Evening star., 1943-06-01
Only 100000 Men
Will Be Deferred for
Dependency in '43
MeNutt Says Loosening
Of Navy Requirements
May Delay Father Droft

Only about 100000 men will be
deferred from the draft for de
pendency alone by the end of
1943, War Manpower Chairman
McNutt indicated today.
At the same time the Navy an
nounced the lowering of its physical
requirements for draft induction, as
disclosed last Sunday in The Star
The reduction in physical standards
became effective today.
Standards affected include eye and
teeth requirements, eXtremities and
height. The Navy will accept men
with venereal diseases under certain
conditions for the first time and
has dropped to the Army's standard
of literacy.
Lowering OF standards. Mr.. Nc
Mutt said. would delay the draft of
fathers to whatever extent it per-
mits the induction of men who
otherwise would have been rejected
but he told press conference this
will result in only delay" at most
IN taking family men.
Selective Service Director Lewis
B. Hershey has given August as
the date when the draft of fathers
is expected to begin. There is still
some hope, however. at National
Selective Service headquarters that
the father draft may be further
postponed, possibly to September l..
New Standards Given.
The Navy physical standard de-
vlations were given as follows:
|. Vision: Color vision is required
for the Navy. not for the Army. A
minimum visional acuity of six
tWentieths in one eve and ten-twen-
tleths in the other eye without
glasses, or ten-tWentieths with both
eyes open without glasses, provided
vision is not below six-twentieths
in either eye and provided defective
vision is not due to organic disease.
is considered acceptable for gen.
eral service with both the Army and
Navy. Formerly the Navy required
flfteen-tWentieths binocular vision
with no less than x-twentieths
vision in one eye
2. Height: Maximum height for
the Army is 78 inches. for the Navy
rs inches. minimum height for both
services is 60 inches. Formerly the
Navy minimum height requirement
was 81 inches.
g. The Navy will now accept men
with social diseases under certain
conditions. Formerly it would not
accept such men.
Will Accept TOothIess Men.
A. EXtremities-Prev regula-
tions governing loss or incapacity
of extremities including loss of
either thumb or the right index
finger or two entire fingers, for
personnel to be inducted into the
Army, will now apply for both serv-
ices. except that the Navy will not
accept men who have lost more
than one phalanx of the right index
finger, the terminal and middle
phalanges of any two fingers on the
same hand. or entire loss of any
finger except the little finger of
either hand or the ring finger of
the left hand
S. Teeth-The Navy will accept
inductees without any teeth pro-
vided they possess healthy gums
correctible by dentures. Hitherto,
the Navy has required sufficient
natural teeth or suitable replace :
ments to supply satisfactory biting
function.
6. Literacy-Army standards of
literacy have been adopted by the
Navy.
In the latest figures on the draft
outlook. made public today in con-
nection with an appeal to employ
ers to fill out requirements sched-
ules for the orderly withdrawal of
occupationally deferred men, Mr..
McNutt said approximately 10000
men will have dependency defer
lnents at the end of the year.
This is about % per cent of the
total of slightly more than 4,0O0, 900
draft-age fathers estimated to be
physically fit. About half the 9OO,-
600 are expected OF be deferred on
the ground that their induction
would cause undue hardship to de-
pendents. The rest will probably be
subject to call as their order num-
bers are reached.
Actually, the number of hard
ship cases is still considered an un-
known quantity since draft boards
are just beginning to 60 into these
cases in reclassifying all but fathers.
The fate on Capitol Hill Of legisla-
ton to increase payments to fami-
lies of service men is expected to
be one factor in determining the
(See DRAFT, Page A-l4D