USA > Pennsylvania > Allegheny County > District No. 15 of Allegheny County Pennsylvania in the Great War : a history of activities at home and abroad from the declaration of war in 1917 to the home-comings in 1919 > Part 3
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The numerical lists, when copied, were forwarded to Washington and the drawing for priority of call there took place, following which it became incumbent upon the Board to select the cards in their order of the drawing made at Washington and to prepare new lists called "Order Lists," which indicated the order of liability of the registrants for call to service. Here again a large volunteer force did service night after night and every available hour was utilized until the task was completed and notices were mailed to the first 250 men to appear for their physical exami- nation.
It may not be out of place at this point to indicate briefly the difference in the procedure followed in the first and subsequent drafts.
L. R. Hartley
Margaret Walker
LOCAL BOARD AND STAFF George Voight
Mary Glath
Olive Charles
DR. S. F. McComb
H. M. Brackenridge
F. E. Sturgeon
9
REGISTRATION
FIRST DRAFT
Under the first draft after the quotas had been assigned to the several Local Districts notices were sent to the men to appear for examination. In this District No. 15, the quota was 351 and it was thought that a call for 750 men would be sufficient to supply the quota.
Under the second draft, the Board was, through the medium of the Questionnaires, in posses- sion of advance information concerning the men and was thereby able to calculate within much closer limits the number of men necessary to call from time to time to fill the requirements of the several inductions.
Up to the time of these first examinations, the work had been accomplished through volunteer clerks in the offices of the Allegheny Steel Company. It now became apparent that different arrangements would have to be made for organizing the work of physical examinations and the timely offer on the part of the Borough of Tarentum of the free use of the second floor of the Bor- ough Building for the work of the Board disposed of what might otherwise have been a very difficult problem.
Notices were accordingly sent to the registrants to present themselves at that place for exami- nation and on Sunday morning, August 5, 1917, the Local Board took possession and established its offices in the rooms of the Engineer and Board of Health in the Municipal Building and entered upon the work of making the physical examinations.
All physicians in the District had been invited to assist in this immense undertaking, and with one exception all volunteered to render without cost any professional service they could by way of assistance to the Board.
In view of the imperative demands of the work, no distinction was made in the days of the week, and the examinations of the first 750 men were arranged for Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday, August 5, 6, and 7 of 1917. Examinations were held from 8 to 12 A.M .; I to 5 P.M., and 7 to II P.M. on each of these days, and at each session there was at hand a sufficient force of com- petent physicians. These were assisted by a large force of clerks who were required to record the findings in each particular case.
When the first examinations started on August 5, 1917, there was considerable confusion in the method of recording the information, due to the fact that nobody knew just exactly what was required and no opportunity had been had for development of a method of procedure.
One man seated at the desk undertook to determine what one or more different blanks the particular registrant would require for statement of his case and with a line of men crowding in, many of them foreigners, more or less deficient in their knowledge of English, obstacles almost insuperable were presented. Seven hundred and fifty men were taken care of in this manner.
When the first examinations were over, it was obvious that some other method of procedure must be found which not only would take care of the men more satisfactorily as they came in, but would assure greater accuracy and less revision and duplication when the exemption applications were filed.
Manifestly, under the system that originally obtained, it was almost impossible to prevent mistakes in the handing out of blanks, and very many papers had to be destroyed and new ones filled out in order to cover the cases as they were found to be when the papers were returned.
On the second examination, there was always one man at the desk, who handed to each regis- trant his routine papers. The registrant then passed into the room where there were four men to
IO
THE LOCAL BOARD
whom were assigned the duties of taking the various registrants and determining through questions the character of the blanks which each would require to state his claim for exemption. Note was made of these and the registrant was then referred to a clerk in charge of blanks whose duty was simply to select the blanks indicated and hand them to the registrant. It was found that this not only expedited the progress of examinations, but resulted in a surprising increase in the accuracy of the returns.
It was supposed by almost everybody, including the Local Board, that the physical exami- nations would constitute the bulk of the work of the Board toward securing the required quota, but this was only the beginning. The tremendous task was that of attending to the multiplicity of details necessary to insure proper classification of the man according to dependency and the selection of those who were free from such obligations as would make their service with the military forces inadvisable.
On the date of the Board's appointment, copies of the Selective Service Law and Regulations established thereunder had been handed to each member with particular injunction that he study them, that he familiarize himself with the details which even in the beginning were quite compli- cated, and have the various points at his finger ends. Almost the next day began the descent of supplemental pamphlets, sheets, lists of instructions, that amounted in the end to a fair-sized avalanche and required the keenest attention, discrimination, and recollection on the part of the members of the Board if they were to know even approximately what was required of them on any particular day. New rules were promulgated daily, almost hourly, old ones altered, vacated, re- instated. Application to headquarters for interpretation was out of the question. Except in a few cases, it was necessary for the Board to use its best judgment at the time and to leave an open- ing for revision, repeal, or appeal, which might correct any serious error. Herein appears the wisdom of appointing to the Local Draft Boards men of wide experience, untrammeled by precedent or the concepts of special training, men who were familiar with the people and life of the com- munity and in whose sound judgment as men and men only the people of the District might be confident. From this near distance, it would appear that the results amply justified the adoption of this plan.
