Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1920-01-30
DRAFT BOARD MAN
DEFENDS DEMPSEY
Makes Statement Relative to Ex-
emption Allowed the
Pugilist.

There has been considerable discussion
h the newspapcrs and elsewhere IS tt
Me charge msde by certain parties that
lack Dempsey was Stacker and evnded
hie duty during the war.
John s. Hogan, chairman OF the loca
draft board at San Francisco and who
issued Dempsey . card placing him II
cla,s "A, deferred classification, makes
a statement in defense of Dempsey, and
saws that 'If Jack Dempsey Is . stacker,
then l am Stacker, and the man IN the
front line trenches was Stacker he
further says:
The circumstances in the. Dempsey
case, as they came under my observation,
were these:
sI had lust returned from visit to
San lose one evening when my home phone
rang. | WAS told there WAS registrnnt
at the Office in the Hall of Justice who
wanted to have his classification made
at once as he was leaving for the East the
next day. Requests for immediate CLASH
fication were frequent then for it was at
this time drive WAS on picking UP nom
registrants. Even If military eligible
WAS in .4A and did not have his card to
prove it he would be lodged IN jail
Dempsey was waiting for me when
I arrived at the hall. Jack kearns, who
was with him, spoke up and introduced
Dempsey as the man who wanted to DC
classified. ] had never seen either one
before and did not know Dempsey even
by reputation. As matter of fact, his
pucilistic record at that stage of his
career in 1917 WAS not such as would CON-
mand attention any more than that OF
the average four round boxer.
Dempsey Explained that he was
leaving for the east the next day for war
charity fund. He wanted his. local
boards permission to 60 and needed his
classification card to protect him, and
from being picked up and jailed.
Dempsey said his questionnaire was
on file--he merely asked to be CLASSIFIED
20 he would know where he stood IN the
draft.
Il secured Dempsey's QUESTIONABLE
and read it thoroughly. He had set
forth three claims for exemption, having
been helped in making it out by member
of the advisory board. He was married
man. he was supporting his parents, was
also supporting an invalid brother and
SISTER and in addition he was making
payments on a ranch for his parents. He
made no further statenent-merely set
ting forth the facts.
Il investigated his claims thoroughly,
though, as | have said, the establishing
of the validity of just one of the claims
was sufficient to force me as a govern
ment official TO place him in deferred
classification.
Il WAS satisfied with Dempsey's claim
at the time and had no hesitancy in plac-
ing him in class Amor have l since
been convinced that his classification was
wrong or that his. claims for exemption
were to be disregarded any more than the
thousands of others who came under my
jurisdiction as an exemption board chair
man. kearns mentioned at the time that
il was Dempsey intention TO box through
out the country for various war stunts.
"My personal opinion was that man
who was able to earn thousands of dollars
for the Red Cross and the various war
charities was more valuable to his govern
ment in that capacity than carrying a
gun"