Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1942-03-23

| CONFUSING conflicts have oc-
~ CURED in published official
advice about your chances in the
draft. AS it stands on the
record, government draft policy
seems muddled, although actu-
ally il is not.
War Secretary StimSon, for
instance. said something about
taking 10 of the latest regis
trants for every one from the
previous lists, but obviously did
not mean this. No one seems to
know what he did mean. That
arithmetic does not fit into any
known draft calculations.
Immediate plan is to raise an
army of 100000 by the end of
this year. For the last few
months the army has been
stabilized at about 100000. So
the government intends to call
100000 more men in the next
nine months.
Half of these are to be taken
from the old registration lists.
half from the new one for which
the lottery was held last week.
THE first $4,000, who are to
L come from the old lists,
will be chosen through reclassi-
fications in that list. The re-
classification will probably re-
suit in calling all from la down
to ga married but with wife
working) Also the men who be-
came p last year are likely to
60 before the middle of the year.
The second $4,000 will be OBJ
tanned from those who were
drawn last Wednesday. The 20
21-year-olds will certainly 90.
Frankly, the army does not
want the older men very much
(from 81 to 44) but will call
them up mainly to replace SOL
diers doing desk work, and for
officer training. If there is
shortage of officers, the army
will. for instance, ask that
$4,000 "a guessed figure) be
called and sent to training camp.
If you are in the 81 to a draft
the chance against you being
called this year is about 10 to /.
What will be done next year
and thereafter depends much on
what happens this spring in
Russia and elsewhere. If the
army is to be raised to 100000
or 100000 then nearly all the
ablebodied available nondefense
workers will be eventually
picked from the 26,00000O per-
(sonS who have registered thus
far tfTo66,606- originally and
100000 additional last week.
TALk about labor leaders, ra-
Il dio-movie actors and news
papermen being exempt, does
not mean much except for labor.
leaders. 1t is all up to your local
draft board, and no doubt the
boards will differ widely in their
rulings on individual cases.
Draft General Hershey wrote
a letter to all state draft direc-
tors urging exemption Of labor
leaders (as well as manage
ment liaison men with labor)
in order TO keep harmonious
relations on the production
front. That was not an order,
but it will be binding.
As for radio-movie actors,
Hershey merely wrote a letter
TO a California director mo
other else) saying Lowell Mel
lett, the administration movie
director. considered the industry
as n war essential.
This is not apt to be bind
ing. Where the newsmen got
into this select group, nobody
knows. Hershey said some
thing about it being a war
essential at a press conference,
and of course the press as a
whole, is essential.
Newspapers cannot be aban-
doned. But each draft board
will decide for itself whether
particular individuals in the in
dustry are indispensable to it.
As FOR the new as TO ga
"a draft, no one seems to know
anything for sure.
Mr.. Roosevelt said General
Hershey ought TO know, and the
general said he did not. A
jurisdictional dispute as TO who
is to handle this draft of older
men for industry mot for the
army has long been going on
between labor adviser Hillman.
social securitist Paul McNutt
and Labor Secretary Perkins.
They have been getting to-
gether. then falling apart on the
matter for some time, and exact
information apparently mu s I
wait until they have been CO.
ordinated or suppressed.
Distributed by King Features synd.. Inc.
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