Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1918-09-12

washington, Sept. l1.--Provoet Mar
shall General Crowder issued state
ment to all employers OF labor in the
United States urging upon them the
necessity and duty Of aiding the draft
boards in determining deferments
under the new selective service law.
In his statement General Crowder
emphasized the responsibility Of en-
ployer In classifying their employees for
deferment even If the individual en-
ploye makes no claim to deferred clas-
sification In the words OF General
Crowder, II is the duty of the employer
to aid in the maintenance of the mill
tary establishment or of national in
terest during the emergency"
crowder's Statement.
The statement follows:
war Department., Offfce of the Pro-
vost Marshal General. Washington,
Sept. .. 1918. To employers and other
representatives Of industry: The
time has come when must address to
you some recommendations as to your
share of responsibility in the clasSf-
cation OF the new rcGistrants under
the seleCtlVe service act.
II have noticed, in the general ex-
pressions of the public attitude viii
reach this Office, two frequent features
which lead me to the present com
ments. One OF these features IS tho
belief that the process of awarding
deferred classification to a registrant
requires merely the filing out OF the
questionnaire. and that the seleCtive
service boards will perceive the pro-
prety of making the deferment, with
out the assistance furnished by the
registrant's formal claim Indicating
the deferment desired The other fea-
ture is the employers failure to realize
his responsibility to intervene in aiding
the boards determination. and there
fore to inform himself fully on all the
considerations which chould affect the
decision as to deferment.
Industry Must Be Guarded.
Roth of these features are due to
a single larger fact-viz: a failure on
the part of many to reflect on the in
dlstrial considerations governing de-
ferred classification.
81. AS to the first mentioned belief
it must be pointed out that If it were
universally acted upon the process of
classification would be seriously ham
pered and delayed. Some one must in
dictate that the individual case is one
which should arrest the special atten-
ton of the boards in respect to the
registrant's occupationa1 status.
1.-The boards do not possess a super
human onmiscience. Nor are they per-
mftted by circumstances to devote I'M
limited time to the search Of question
naires for possible grounds of claim
In 1917. out of more than 5000, 900 reg
istrants called. only 100000 filed occu-
pattonal claims. or Al per cent; thus
95 per cent of all reristrants raised no
question of such defer1nent.
Must Have Speed.
"ITndr the QUESTIONABLE system the
exact scrutiny of every page of this
95 per cent Of questionnaires present.
ing no occupational claims would have
been an intolerable expenditure OF
time involving a delay fatal to the
speed and decisive action necessary
for filing the army.
The boards will do all that they
possibly can. on their own initiative,
to reach a just decision by a complete
examination of the questi9nnaire, even
where no claim Is expressly made. fol-
lowing in this respect the spirit Of the
secretary of wars statement made be
fore the house committee on military
affairs on Aug. 10 last: Tt is not easily
poesible-it is, perhaps, not possible at
ALTO do that without some aids from
the men affected; but as far as it IS
possible we ought to have the facts de-
veloped by the answers to the Gues-