| OCR Text |
Show IliTl COITY - FAVORITISM CHARGED ' District Board Instructs At-torney At-torney to Appeal Questionable Ques-tionable Exemptions. INDIGNATION IS FELT Allegation Is That Family Affair Is Being Made of P4ilitary Business. Discovery bv the district exemption rV board yesterday that the Washington county local board was exempting rel j atives of tho members of tho board, I and that others were being advanced on tho list to take the places of rela- j tives exempted or granted furloughs. ' caused the district board to send a ' peremptory order to L. II. Snow, conn- .' ' t.v attorney of Washington county;' ' at once appeal every case of excrapSk tion granted' to relatives of members of the local exemption board to. the district board for review. The action . of the district board came as the re- j suit of numerous complaints which had been filed from Washington county coun-ty that the local exemption board there was granting furloughs and ex- j emptions to brothers-in-law, sons-in-law and other relatives. An investigation i was conducted and it was found that the1 majority of the relativos of tha ' board who hail been drawn into the service had been grauted furloughs until un-til December 1, 1917, before they had j to report to the army. . Other Errors Found. , jj The matter of granting exemptions in Washington county to all men who were married after the declaration of war was also gone into and it was dis-covered dis-covered that many men married after war was declared had been exempted There is much suspicion that the men so exempted are either related to members mem-bers of the local exemption board there or are connected with them j through business associations. Tha .r work of the Washington county local . board was so unsatisfactory to the district dis-trict board that time after time tha law was cited to the board at St. j George, but the exempting of men married after the declaration of wai went steadily on. j-Lafayette j-Lafayette Hanchett, secretary of the district board, wrote a long letter to Mr. Snow several days ago in connec- ' ' tion with the law in regard to exemp- 1 tions and called his attention to the fact that the Washington county local board was exceeding its authority and in addition was not being fair in the ' matter of certifying men to the dis- V trict board for certification to the na- l tional .army. ) Attorney Instructed. Mr. Snow wrote a long reply, in, which he defended the board in its actions. ac-tions. The result was that numerous complaints which had been filed with the district board concerning the ac- -j tion of the Washington county board 'j were brought forward and yesterday . ! morning the board decided that the ' . government should appeal all the ex-emptions ex-emptions made in Washington county where relatives were excused by tlie local board. Mr. Snow was notified that it is his duty aa the county attorney at-torney to appeal the cases at once and , . the peremptory order issued by the board directed him to bring before the district board the cases of five rela- 1 tives of the Washington county local board who were exempted and that ho be prepared to prosecute the cases from the side of the federal government govern-ment and ask for a rescinding of the exemptions granted. Jt is expected that these cases will be before the C district board the latter part of the present week. . Made Family Affair. Washington county is not the only ; county in the state where complaints .' have been made that the local boards have exceeded their authority. Beaver -f county drafted" men are complaining ; bitterly over the action of the local i board there and as a result it may be the government will order appeals to be taken from that board where wholesale whole-sale exemptions were granted. The -; district board has this matter under advisement at this time. Other coun- . i ties in the southern part of the state are liable to be "in the same boat" before the end of the week. Members of the district exemption board would not discuss in detail the , Washington county case. Mr. Hanchett Han-chett said that the peremptory order to appeal the Washington county ex- ft v emption cases to the district board L, was taken because the district boari- had been convinced that the WashirT ' ton county local board was trying to make "a family affair out of the draft." |
