The Washington herald., 1918-08-23
DRAFT AGE BILL
TO GET ACTION
ON HILL TODAY
Both Houses Will Pass
Measure, But With
Differences.
NOT TO DEFER YOUTHS
Free Hand Strongly Upheld
in Debate by Chamber
lain and Kahn.

The General statr's man-power bill,
changing the draft age limits to in
clude all men between IS and As, is
scheduled to pass in both Houses of
Congress today. The defeat OF all
amendments seeking to exclude boys
of IS. 10 and % from the draft or to
require them to be called last appears
probable. The anti-strike amendment
seems certain to be adopted by Ihe
Senate and rejected by the House.
| The opening day Of debate in the
Senate and House showed a prepon-
derance Of sentiment in favor of giv-
ing the President and the Secretary
Of War a free hand in the matter
OF calling the men into service, Those
I who wanted the boys OF IS and 10
/ kept out of it were numerous, but
| the strongest speeches of the day
were those by Senator Chamberlain
/ and Representative Kahn. in favor
| of the War Department bill.
| The attack upon the bill in the SEN
| ate was led by Senator Kirby. Of
Arkansas, who offered an amend
ment fixing the minimum age limit
at q years. The debate on this
amendment lasted all day. The anti
strike amendment will be under COLI
sideration today.
| CummIns New Idea.
Senator Cummins, of Iowa, gave
notice that when the anti-strikt
amendment Is taken up he will offer
an amendment designed to protect the
workmen against arbitrary and unjust
employers. 1t Is probable that Sen
| ators Thomas and Reed. by whom the
| anti-strike amendment was drawn
will agree to some changes along this
! line. so that a worker who Is com
PEELED to strike after having received
! exemption from military service will
not be at the mercy OF an employer
| who might undertake to force him
into the ranks rather than grant him
improved conditions of labor.
Senator Chamberlain presented the
new measure to the Senate and ursed
the necessity for immediate action II
order to deliver a crushing blow tc
| Germany on the western front Fl,
said that II was necessary to go intC
the IS. 10 and 20-year-old classes tc
find this man-power and that the use
Of boys in the army now would avoid
bloodshed in the future in which these
SoAhO DOgo NC lINOiNtu-
Mnn Power still Against Us.
Senator Reed. OF Missouri. a MEM
Der Of the Military Affairs Committee,
strongly supported the provisions ot
the measure which call the youth OF
the country to arms. He said that
the country should he told the truth,
and that was that with 500. 900 Amer.
ican troops in France, the weight OF
man-power on the western front was
probably still against the allies. He
warned against the reports that tho
Prussian morale Is weakening. He
said that the Germans must. he de-
stroyed since they would not surren-
der. and that the United States must
furnish the man power to turn the
tide OF battle so strongly against them
as to insure their defeat. ...
The debate in the House was con-
fined to the Mckenzie amendment Ia
put boys of is and 10 in classes by
themselves to be called last In the
draft. Representative Julius Kahn OF
California led the fight against the
amendment in mastery speech In
which he urged the House not to tie
CONTINUED ON PAGE FOUR,