Evening star., 1940-10-30

Continued From First PageD
headquarters by $50 am. tomorrow.
The lists should be in the hands
of every local draft board in the
United States by next Monday, he
said.
No Delay Expected.
DR.. Dykstra said he expected
no delay by the boards in provid-
Ing the Army with its first 10000
selectees by November 18. Depend
ing on time available to volunteer
board members, they can mail and
classify so questionnaires a day as
q maximum, Gen. Hershey esu-
mated.
Congratulating the tired staff at
the conclusion of the drawing, Di-
rector Dykstra declared:
To-day we have witnessed an un-
precedented event in our peacetime
history-the development of an Or
derly routine for the calling out OF
a vast peacetime army.
Large military establishments
have been avoided since the first
colonies were established in this
country, but it has been demon
strated in the last few hours that
when necessity arises, every man,
every woman is willing to forego
all precedent"
Throughout the rainy night,
amidst the clang of fire equipment
en- route to the Munitions Build
ing few blocks away, the monoton-
GUS voice rang out the numbers.
The audience dwindled after II pm.
and after 2 am. there was scarcely
person outside the section re-
served for the radio and press.
There were several "sprints" dur
ing the night when the announcer
adopted the technique of six-day
bicycle race to enliven proceedings.
Instead of the steady chant of about
500 numbers an hour, the pace rose
to $50 and at times $50.
For those who stayed all night
the many young clerks and news
papermen-there were "dormitories"
dIlu IOGo 4Ol oAiOl v llot1 oNkSA
intendent of the building A. w. Cline
estimated that more than SO persons
slept there. BY early morning there
were more applicants for maps than
there were cots. So building en-
ployes hauled out wrestling mats
used in training building guards for
jul -jitsu. One Boy Scout slept
through the entire proceedings and
was awakened when nearly every
one had gone home.
Those After 1900 Unlikely to Go.
DR.. Dykstra and Gen. Hershey, as
well as their staff of officers, re-
mained "on their feet" throughout
the night, making efforts to speed
the lottery. Despite frequent spurts,
however, it fell far behind the
l2-hour time table which an opti-
nnistic public relations officer had
set. The first World War drawing,
made from the same bowl-which
one grocer in the audience described
as Q pickle jar"-contained 1o,500
capsules and the lottery was COM
pleted in 16 hours and 20 minutes,
DR.. Dykstra said it was unlikely
that any draft registrant whose
number had been drawn after the
first 1900 taken from the bowl
would find himself in an Army camp
before next July /.
Others estimated that those whose
numbers were drawn after the first
Y0t n SnruiPa for
at least a year.
All these calculations were COM
plicated, however, by the fact that
1854 of the numbers drawn were
higher than any held by registrants
In the country. Thus, although 5000
numbers were drawn, the highest
reached by any district was 1886
held by a man in Baltimore.
130 Selectees Per Board.
The additional numbers were
added to care for late registrants
and errors. Local boards will ignore
any numbers which are higher than
reached in the area they cover.
officials estimated that an aver
axe O1 OCO HlcIl WILL DC ny
each local board in order to obtain
the years quota of 100000 men.
Basing their estimate on World War
computations, they declared that an
average of 130 men from each board
will be inducted into the Army be-
fore next July l. They emphasized,
however, that the actual number ex-
amined and the number called may
vary widely throughout the country
because of population distribution.
1t was expected by the officers that
every board in the country has at
least 158 registrants- number
l58 was the first pulled from the
bowl at 1916 pm. yesterday.
Man in Audience Held 158.
At least one man sat in the
auditorium yesterday holding that
first number which Secretary of
War Stimson gingerly picked from
the big glass jar and which Pres
ident Roosevelt himself announced
to waiting millions of radio listeners
in a slow and precise voice.
The man was Herbert ]. Ehrsom,
"a, a Civil Service Commission ex-
aminer and father of two small
children. With him sat his wife,
who had a four-leaf clover tucked
in the heel of her shoe-a needless
talisman, since Mr.. Ehrsom prob
ably will be deferred anyway.
Toward midnight, parties from the
after-theater crowds began to drift