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 5
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It has been repeatedly said that the word of said order was not applicable to District No. 15. Generally speaking, this is true. There were few shirkers. The responsibilities of the war were earnestly and honestly assumed by the people of the District in most instances, but as evidencing the wisdom of the "Work or Fight" Order, it may be stated that more than one hundred inquiries were received at the Local Board for a ruling on some particular occupation as to whether it was considered essential. On most of these, the Board ruled in the negative, and the inquirer without further suggestion secured productive employment. There were many other instances noted where men changed their occupation without making inquiry of the Board and doubtless there were many cases that did not come to the observation of the authorities. In no instance was it necessary for the Local Board to withdraw the classification of anyone to enforce compliance with the regula- tions.
The order in this District seemed to be self-executing. The promptings of conscience and pressure of public opinion that resulted from its promulgation were all that were necessary. By reason of it, probably some two hundred men in the District were brought into productive em- ployment, but the benefits of the rule were not entirely comprehended in the number of men that went to work. Much good resulted and large satisfaction was derived from the knowledge that everyone was doing his duty.
JUNE TO SEPTEMBER 1918
The registrations of June 5, 1918, and August 24, 1918, differed from prior and subsequent registrations, in that they were conducted by the Board at its headquarters in the Municipal Building, Tarentum, Pa. These registrations included men who had arrived at the age of twenty- one since June 5, 1917.
The purpose of this change of procedure was two-fold; first to expedite the registration returns and give the Board an initial opportunity to meet the men, second to familiarize the men with the office and location of headquarters and personnel of the Board. Inasmuch as the number of registrants in each of these registrations was comparatively small, the arrangement could very easily be carried out.
Additional statistics concerning these registrations will be found on Appendix Table No. I. Physical examinations for June registrants were held July 18, 1918. One hundred and fourteen men were examined; of these seventy-three were qualified, ten were rejected, three accepted for limited service, and nine referred to the Medical Advisory Board at Pittsburg. At the same time there were seventeen reclassified men examined, of whom fifteen passed and were accepted, one rejected, and one accepted for limited service.
22
THE LOCAL BOARD
The work of classifying these summer registrations was much simplified by reason of the fact that at their age few had any estate or dependents to be considered.
The drawing for order numbers for the June 5 registration took place at Washington, D. C., June 27, 1918, the Secretary of War drawing the first number, 246. The first local number drawn was held by Wilbur Elliott. One of the tasks assumed by the Board was that of personally attending to the matter of distributing and posting notices of registrations.
One of the interesting features of August, 1918, was a second call for a negro contingent of Io men. The Local Board had on its list the names of twelve eligibles. Most of the colored regis- trants were employed in and about some of the industries in the District and with very few excep- tions were not natives and might be classed among the transient laborers. It so happened that when the notices were sent out more than a year had elapsed since the registration and in that period a number of these men had left the District and their whereabouts were unknown. Notices addressed to them were returned unclaimed. In this case, as in a number of others, the work of the State Constabulary was a great assistance to the Board. They were untiring in their efforts and rendered valuable support. They, through personal canvass, finally located five men who were called for induction. In connection with the call of one of these men, a protest came from a member of his family against his going while a certain other unattached negro in the District was passed by. Investigation of the case by the State Police resulted in the rounding up of two other negroes, registered in other districts, whose residence and identity had been lost. These men are not included in the statistics of the Local District, but were sent to camp with the contingent and in due course were credited to the district to which they were registered. This was the only call which the Local Board was unable to fill. This incident narrated will indicate in some measure some difficulties attendant upon the functioning of the Selective System in a shifting industrial population.
An amusing incident of somewhat similar character occurred when on one occasion, in the fall of 1918, there presented himself at the offices of the Local Board one morning a tall, well-dressed negro, whose personal appearance was embellished with a pair of large-rimmed tortoise-shell eye glasses and who represented himself as an agent of a Local Board in a Chicago district, saying that he had information with regard to a colored man from his district whom he wished to apprehend and who was reported to be living in Creighton. The assistance of the Local Board was tendered him and one of the State Police Officials sent with him to endeavor to find the man. The effort was successful and resulted in a second negro who was not registered being caught in the toils. The two men captured were brought in by the informant and the State Police. They were accom-
panied by a negro boarding mistress and several other women, all of whose testimony added quality and spice to the affair. In the course of the hearing, the informant was subjected to a rather searching examination as to his authority and finally, when hard pressed, admitted that he was not an agent of any board and disclosed that his actual purpose was to use the knowledge which he had concerning one of the men to secure the $50 reward which was offered by the Government for information resulting in the induction of a delinquent or a non-registrant. He was allowed to leave the office of the Board and that same day engaged quarters in West Tarentum. He bor- rowed $25 from his prospective landlord or landlady with which to purchase a trunk and to tide him over until his first pay, and then left the boarding house ostensibly to secure a position with one of the steel companies. Upon consideration of the incident, it was determined the next morn- ing to arrest the newcomer on the charge of impersonating an officer and a discreet member of the
23
COLOR PROBLEMS
State Police Force undertook the task, but though search was made high and low in the District and on the other side of the river, no knowledge of his whereabouts was ever obtained, nor was a claim ever put in for the $50 reward, a part of which at least in all fairness, one would say, might have been paid over to the landlady, whose accommodating spirit in making the loan expedited the departure of the stranger from the District.
