Grainger County news. (Rutledge, Tenn.) 1917-current, 1918-10-10
Employers HAVE DUTY
HoULo HELP IN WORK OF
CLASSIFYING THE NEW
REGIsTRANTS.


q new reglstrants under the selectlVe
service act, a COMMUNICATION Pro
'ost Marshal General Crowder has
leen made public. The points empha-
ilzed are as follows:
have noticed, in the general ex-
pressions Of the public attitude which
reach this Office, two frequent features
which lead me to the present COM
nnnts. One Of these features Is the
belief that the process of awarding de-
fgred classification to registrant re-
qllres merely the filling out of the
QUESTIONABLE, and that the selectlve
service boards will perceive the pro-
Triety of making the deferment, with
out the assistance furnished by the
rgistrant's formal claim indicating
the deferment desired. The other fea-
tire Is the employers failure to real
We his responsibility to intervene In
dding the boards determination, and
therefore to inform himself fully on all
he considerations which should affect
l. AS to the first mentioned belief,
| must be pointed out that If 1t were
Universally acted upon. the process of
classification would be seriously ham
pred and delayed. Someone must in
dcate that the individual case Is one
Which should arrest the special atten-
ton of the boards in respect to the reg
Rtrant's occupational status. The
boards do not possess a superhuman
dnniscence.
Boards Will Make Examination.
The boards will do all that they pos
ably can, on their own initiative, to
each just decision by complete ex-
animation of the questionable, even
where no claim Is expressly made. A
egistrant Is therefore at liberty, If he
lees fit, to trust to the scrutiny of the
boards to discover the necessity for his
leferment
Nevertheless, the boards will well
come and will need all the aid that can
pc furnished by the indication of a
Ililill Uldut lOT upItTlucnl.
2. Why should the employer, or 9th
Pr third person, in such cases, make
The claim? Because the employer in
This situation represents the nation
because lin the statutory phrase)
f'the maintenance of the military es-
Establishment or of national interest
during the emergency" requires that
Some well-advised third person should
hook after that national interest, which
Ithe registrant himself may not have
sufficiently considered.
1t Is often forgotten that the selec-
tive draft is only one element in the
depletion of a particular industrys
man-power. A second and large ele-
ment is found In the voluntary with
drawals for enlistment; how large this
Is may be seen from the circumstance
that the total inductions by draft have
reached some 100000, while the total
enlistments in army and navy amount
to some ,400,000-nearly three-quar-
tiers as many. A third element, very
extent, has been the transfer of labor
power from one industry to another,
namely, into the distinctively war in
dustries offering the inducements of
higher wages. How relatively small.
in actual effect, has been the effect OF
the selective draft is seen in the fact
that. for all the occupations present
ed in the 100000 classified regis
trants of January, 1913, the Nercen-
tage of the entire industrial popula-
ton represented by the class l regis
trants amounted to only 6 per cent. 1t
ran as low as per cent Cor some oc-
equations, and correspondingly higher
for some other occupations; but the
national average was only per cent
Any notably larger depletion in partic
ular 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
er the lest solution, in the national
interest. is to ask for the defermen
of individuals or groups of men. Such
deferments may assist the immediate
situation in the particular establish
ment; but they merely force the army
and the navy to seek elSewlleYH for the
same number of men thus deferred.
The cumulative needs of the
military forces are known and i'm
perative; and any given quantity of
deferments will ultimately have to be
made up by the depletion of some
other occupation. Thus it becomes
the employers duty to consider these
aspects of deferment, in seeking that
solution of his own problem which best
COMFORTS with the national interest.
The Keynote of purpose for all Of
us ought to be, and | am sure will be,
that wise and profoundly significant
phrase in the act of congress under
which we operate, "the maintenance
of the military establishment or the
effective operation of the military
forces or the maintenance Of national
interest during the emergency.
New York's Systematic Growth.
A remarkable forecast 0f population
of New York is brought to light il