Missouri Valley times. [volume] (Missouri Valley, Iowa) 1874-1931, 1918-09-19
CAN SERVE NATION.
Provost Marshal General Makes
Appeal to Employers.

In Il communication intended for the
guidance of employers of labor and
other representatives of industry, In
the matter of their responsibility in
the classification of new registrants
under the selective service act, Pro-
vost Marshal General Crowder says:
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
ments. One of these features is the
belief that the process of awarding de-
ferred classification to registrant re-
quires merely the filling out of the
QUESTIONABLE, and that the selective
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-
turc is the employers failure to real
ize his responsibility to intervene in
aiding the boards determination, and
therefore to inform himself fully on all
the considerations which should affect
the decision MS to deferment
| l. AS to the first mentioned belief,
| it must be pointed out that if it We're
| 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
istrant's occupational status. The
boards do not possess Il superhuman
omniscence.
Boards Will Make Examination.
The boards will do all that they pos
sibly can, on their own initiative, to
reach just decision by complete ex-
animation of the QUESTIONABLE, even
where no claim is expressly made. A
| rcgistrant is therefore at liberty, if he
sees fit, to trust to the scrutiny of the
boards to discover the necessity for his
| deferment.
/ Nevertheless, the boards will well
come and will need all the aid that can
be furnished by the Indication of
claim made. for deferment.
.. Why should the employer, or 9TH
er third person, iii such cases. make
the claim? Because the employer In
this situation represents the milton,
because Tin the statutory phrase)
"the maintenance of the military es
Establishment or of national interest
during the emergency requires that
some well-advised third person should
look after that national interest, which
the registrant himself may not have
sufficiently considered.
1t 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 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 000-nearly three-quar-
tiers as many. A third element, very
large, but unknown as to Its precise
extent, has been the transfer of labor
4 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 drift is seen in the fact
that for all the occupations represent
ed In the 100000 classified regis
trants of January. 1918, the percen-
tage of the entire Industrial popula-
ton represented by the class 1 regis
| tp1ntS 10 a II
ran as low as 3 per cent for some oc-
equations, and correspondingly higher
for some other occupations; but the
national average was only 6 per cent
ANY notably larger depletion in partic-
nlar 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 best solution, in the national
/, interest, is to ask for the defernent
| of individuals or groups of men. Such
| deferlnents may assist the immediate
! situation in the particular establish
ment; but they merely force the army
and the navy to seek elsewhere for the
same number of men thus deferred
The quantitative needs of the
military forces are known and i'm
4 peratlve: and any given quantity of
deferments will ultimately have to be
made up by the depletion of some
other occupation. Thus 1t 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.
i The keynote of purpose for all Of
1 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. !.
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