When the men appeared for examination, Mr. Walker sat at a desk in the front hallway on the second floor of the Municipal Building and as the registrants passed in line, he proceeded vigo- rously, but patiently, to explain to every man his right to claim exemption and the ground of such claim. It was rather a surprise to the Board to observe the large number of men who availed themselves of the opportunity to claim exemption. Under the first draft there was a blank for every different kind of dependency that had been conceivable by the authorities. It soon devel- oped, however, that there were numerous other situations that had not been covered by the blanks.
At the time of the first examinations, the idea of military service was not shaped. The neces- sity had not yet been brought home to the people. So many claims for exemption were made that the Board conceived the idea of instituting an Honor Roll of those who had passed the physical examination and had made no claim for exemption. In the first examination of August 5, 6, and 7, there were 114 men entitled to the distinction. In the second examination, the number was increased by 163 additions. While the Honor Roll had a place in the early work of the Board, as the people in general began to realize that the nation was at war and the very best it had would be required, the need for stimulation along this line grew less. The coming of the questionnaire made a radical change in the matter of selection and with its coming passed the Honor Roll.
II
FIRST EXAMINATIONS
In subsequent examinations, upon receiving his papers, each man was ushered into the Council Chamber, where he was required to fill out in general the answers to a list of questions, including a statement whether he did or did not claim exemption and if "yea," upon what grounds. Based upon these answers the additional blanks were handed him to be filled out, probated, and returned to the Board within ten days. Some men were able to complete their forms at the time, but most of them carried away several different forms for exemption claims, so that when the blanks were returned, filled out and executed, nearly every man's folder contained a sheaf of claim papers in addition to a copy of his physical examination. After the preliminaries, the man was shown to the dressing room, where he undressed and was then taken in turn through the several rooms in which were the physicians, who made special examinations as to different physical qualifications and disqualifica- tions of the candidate, noting their findings upon the report blank which each registrant carried through the examination. Dr. McComb, examining physician, had charge of the physical ex- aminations.
It was often some days after the examinations before the candidate was informed whether he had passed and this in some cases caused considerable anxiety, but under the rules then obtain- ing, it seemed difficult to provide otherwise.
The necessity of having an office force to take charge of the work in order that the many forms could be assorted and arranged and a proper record of the findings of the Board kept for future use was apparent to the members of the Board, although the Government had made no provisions for such records and there were no funds with which to compensate the persons doing the work. However, Franklin E. Sturgeon, who was then in the employ of the Allegheny Steel Company, was placed in charge of the clerical work and the services of William L. McCormick, then with the West Penn Steel Co., were offered temporarily by the company for assistance with the stenographic work. These men entered upon the service August 5, 1917. On August 12, 1917, Miss Margaret Walker took up the stenographic work, relieving Mr. McCormick, and continued as stenographer of the Board during the entire period of its existence. Later Miss Olive Charles came in to take charge of the clerical work connected with the records. From time to time as emergencies required Miss Margaret Kealy and Miss Mary Glath rendered efficient service in periods when the work was congested.
With the immense labor of perfecting the organization, conducting examinations, and classify- ing registrants, it is not surprising that the draft machine was unable to fill the first call in proper manner.
The Local Board of District No. 15 had forwarded to the District Board of Allegheny County, lists of selected men for approval. These lists had not been returned and under the first draft the Local Boards were not permitted to induct a man until his selection had been approved by the District Board. It was necessary, therefore, in order to fill the first call to ask for volunteers.
The Board was notified on the third day of September that it would be required to send eigh- teen men on September 5. It had been known for some days that there was a call coming. The list had been sent to the District Board a week or ten days before. On Saturday evening, preced- ing the notice of the first call, a number of boys came to the office of the Board saying that they heard there would be a call for volunteers to fill the first induction and that they wished to be allowed to go at that time. The number was supplemented later, bringing it up to twenty-two. On Monday, the call came from the War Department and on Tuesday the twenty-two passed through the formality of induction and were notified to present themselves ready to entrain the
I2
THE LOCAL BOARD
following morning. When they appeared and it was determined that only the first eighteen in the order in which they volunteered would be allowed to entrain, one of the other four broke down completely and wept. Two weeks later, however, he was able to go, being numbered first on the list of the second contingent, and it may be added that he served with distinction in the Argonne, where he was severely wounded. Of the first eighteen, the lowest Order Number, 5, was held by George Pilston, Jr. He was second in eligibility for service in the District.
