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Show CALLOTLOIERS Paramount Duty to Aid Work of Selective Boards. Can Perform Great Service to Country Coun-try by Helping Work of Classifying Registrants Under the e-lective e-lective Service Act. I'l-ovost Marshal Uuneral Crowder has made public a communication addressed ad-dressed to employers of labor and other oth-er representatives of industry throughout through-out the country concerning their share of responsibility in I lie classitication of the new registrants under the selective se-lective service act. Cenerai Crowder says: I have noticed, in the general expressions ex-pressions of the public attitude which reach this office, two frequent features which lead me to the present comments. com-ments. One of these features is the 1'elief that tho process of awarding deferred de-ferred classitication to a registrant requires re-quires merely the filling out of the questionnaire, and that tiie selective service boards will perceive the propriety pro-priety of making the deferment, without with-out the assistance furnished by the registrant's formal claim indicating the deferment desired. The other feature fea-ture is the employer's failure to realize real-ize his responsibility to interveue in aiding the board's determination, and therefore to inform himself fully on all the considerations which should affect the decision as to deferment. 1. As to the first mentioned belief, It must be pointed out that if It were universally acted upon, the process of classification would be seriously hampered ham-pered and delayed. Someone must Indicate In-dicate that the Individual case is one which should arrest the special attention atten-tion of the boards in respect to the registrant's reg-istrant's occupational status. The hoards do not possess a superhuman omniscence. Boards Will Make Examination. The boards will do all that they possibly pos-sibly can, on their own Initiative, to reach a .lust decision by a complete examination ex-amination of the questionnaire, even where no claim Is expressly made. A registrant Is therefore at liberty, If he sees fit, to trust to, the scrutiny of the boards to discover the necessity for his deferment. Nevertheless, the boards will welcome wel-come and will need all the aid that can be furnished by the Indication of a claim made for deferment. With this aid, the process will become a simple and speedy one. 2. Why should the employer, or other oth-er third person, In such cases, make the claim? Because the employer In this situation represents the nation, because (In the statutory phrase) "the maintenance of the military establishment es-tablishment or of national Interest during the emergency" requires that some well-advised third person should look after that national Interest, which the registrant himself may not have sufficiently considered. It Is often forgotten that the selective selec-tive draft Is only one element In the depletion of a particular Industry's man-power. A second and large element ele-ment Is found In the voluntary withdrawals with-drawals for enlistment ; how large this Is may be seen from the circumstance that the total Inductions by draft have reached some 2,000,000, while the total enlistments In army and navy amount to some 1,400,000 nearly three-quarters as many. A third element, very large, but unknown as to Its precise extent, has been the transfer of labor power from one Industry to another, namely, Into the distinctively war Industries In-dustries offering the Inducement of higher wages. How relatively small, In actual effect, has been the effect of the selective draft Is seen In the fact that, for all the occupations represented represent-ed in the 8,700,000 classified registrants regis-trants of January, 1918, the percentage percen-tage of the entire industrial population popula-tion represented by the class 1 registrants regis-trants amounted to only 6 per cent. It ran as low as 3 per cent for some occupations, oc-cupations, and correspondingly higher for some other occupations ; but the national average was only 6 per cent. Any notnbly larger depletion In particular partic-ular Industries must therefore have been due, partly to enlistments, and In probably greater degree, to voluntary transfers Into other Industries. Must Remember Nation's Needs. These other Influences are therefore to be kept In mind by employers and others, In weighing the question whether wheth-er the best solution, In the national Interest. Is to ask for the deferment of Individuals or groups of men. Such deferments may assist the Immediate situation In the particular establishment establish-ment ; but they merely force the army and the navy to seek elsewhere for the same number of men thus deferred. The quantitative needs of the military forces are known and Imperative; Im-perative; and any given quantity of deferments wUl ultimately have to be made up by the depletion of some other occupation. Thus It becomes the employer's duty to consider thesr aspects of deferment, In seeking that solution of his own problem which best comports with the national Interest. The cessation of enlistments will henceforth protect Industry against one regular and uncontrollable source of derangement. It will correspondingly corre-spondingly throw upon the selective service system the greater responsibility responsi-bility for an Intelligent and discrlm Inatlng selection made In the light of Industrial groups of workers. To fulfill ful-fill this responsibility they must now prepare themselves even more carefully care-fully than hitherto. They will And the boards heartily ready to co-operatf with O'em to the utmost. |