish
nent: but they merely force the army
nd the navy to seek elsewhere for the
anne number of men thus deferred.
The cumulative needs of the
forces are known and i'm
,erative; and any given quantity OF
eferments win ultimately have TO be
made up by the depletion Of some
ther occupation. Thus il becomes j
he employers duty to consider these q
spects Of deferment. in seeking that 5
olution Of his own problem which best $
imports with the national interest
The cessation of enlistments viii :,
enceforth protect industry against !,
ne irregular and uncomfortable a
ource of arrangement. II will CORE :,
throw upon the Selective }.
ervice system the greater RESPONSE "
illtv for an Intelligent and discrim