By reason of the fact that the headquarters of the Board were located in the Municipal Build- ing, but a short square from the railroad station, it was deemed advisable to have the entrainment take place at Tarentum. When the first eighteen were to go, the whole community was on the ground. It was a new thing and everybody felt that their departure should be celebrated in some fitting manner, in such a way as not only to honor the boys who were going, but to relieve the ten- sion of the situation for those who were left behind. The community took a holiday. Entrainment was scheduled for II: II A.M. and all business houses and stores were closed from sometime before that hour until after the train left. The Keystone Brass Band volunteered service and was in attendance. The boys had been inducted on the previous evening. This induction ceremony consisted in bringing them together and calling the roll. Afterwards each man was presented a comfort kit and smokes. Later sweaters were given the boys, but the first eighteen did not receive any. Answering to the roll call constituted the ceremony of induction, which was quite informal. The men were then deemed to be in the service. They were ordered to report the next morning at IO A.M. Long before the scheduled time, crowds of men, women, and children had assembled about the Municipal Building and the station. Flags were flying, the band was playing, and a high state of excitement existed. The war was brought home in a most vivid fashion.
It was not a noisy crowd; rather there was a feeling as though a great burden had fallen on the community, which each must assist in bearing. There, too, were the families and friends of those who were going. These, of course, were more vitally interested. To them, the departure of the contingent was a severe ordeal. Yet, it might be very hard to say where the lightening of the strain began, because it seemed as though the entire community felt the pressure.
Among the gathered crowd were veterans of earlier wars, including a number of blue-coated boys of "61." One old Civil War Veteran, with hair gray and face seamed with the combat of years, seeing one of the departing boys standing with tears in his eyes, stepped up to him, and patting him on the shoulder said, "Don't you cry, sonny, you'll soon come back." Thus were the soldiers of three generations brought together by a common touch.
Of the first eighteen, seventeen returned, one, John Dick Caldwell, lost his life in the Argonne Forest.
Raymond Lloyd Drury held Order No. I and was the first man called for examination and the first of the selectives inducted. He had been one of the volunteers with the "first eighteen," but the call being filled prior to his appearance, he could not be included.
Shortly after the first shipment of men, came the call for forty per cent of the quota to be entrained on September 19, 1917. This meant completing the records and arranging for the induction of one hundred and forty-five men, which was the largest single entrainment sent from the District during the war.
It was thought that the playing of martial music upon the occasion of departure of the boys had a depressing effect, not only upon the boys, but upon those who came to see them off, so that there was no band playing on September 19; otherwise the entrainment differed very little from
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1. Harry Anderson
2. Raymond M. Beale 3. Charles Russell Burtch 4. John Dick Caldwell
5. Raymond Duster
6. Barton El iott 7. Clarence J. Elliott
8. William A. Gibson 9. Edward Joseph Ewing 10. John Grieco
11. Stanislaw Grunwalsk- 12. Clifford R. Hazlett 13. George Hazlett 14. Clement P. Heck 15. Edward Jakacki 16. Samuel C Keller
PLATE I
17. Francis Raymond Kennedy 18. Franczysek Konopski 19. John H. Kwiatkowski 20. Curzi Luigi
21. James Mahaffey
22. Walter S. Marshall
23. Roy E. Metzger 24. Roman Mikulski 25. Sam Milovich 26. James Carl Johnston
12
13
13
THE FIRST EIGHTEEN
the earlier one. The boys were inducted into the service on the previous evening, at which time, after the calling of the roll, they were instructed as to what would be expected of them en route to camp. The instructions included a list of articles to be taken and at this time the comfort kits and supplies were issued.
These comfort kits were supplied by the various Red Cross Organizations throughout the District, and if, by any mischance, a selective was missed in the distribution from his home com- munity, the Tarentum organization supplied the deficiency.
In the case of the first contingent, a leader had been appointed from their number who had custody of the official papers and general oversight of the boys until they reached camp. The second contingent was so large that in addition to the leader, to whom all the official papers were given, a number of assistants were appointed. It may be interesting to note that in order to best serve the diversity of races and languages among the selectives wherever possible, men were placed under leaders and sub-leaders of the same race and tongue. This was found of service, not only in avoiding a certain amount of confusion, but in easing the feelings of the men themselves. Each sub-leader had charge of from ten to fourteen men, as nearly as division could be made. Each sub-leader was charged with the men who were placed under him, and the leader in turn was re- sponsible for the whole contingent.
The papers sent with each contingent were for each man two copies of his registration card, two copies of his physical examination report, and also three copies of a complete list of men ordered to report to the Local Board for Military Service.
