Evening star., 1918-08-27
BOYS, IS, GROUPED
WITH 36-45 MEN
Plan Is to Draft All Between
Ages 10 and So
First.
ANOTHER CLASS, so TO SO
NY DAVID LAWRENCE.


Notwithstanding the fact that the
man-power bill is expected to pass
the Senate as it did the House with
out any provision to postpone the call
for eighteen-year-old boys until the
classes of older~registrants have been
exhausted, it is the intention OF the
War Department to defer summon
ing the younger men just the same.
This would seem at first glance to
be an inconsistency. for 1t has been
virtually at the request Of the execu-
tive branch of the government that
the leaders in charge of the legisla-
tion have pressed for the passage Of
the bill without any amendments spe-
cifying time and classes. But the
War Department is at one with the
desire of Congress as well as the
that the call for younger
troops be made only after the numbers
Of older men have been exhausted,
Put Drafted Men Into Groups
So the provost marshal general is
prepared. as soon as he has the au-
thority of Congress. to instruct his
the questionnaires with the men of
eighteen years and those from thirty
six to forty-five m one class and the
registrants from nineteen to twenty
one and thirty-two to thirty-six In
another class.
In other words attention will be
at once on raising men
though this latter limit
may yet be changed. But tentatively
it is the plan to lay aside the group
Of eighteen-year-old and men beyond
thirty-six. They will be classified
little later.
come from the nineteen to thirty-six
class. However. that phrase "for the
present" contains the very reason
why Congress was asked not to do
the very thing which the War De-
partment is now doing-making class
certainty of the military situation.
Dividing the new registrants into the
two new classes doesn't mean that the
sighteen-year-old boys will not be
called at all or that those above thir-
ty-six are immune from service.
1e to SO Men Come First.
It simply will establish an order of
liability and as soon as the men be-
tween nineteen and thirty-six have all
been called, which may be- in six
and may be in . year. the de-
nard for the other set Of registrants will
,egin. BY having specific Law to cow
er this situation the hands of the War
would be tied. BY leav-.
ing the matter entirely to the discre-
ton of the War Department. the mill
tary situation and its emergencies can
be met as they arise. The plan has its
advantages also in enabling the selec-
tive draft machinery to function more
by dividing into two classes
the immense number of new regis
trants, so many of whom must be sent
TO camps SO quickly.
On the other hand. 1t is quite prob
able that with the plans announced by
Cen. March for the placing of eighty
divisions on the western front by the
end of June, 1919. the boys who are
now eighteen years old will have to
be called to make up that army.
Want 1s-Year-olds in School.
II is hoped that many of the boys
now eighteen years old will be able
to pursue their courses in the
schools and colleges. and plans to
that end are already being worked
out IN cooperation with the coun-
try's educational institutions. Some
Of them may be kept even longer
than June, 1919, in order to get spe-
cial training to At themselves for the
which is demanded of officers. But
relatively small percentage of the en-
tire number of eighteen-year-old
boys in the country today VIII be In
In general 1t is the hope of the War
not to be Obliged to send
least nineteen years old. but even the
best of plans may be upset If Marshal
Foch and the allied war council be-
lieve a conclusion Of the war can be
forced by putting an overwhelming
number Of Amsrisans American .,d into Esnc Erance In
er is expected to issue also from
England and France. but SO great
nave been the sacrifices and so in
tense the drain on men, young and
old, that as source OF supply both
countries can only be regarded as
tributary to the main stream which
must flow from America.
Unmarried Men to Make Army.
So Tar as can be judged at the pres
ent time. the unmarried men between
the ages Of eighteen and forty-five
will give America the Army she Is
planning to use to attain victory.
This means that the new registrants,
both those in the eighteen-year-old
and thirty-two to thirty -six-year-old
class and the unmarried men between
and forty-fve, will be sum-
moned to the colors before there is
an invasion of the men in classes q,
IL ~
boy will go to war before the twenty
six or twenty-seven-year-o men
who are married or who have been
deferred for Industrial reasons.
Deferred Glasses Not Exempt.
When, however, all the unmarried
have gone to the front, the additional
will have to come from
the deferred classes. Many men have
regarded a deferred classification as
an absolute exemption. It Is really
taken on the meaning Of exemption
only because most everybody has
imagined that the war could be won
before any necessity would arise to
call the registrants in the deferred
classes. Nobody, however, can abso-
lutely guarantee the hour of victory
or the season when calls for man
power can be, comfortably stopped.
Whether or not there will be an
order of>liability established so that
men between twenty-one and thirty
one now in. the deferred classes will
be called before the registrants above
these ages of the same Industrial
status or with the same kind of de-
pendency claims has not been de-
termined. For the present our man
power needs do not contemplate any
thing so far-reaching, but official
hopes and expects that
with the men already at the front or
in training and those who are to
register September the allies can
wrin thN waa