Evening star., 1940-09-17
Preparations
Begin for Draft
egistrdtion
State, County and
Local Officials Luy
Pluns for October Is
Terts OF Presidents Proclamation
and Statement, Page Az.

Responding to the appeal OF
President Roosevelt for national
Support in carrying out provisions
of the Selective Service Act, which
became law with his signature at
pm. yesterday, State, county and
local officials throughout the Ma
ton today began the work of pre-
pairing in one month for the regis
tration on October 16 of an esti-
mated 16,5O0,0 900 Americans between
the ages Of 81 and IS, inclusive.
They face a tremendous task, that
Of building up thousands Of selec-
tive service boards, which will un-
dertake the work of registering mil
lions of their countrymen and Sc
lecting some 100000 Of them for
military training by Regular Army
units and National Guard organ
izations called into the Federal
service
The President in a proclamation
issued at the time he signed the
Burke -Wadsworth bill called on the
Governors of the 48 States and
the District Commissioners to take
active leadership in registering the
Nations young man power. He
asked them to provide suitable
and sufficient" places of registra-
ton and suitable and necessary reg
istration boards.
Similar to World War Setup.
The President also called on "all
officers and agents of the United
States and all officers and agents
of the several States and the Dis
trict of Columbia and subdivisions
thereof to do and perform all acts
and services necessary to accom-
plish effective and complete regis
tration."
He called on all local election
of1cials and other patriotic citi-
zens' to offer their services as men,
bers Of the boards of registration.
The registration system which
must be set up In every county and
city in the United States within the
next 80 days will be similar in Its
major aspects to that established
within two months after the United
States entered the World War. The
selective service effort in 1917 has
been characterized as one of the
triumphs of the democratic form
of government. representing the
first time that civilians had been
called on to handle the registra-
ton and selection of men for mill
tary service.
Will Use Polling Places.
Next months registrations also
will be in the hands of civilians
and will be conducted at neighbor-
hood voting precincts. in a majority
of cases in the polling places where
citizens will 60 in November to vote
in the national elections. County
clerks or similar officials will be
called on to handle the registra-
ton cards, which will be delivered
to local selective boards to be ap-
pointed by the President.
These boards, composed of three
men each, will be set up in more
than 5000 communities and will
pass on the qualifications of men
In their own communities. This
arrangement was regarded as one
OF the most successful features of
the World War selective service or
ganization.
Advisory boards of local citizens
also will be set up to assist reg
istrants in presenting the facts to
the selective service boards, which
may determine the part the indi-
vidual registrant wifi be called on to
play in national defense.
The setting up of the various
boards may call into service nearly
as many citizens as the draft will
provide this year for the armed
services. They will serve without
compensation as a patriotic duty,
as was the case during the World
War.
National headquarters for the Sc
lective Service Administration were
being set up today in the old Poto-
mac Park Apartments, Twenty
second and D streets NV.
Around nucleus composed of 20
officers and reserve officers of the
Army and Navy, headed by 1t. Col.
Lewis B. Hershey, executive officer,
an organization of approximately 200
employees will be created within the
next week or 10 days.
Once personnel will be obtained
by transfer from other Government
departments, according to present
plans, and no new clerical personnel
will be taken from outside the Gov
ernment service
The selective service organization
will occupy the seventh and eighth
floors of the apartment building
which adjoins the new War Depart
ment ONCE Building now under con-
struction in the so-called northwest
rectangle.
The small group of officers and
clerks headed by Col Hershey is
moving today from quarters at the
Army War College, although paint
ers and carpenters still are at work
in the new ofices they will occupy.