The Wrangell sentinel., 1944-05-05
Up To Young Men TOFight
 The Battles
By Associated Press

W A0ldlN GlON-- Ouu6 men ue- tween 26 and say, 29 cant tell these days whether the draft is blowing their way or not. The Sel- ectiye Service System is in another period of change. entering it's third phase so far. These phases have teen:
 l. The period when dependency was the standard.
 2 The "essentialityn era.
 g. The current phase, when age determines, largely, whether a man will be drafted
 Emphasis On Youth
 The changing needs of global war lie behind these sweeps of pol icy. Right now the armed forces want young men to replace older men who may be killed, injured or mustered out because of age.
 Hence the present emphasis on the 1926 age group.
 Before Pearl Harbor, the emphas- is was largely upon dependency. A draft board had to decide whether mans family needed him more than Uncle Sam. During this per iod the armed services increased from about a million to 2,300,O00 men
 The second period came after Pearl Harbor but gradually. Selee- tive Service built up the armed forces to 6,50O,O0O by the time it was placed under the War Man power Commission in December of 1922, but after that the question became more and more a matter of how essential a mans work was to the war effort and vital civialian economy.
 The Father Question
 A definition of 'essential' that satisfied everyone never was reached, however and meanwhile uncertainty developed as to wheth- CT fathers should be drafted. After Pearl Harbor the age limit was changed from 21-28 to 21-45, later was cut back to 1928 after it was decided to draft teen-agers.
 The Navy had been ordered to take its manpower from Selective Service instead of relying upon vol unteers, and during 1943 higher manpower goals were announced by 1 the armed forces at the same time that war production continued ex- banding.
 Congress debated the drafting of fathers, and this had the effect of causing local draft boards to post pone inducing fathers. In the meantime, Congress had legislated to defer essential farm workers, thus withholding a slice of several hundred thousand out of the prime manpOwer pool from the purely mil itary standpoint.
 Now comes. the latest shift in policy the emphasis on youth. The Army announced April that it had filled it's manpower needs of 11,000,000 men (and would reach a peak of 11,300,0O0 by September) but would need replacements. Two days later 1t said exactly where it wanted to get these replacements- l LlOAh IiC l o-Hu dSe SIOup.
 Age Is The Standard President Roosevelt had complain ed in February that too many young men were deferred. Induc- tion frightened upon young men un- der 26, including farm workers, while those over 26 had their in auctions indefinitely postponed by Selective Service director Lewis B. Hershey.
 Age is the standard upon which nearly all other countries base their draft systems. The usual reason given abroad is that the age-class system enables everyone to know when he'll be drafted and plan ac- cordingly.
 Here, however, the reason given by the Army and Navy is that they want the best combat replacements they can get, and that young men in the 1926 bracket make the best
 Some men over 26 still will be needed, it's indicated, but some time may elapse before policy is settled on that.