The border vidette., 1920-08-21
DRAFT DESERTERS.

u people to Selective Service was the corner stone Of the creation of our great army and our sue cessiul military achievements, the War Department does not deem it proper to pursue the policy of injustifiable leniency towards those who deliberately evaded military service.
 The creation of the huge army which was sent to the Battle fields abroad was the result Of the Selective Service Act of May IS, 1917.
 Although critics of American institutions predicted that in the event of great war, the people of the United States would fail to rise, to the full heights of patriotism and self sacrifice in defense of their country, because of selfish motives and foreign influences, the war has proven that the old American spirit of sacrifice and service is not only alive, but more widespread than ever before.
 During the period of active hostilities, the Government was assisted by tke various officials and agencies in apprehending draft deserters; a small but con- stant stream of whom were be- ing delivered to posts, camps and stations; but because of the fact that those days were crowd ed with other matters Of more
  could not be given during that time to the running down Of the comparatively small number of draft deserters.
 After the discontinuance on November 11th, 1918 of mobili- zation and induction under the Selective Service Law, the War Department began at once to consider the question of the proper disposition to be made of all those -registrantS classified by the draft authorities as draft deserters with a view to definite ly settling their status and punishing the guilty.
 For this purposeI instructions were issued on Decem Der 23rd, 1918 to the local draft boards to segregate from the 24,OOO,OCO records of draft registrants, those of men reporting during the period of the war as draft de serters. The shipment to Wash ington of these records, amount ing to 489,OO3 began in March, 1919. Investigation showed that a comparatively small propor- tion of the nearly half million men reported as draft deserters could be considered as Wilful of. lenders.
 In the reduction of this mum Der, the following class of per- sons, numbering about 163, GOO men had their cases disposed of during the war:
 (a) Registrants who enlisted in the Army, Navy or Marine Corps, but failed to inform their local boards of the fact.
 (b) Men who failed to report for military duty, because of ignorance of the Selective Ser vice Act, but who, after learn ing of the seriousness of the offense, reported to military camps for service, and were re stored to duty, after satisfac torily showing. that their offense was not wilful.
 (c) A small number of per sons, who during the progress of the war were convicted of de- sertiOn, or discharged as physi-, cally unfit for service.
 (d) Registrants who died af- ter their induction orders were mailed.
 Of the remaining 325, ,OOOnames the records of 151, ,OOO showed that they could not properly be charged with desertion, and the records of 173,OOO registrants revealed that they had been or dered to report for military duty and wilfully failed.
 Out of over 24,OOO, ,OOO- regis trants, the maximum number with wilful desertion is 173, 911; considerabl less than one per cent of the total regis tration, and a tremendous i'm provement over the draft record of the Civil War. The War De- partment, in the near future, will publish to the country a list | of men classified as wilful de serters, and desires to obtain i cooperation of the various state | and local officials, patriotic so