The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-09-28
DETAILS NOT COMPLETE

DetallS or the ufaWlnS have not yet
 been completed but General Crowder
 announced that he had invited Aetriys
 Secretary Crowell, General March,
 chief of staff, and members of the Sen
 ate and House military committees to
 attend the opening. Decision has not
 yet been made as to who will draw the
 first capsule So that there will be
 no interruption Of the drawing. clerks
 will work in relays during the 26
 hours
 Some of the new registrants be-
 tween the ages of 1e and 37 will be
 called for entrainment next month al-
 though the temporary suspension of
 the first October call, made necessary
 by the epidemcs of influenza may de-
 lay the induction. Men between those
 ages also will be assigned to the navy
 and marine corps, the quota for the
 navy being 15,oo0 monthly and for
 the marine corps 1900 monthly.
 FLASHED BY WIRE
 The first drawing of pnmbers was flashed to the country by wire as the. capsules were taken from the bowl. be- cause under the system then prevailing the order of numbers actually indicated the order in which men were called for service The later creation of the classi- tficaton systems, however, has entirely altered the situation and the order of numbers now only indicates mans or der in his class, and several consdera- tions decided his class
 As an example, the first number out Of the bowl might be PAS Number 24S might be held by a man 43 years old, married and having children. The fact that his number is the first drawn stands l for nothing at all. He would automat- ically go in the fourth class for depen- dereies and unless the government re- verses it's policy of not invading the de- | ferred classifications he never would be | called for service. If the policy ever should be reversed all the men in two | classes ahead of him would first have 1 to be exhausted. This it will be seen
 materially reduces the importance of his | number being first out of the bowl. Sim | ilarly number 5x6, for example aFmght | be the very last capsule drawn and the I holder might be a man 19 years old un- married and footfree He would be practically certain to be called to duty l soon despite the fact that his order I number was at the bottom of the list. Furthermore. all the reg1strants whose l numbers are about to be drawn have
 beer sub-divided into three classes for l present purposes. Those between l9 and l S7 came first; those from S7 to 45 come next and those between 1S and 19 come | last The numbers drawn are certain to 1 be in indiscriminately scattered through these classes, but it is very doubtful ! when the men above 37 will be called. l Even though men between IS and 19 hold early order numbers there is no likeli-
 hood of their being among the first TOT duty.
 l Then added upon the effect of the or der Of service which has been worked 1 by the classifications, is the business | of deferment, because Of mans occu- | patton which may be considered more essential to the winning of the war than l actual service with troops. The govern ment has made 1t very clear that in this draft 1t does not want a single man in 1 the army who actually is needed al 1 home. All these considerations it will 1 be seen reduce the relative importance ] of a mans position in the drawing to his likelihood for service.
 The effect of the drawing simply means | that every man who knows he is fit 1 for military service and has no valid l reasons for deferment can expect to be
 ready to be called for duty, quite ire speotive of where his number comes out. l LISTS BY MAIL
 i When the question of telegraphing the l order of the numbers all over the United States was fully investigated it was | found that to do so would have entirely occupied all the facilities for distributing news for at least 2i hours continuously. 3It nieant that for 24 straight hours, pos sibly more, not a single word of news oa the war or events al home could have heer unfinished by the uewspaperS The