The Waterbury Democrat. [volume] (Waterbury, Conn.) 1917-1946, 1940-10-30

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Midnight and the late supper
crowds were dropping In, dinner
clothes and evening dresses distin-
gushing them. But mostly the crowd
was made up Of young men and
pretty girls-their wives or SWEET
hearts.
The early morning hours licked by
and the crowd ebbed. The fire took
lot of them on preathless run
half mile down the streets-the
blocks are long here. 1t is $40 a. M,
and there are three spectators, two
men and girl-5:39 and the lottery
is on its last 100 numberS-5:45 and
there are only Is to go.
Brig. Gen. Louis B. Hershey stepped
up beside the fish bowl ard still the
numbers came. Hershey has spent
the past four years preparing for to-
day because it has been the army's
opinion that the world was getting
itself into such shape that only a
selective service army would meet
the emergency high ranking officers
believed was dangerously likely.
Cameramen came to life and there
was a stir among spectators who
numbered at the windup something
under 100. Hershey put his hand in
the bowl and Dykstra read the final
number:
2114
That is number 1894, he an
nounced. And the lottery was over.
Those six missing numbers were
unaccounted for and after some sec
ond thinking, the selective service
officials said they would attempt to
discover what numbers had been
missed in the draw and probably
have a separate little lottery" for
those six. 1t can be run off anytime
between cigarette puffs. But the big
one is over and the system worked.
Hershey was beaming and so were
the Junior army officers who had
helped.
New Kind of Life
And as the nations f1ttest age
group of men turned out TO-DAY a
great many hundreds Of thousands
were heading directly toward a new
kind of life than they ever had
known before with guns and bugies
and uniforms very much part OF 1t.
This nation has clearly demon
started its willingness" Dykstra said,
"to meet any challenge Of aggression
by preparedness"
He spoke as the last capsule was
drawn.
To-day" he continued, I'VE have
witnessed an unprecedented event IN
our peacetime history-the develop
ment of an orderly routine for the
calling out of a vast peacetime
army.
1n the national lottery we drew
the order numbers for 100000 men
who were registered under the selec-
tive service act. Only few OF tnose
men will be called for training III
our armed forces in the next year.
But when the lottery started, all men
had an equal chance OF being nst-
ed first for priority service.
1.-THE fact that there was natlon-
wide acceptance Of that chance, tnat
there was not one objection to the
method. clearly demonstrated the
Willingness of every registrant and
those associated with him to re-
spond when our nation calls Tor
the services of its people in time
of need" =,
Only a lack of housing will pre-
vent the selective service system
from pouring men into the army at
a rate greatly in excess OF the
schedule under which the full SOO,-
600 of the first contingent Is 70
be put in environments by June 10.
From 10000 on November 10 the
program steps up steeply this way:
December 100000.
January 10000.
January 100000.
February 10-160,000.
March $4,000.
June 100000.
First Years Needs
"Registrants having order DOT
tery) numbers up to 1900 probably
will meet the first years needs Tor
trainees," Selective Service Director
Clarence A. Dykstra told the United
Press.
He said it was possible" that
numbers up to 5000 might be called
in the first draft but that there
was little likelihood of any man
whose number was called after the
3,000th being marked for military
service in the first contingent OF
100000. Even though the interna-
tional situation might become seri-
GUS, he said, the army would not
be able to handle more than 100000
trainees in the first year.
This lottery" he continued, "D
an extension Of the Democratic
process of the selective service sys-
tenn shown in the registration OF
Oct. 16. BY some Democratic pro-
be first to appear for service. In
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