Arizona republican., 1918-02-26
FARM EXEMPTION QUESTION |S
 OUTLINED BY NEW FARM BOARD

pass upon all claims made upon the | basis of occupation.
 Where district boards make a wrong classification. request may be made for the case to be re-opened and new affi- davits filed fully reciting the facts if the evidence presented is considered insufficient, or, under certain condi- tions specified in the selective service rules, the decision may be appealed to the president.
 In the case of farmers the approxi- mate amount of food that was grown by the registrant in 1917 must be shown, together with an estimate of the amount that would probably be grown in 1918. It is well also to ex- | plain what the training of an experi- enced farmer actually has been, and whether his services, in accordance with the official classification and in the opinion of persons who know him, are likely to be more valuable to the nation in food production than in the military service.
 Skilled farm labor is labor that has sufficient knowledge and experience to handle farm team and other farm live stock satisfactorily, to handle farm machinery in satisfactory manner. and knows how to cultivate the various crops.
 The conclusions of this committee are in harmony with President Will sons address of May IS, 1917, as the following excerpts show:
 | Today armies no longer exist in the sense in which we were wont to con-
 slider them. There are entire nations
 armed. Thus the men who remain to
 till the soil and man the factories are l a rt nf +Iot
 France than the man beneath the
 battle flags.
 The whole nation must be a team,
 in which each man shall play the part
 for which he is best fitted.
 ITO this end, congress has provided
 that the nation shall be organized for
 war by selection, and that each man
 shall be classified for service in the
 place to which it shall best serve the
 general good to call him. The signifi-
 canoe of this cannot be over- estimated. It is a new thing in our history and a
 landmark in our progress. It is no
 more a choosing of those who shall
 march with the colors than it is a selec-
 ton of those who shall serve an equal ly necessary and devoted purpose in ethe industries that lie behind the bat , tie line.''
 More recently in a letter to Governor Capper, of Kansas, President Wilson
 said:
 Under the new selective service reg ulations under which the present classification of registrants is now
 progressing, in very specific terms in , those regulations it is provided that ? skilled farm laborers essential to the r continued and undiminished operation of farms shall be deferred in Class 2 ! It is our present hope and belief that we shall be able to raise all the forces ) in immediate prospect without lnVad- f ing any deferred class. and therefore , we can assume, I think, that future ? drafts will not interfere with your sup l ply of skilled farm labor. 3 q also had very prominently in mint
 the advisability of furloughing selected t men during planting and harvest time T and to this end the war department ha: f asked of congress authority to gran s such furloughs without pay whenever : in the opinion of the secretary of wal
 the military situation justifies such {
 step Of course it is impossible to Sa, Q in advance what the changng condi tions of warfare may impose upon us t but I can assure you that if this au . thority is granted by congress we shal
 permit these furloughs whenever it l q possible to do so.
 f q take it that what I have said i e precisely responsive to what you hay : in mind. and I hope and believe tha e the various selection boards compose' : of men of your choice will exercise tn f authority to defer skilled farm labor il = such a way as to meet the situation f you present in the fullest way it coul - be met under our present circum e stances.''
 . w. T. Greasy, chairman. Pennsyl = vania; Ed. W. McNamara, New York
 Leslie R. Smith, Massachusetts; E. A e Calvin, Texas; John A. Simpson, Okla it homa.