Evening star., 1918-08-25
18-T0-45 MEASURE
PASSED BY HOUSE.
Vote 336 to z on Bill Only
Slightly Changed From .
Original Draft.
YOUTHS, REGULAR CLASS

power of the country between eighteen
and forty-five years is given to the war
executives in the draft bill passed
by the House late yesterday with only
two opposing votes. These were oy
Representative Myer London OF new
York, socialist. and Representative
William Gordon of Ohio. democrat
who has been defeated for renomina-
tion. AS passed by the House the bill
is changed only slightly from the
original draft proposed by the war
Department The vote was 33e to 2.
Chairman Dent of the military COM
mittee lost a final fght for the
Mckenzie amendment for; separate
classification of youths from eighteen
to twenty, the House refusing. I91 to
146, to recommit the bill with instruc-
tions to reinsert the provision. Then
the roll call began on the bill itself.
Senate to Rush Action.
The bill now goes to the Senate.
where leaders predicted s,dt its Pass I.ssase e
substitute the House bill for the
measure favorably reported by the
military committee of that body and
thus expedite its final enactment.
Congressional leaders hope to send
the measure to the President by the
latter part of the week. Y
The vote in the House was taken
after three days debate. which nt
times grew spirited, especially on the
amendment offered by Representative
exemption to all government employees
because of their being in the federal
service. 81
The House reversed its action of
Friday in removing the exemption OF
members of Congress from the new
draft, and by vote of 14S to 30
voted down the Gregg amendment to
make all congressman and state leg
islators amenable to the draft.
Amendment Is Defeated.
An attempt in the House to insert
a work-or-fight amendment by which
those exempted from military service
on occupational grounds would be re-
quired to remain at their civil tasks
failed, 50 to 81. The amendment was
directed against strikes and was char
acterized by officials of the American
Federation of Labor as conscrfption
of labor.
Representative Small. North Carp
lima, asserted there was a dispoSd-
tion by a. part of labor to take advan-
tage of war needs to seek unwar-
ranted wages and that with increased
Chairman Dent of the military COM
,nitt opposed the amendment, Day<8ea|
It. was no part of the War Depart-
nhent's program and the department
felt 1t Unnecessary.
An amendment by Representative
Smith of New York to exempt police
officers in cities of more than 100000
population and designed to relieve the
situation in New York. where short
age of police officers is said to be
dafaafaa -
An amendment by Representative
Treadway of Massachusetts. which
was adopted, provides for the ap-
pointment Of special examiners in To-
cal conscription districts for the re-
examination of men placed in de-
ferred classification. as means of
further curbing the deferred classes
for additional men for active service.
Slackers Are Denounced.
Debate yesterday was featured by at
tacks on slackers in Washington and
criticfym Of government departments
which have placed men of draft age on
the exemption list while scientists and
chemists who do not claim exemption
are sent to the trenches, although they
could render much moro valuable serv-
ice to the government toward winning
the war in the laboratories or with the
chemical section. sf
Some henderson each side of the
House denounced exemption given gov
ernment employees, while others con-
tended that while there might have
been some abuses there should not be
an absolute bar to deferred classifca-
tion of essential men. -
Representative Reavfs of Nebraska
said civilians studying mustard gas
at the bureau Of standards were pro-
ducing a gas that would be far more
enective than that used by the Ger
mans. Representative Miller Of Minne-
sofa opposed the amendment, but said
a single bureau in Washington had
more civilian employees than All the
combined. :.