Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1918-01-04
TO DRAW MILLION
FROM CLASS ONE
That Is Promise of Provost Mar
shall General Under
New Plan.
TO CALL ONLY YOUNG MEN
Urges Registration of Those At
tanning the Age of Twenty
One Since June.
iBy Associated Pressi

WASHINGTON. January 3.-All men
for the war armies still TO be raised
by the United states will come from
class l. under the new sclcctivc service
plan. That means that the nations
fighting is 20 be done BY young mon
without families dependent upon their
labor for support and unsk illcd in nee
essary industrial or agricultural work.
Provost tMarshal-Gencral Crowder an
nounccs the new policy in an cxhaus-
tive report upon the operation of the
selective draft law submitted to-day
to Secretary Baker and sent to Con-
grcss. lie says class l should provide
men for all military needs of the coun-
try, and, to accomplish that object.
urges amendment of the draft law SO
as TO provide that all men who have
reached their twcny-first birthdays
since June .. 1917. shall be required to
register for classification. Also, in the
interest OF fair distribution Of the
military burden, he proposes that the
quotas Of States or districts be deter
mined hereafter on the basis OF the
number of men IN class l. and not upon
population.
Available figures indicated. the re-
port says. that there are 1000, 900
physically and otherwise qualified men
under the present regulation who will
be found in Glass when all question
naires have been returned and the
classification period ends February Is.
To this the extension of registration
to men turning twenty-one since Juno
. of last year. and thereafter will add
100000 effective men year Glass l
comprises:
Single men without dependent rela
tivcs. married men who have hahitual-
ly failed TO support their families. who
are dependent upon wives for support
CT not usefully engaged. ard whose
families are supported by incomes in
dependent OF their labor: unski!led
farm laborers. unsilillcd Industrial Ia :
borers. rcgistrants BY or in respect
of whom no deferred classification is
claimed or made, resistrants who fail
spect- OF whom no deferred classf1'ca
istrants not included in any other di-
vision of the schedule.
UNATTACHED SINGLE MEN
TO FILL ARMY RANKS
Narrowed down under the analysis
of the first draft made in the report
the plan p' &C; upon unattached sin
gle men and married men with indc-
pendent incomes most OF tho weight OF
military duty. for the aggregate num-
bcr OF mon in the other divisions OF
class is very small.
General Crowder finds that the first
draft surpassed the highest cxpecta
tions of the friends of the seIective
service idea. He pays high tribute.
not only to the thousands of civilians
who nave given undrudging service in
making the plan n success. but also
TO the high patriotism of the American
people 4 whole.
AT the Presidents cali" he saws.
all ranks OF the nation, reluctantly
entering the war. nevertheless instant
Is responded 10 the first call Of the
nation with vigorous and unseliisa
cooperation that submerged all in
dividual interest in single cndcavor
toward the consummatiop OF the ma
tional task. take it that no great
national project was ever attempt cd
with SO complete a reliance upon the
voluntary cooperation OF citizens for
its execution. Certainty no such bur
ever before been executed without a
great hierarchy of officials.
This law has been administered by
civilians whose official relation lies
only in necessary powers with which
they are vested by the Presidents des-
iGnation of them 10 perform tho duties
that arc laid upon them. They have
accomplished the task. They have
made some mistakes. The system offers
room for improvement.
"Eut the great thing they were
called upon TO do they have done. The
vauntcd efficiency of absolutism Of
which the German empire stands as the
avatar can offer nothing to compare
with 1t. 1t remains that ultimate test
and proof of the intrinsic political idea
upon which American institutions OF
democracy and sclf-sovernmcnt have
been based"
Analysing the first draft. General
Crowdcr shows that a,5S6.5oS men be-
tween the ages of twenty-one and
thirty y-onc years registered themselves.
Continued on Fourth Page)