The third entrainment, October 3, 1917, was of a rather different sort than those which preceded it. The demonstration was none the less sincere, but rather more quiet; probably for two reasons. The first was that so large a percentage of the men who then entrained belonged to the foreign element, men who themselves were immigrants or sons of immigrants and many of whom spoke English with difficulty. A great number of these men had no relatives in the District. They were, however, given the same attention by the Red Cross and other organizations as was the lot of the boys from native families. A second factor affecting the character of the demonstra- tion may have been that a part of the novelty had worn off and the people of the District were beginning then to realize that war was not alone a "hurrah" and the departure of the boys an occasion for demonstrative celebration, but that after all was said, it was business and-the com- munity was fast getting down to the business. In this contingent there were seventy-five boys.
The fourth entrainment under the first draft was made October 27, 1917. It differed from all the others in that it consisted entirely of negroes. The demonstration that attended their departure was characterized by scenes highly colored by emotion, but none the less expressive of loyalty and patriotic Americanism. This call was made so quickly that there was no opportunity to prepare any elaborate demonstration. Such as occurred was entirely spontaneous. There were ten men in the contingent. On account of the suddenness of the call, it was impracticable to summon the men in the usual way, and some who were in line for call could not be found. A member of the Local Board took the notices to the homes or places of employment and when the regular man could not be located and a substitute was required, had them sign their willingness to go with the contingent. Although the men had been examined and were then awaiting call, this notice was necessarily short. The cheerful character of the responses in every instance is worthy of mention as exhibiting the spirit of their race towards the service.
As the hour for entrainment arrived, dark clouds overspread the sky and a shower threatened.
14
THE LOCAL BOARD
There was a sprinkling of rain, but the sky brightened in time for actual departure. It is worthy of mention in this connection that no entrainment from the District was ever made during rain.
W. Lester Walker, who had been ill for some weeks, found his condition such that in the early part of September he was compelled to give up, as he thought temporarily, his active work on the Board and his duties were largely assumed by Franklin E. Sturgeon, who had been acting as Secre- tary. Mr. Walker's condition did not improve and feeling that a change of air would be a benefit, he went to Atlantic City. Having recuperated somewhat, he returned and for two weeks or more was again in touch with the work. When returning from State College, where he had gone to establish his son in school, he was taken ill again and removed to the Allegheny General Hospital, where he died on October 7, 1917.
Franklin E. Sturgeon, who had been acting as Secretary and clerical assistant to the Board, was appointed to fill the vacancy and served throughout the remainder of the work.
QUESTIONNAIRES
The method of selection adopted under the first draft, as was said in the Second Report of the Provost Marshal General, "rested upon the general assumption that a specific number of men were known to be needed for military service at a given time, and that, therefore, enough registrants should be called by each Local Board, in the sequence of the registrant's order numbers, and selected according to the terms of the Law and Regulations, until a number of qualified men had been obtained equal to that Local Board's share or quota of the entire number then needed."
"This plan was adapted to the exigency of the early state of the war, and was effective for the purpose. But experience showed that it was, in some respects, wasteful; that, in other respects it would begin to be ineffective in speed as the Army needs grew larger and more pressing, and that it did not sufficiently take account of certain equitable distinctions affecting the order of liability for military service." In other words, it did not assure either rapid or discriminating selection.
On November 8, 1917, during a momentary lull in the activities of the Board, a new method of classification, based upon the questionnaire, was promulgated by the President to be effective December 15, 1917.
All the procedure had to be learned anew. The change was radical and complete. The Local Board, hitherto more or less an administrative agency, was suddenly transformed into an executive and semi-judicial body with a tremendous increase in responsibility and work.
The Board was peculiarly fortunate in having on its membership a business man of large experience in organization, a physician, whose ability and acquaintance with the community had won for him the confidence of the people, and a Secretary, whose professional training as a teacher peculiarly fitted him for interpreting and construing the intricacies of military regulations and Selective Service Bulletins.
When it became noised abroad that a change in the Selective Service System had been deter- mined upon, one of the first terms that was on everyone's tongue was "Questionnaire."
Gradually the idea came to prevail in the minds of most people that this was the magic word that controlled the secret of transforming the citizenry into an army. Perhaps this was true; certain it is that no word in the language was more used and abused during the year immediately preceding the armistice.
Under the system in force at the time of the first draft, blanks without number were on hand.
15
QUESTIONNAIRES
at the office of the Local Board for use by individuals in explaining their particular claims for exemption. In fact, no less than one hundred different forms had already been prepared by the Government, anticipating every possible case where a claim might be made; but even these forms when complete did not always give a satisfactory explanation and additional information had to be sought, either by personal interview or by answers to written questions prepared for the particu- lar case.
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