It happened more than once that information concerning non-registrants or delinquents was furnished the Board either purposely or inadvertently through the protest of mothers or other members of the family of the man who was called for service. On one occasion, the mother came in to protest the induction of her son and while she laid her case before one member of the Board, her frequent reference to this, that, or the other boy, who was not called into service, was noted by another member of the Board. During the course of her remarks and after she had mentioned five or six names, she happened to notice that a record was being taken and forthwith changed the tenor of her argument, not, however, until information had been disclosed which resulted in the bringing in of two men, whose reclassification made them available for immediate service.
Word was brought the Board one day that a Mexican, or a Spaniard by way of Mexico, em- ployed in one of the plants in the District, had not been registered. An officer was sent to investi- gate, and soon came back with his man. Upon being questioned, he showed fight and said that he was a foreigner and was not subject to the Selective Service System law. Asked where he came from, he said "from Mexico," and in reply to how he had come into this country, he said that he had paddled across the Rio Grande in a canoe. After the case had been heard and in view of his history and deficient attitude, he was committed to jail and was to be sent to Columbus Barracks. As soon as he learned the action which was to be taken, he dropped to the floor and pouring out his lament in a deep sonorous voice began to shed real tears. He was taken to a cell in the Borough lockup and during the remainder of the day made the air musical with his melodious wails.
REGISTRATION OF SEPTEMBER 12, 1918
It now looked as though the country was going to need a much larger army than was originally contemplated and it was announced by the War Department that there would take place on September 12, 1918, a registration of men between the ages of 18 and 46 who had not previously registered. Some changes had been made in the questionnaires and altogether a strenuous period was anticipated.
In a message to the Local Board at this time General Crowder called their attention to the fact that the work already accomplished by the Local Board-immense as it seemed-was only a fraction of that yet to be done.
In order to secure speed and uniformity in return of the registration lists, the various registrars were called together at the office of the Local Board and there instructed in detail as to how reports were to be made up. These registrars went to their task prepared to do what was probably the biggest day's work ever undertaken by any similar group of men.
Upon registration day the Board visited each of the registration places in the District while the registrars were at work and made sure that at each place there was a completely organized office force, one section of which was to engage in registration, while another made up duplicate cards, and a third attended to the book-keeping, so that the reports might be submitted almost as soon as registration closed.
24
THE LOCAL BOARD
It is rather surprising in view of the somewhat complicated character of the registration cards and the information to be obtained that there was such a small percentage of error in the returns.
On the evening of the registration and within a half hour after closing, the Local Board had complete returns for more than fifty per cent of the registration boards in the District. By noon the next day all official returns were in. The total registration was 4947.
The work of comparing and checking cards and copying lists of names and addresses was simply enormous. Seven typewriters were going steadily for several days. An alphabetical card file had to be made and this in turn checked, and even while these tasks were in progress a separate set of clerks were preparing and mailing questionnaires. The second floor of the municipal building was crowded to the limit and everybody was busy.
In the midst of all this bustle, just as the questionnaires began to go out, the bill authorizing schools to organize the Students Army Training Corps was passed by Congress and almost at once practically all the eighteen and nineteen year registrants who were enrolled in the various edu- cational institutions in this section, and many others besides, presented themselves for induction in order to start in with the opening of the term. The fact that these inductions were made as individual cases and not in groups materially increased the work of the Board.
Despite all handicaps, however, the work of filling out, returning and classifying the ques- tionnaires was carried on with such efficiency that on September 30, just seventeen days after the date of registration, a group of one hundred and one registrants had been classified and ex- amined, and the government notified that men were immediately available for shipment. A comparison of this record with that of the first registration, in which three months were required to secure men for shipment, will indicate the increased efficiency due to improvements in the Selec- tive Service System, and to the better organization of the several agencies upon whom the work devolved.
The classification so far under this registration was only of those who had made no claim for deferred classification. It will be noted that the term "exemption" as used in connection with the first draft became obsolete after the introduction of the questionnaires, and for it was sub- stituted the term "deferred classification."
There was now a little easing up of the work of the Board, due in part perhaps to the epidemic of influenza which began to spread seriously about the first week in October. On account of this it was deemed inadvisable to assemble the men for examination or to call the doctors from their much-needed services in the community. Because of influenza in the camps, shipments of men were postponed. In connection with this, it is worthy of notice that while the members of the Local Board and its staff were on duty continuously and exposed not only through meeting people at the offices, but through handling the sealed envelopes that came from houses where the infec- tion was prevalent, only one member of the force was attacked by the disease.
Practically no shipments were made during the month of October, except special inductions of one each from time to time or of students to the Students Army Training Corps. No time was wasted, however, during the month of October, for the Board had its hands full in classifying ques- tionnaires and in catching up with the general routine work that had been delayed in the rush attending hasty selection of the first group of men.
During the last days of September and the early part of October, the Local Board was almost constantly in session, working practically every day from 9 A.M. to 10 or II P.M.
REDCI
2.6
32 . 33
38
2763
64
70
54
95
88
131-
130
132
SEPT. 19, 1917
1. George Papik 2. Joseph Hussar 3.
4. Mike Malick
5. James Dinon
6. William E. Bollinger
7. Lawrence Cislinski
7a. Sylvester J. Mohan
8. Clarence Davis
9. Raymond Drury 10. John Herman Brinley 11. William Thìely 12. Kazimer Levenski 13. Frank Filis
14. Frank Strelec
15. Walter K. Mccutcheon 31. Albert Bolin
16. Car McGaughey 17. Walter Huey 18. Samuel C. Keller 19. C. Espy Bowser 20. 21. Joseph E. Johnston 22. Henry Endrzejski 23. Stanislaw Kuszìnki 24. John Grieco 25. Henry Esser 26. Joseph Hrivnak 27. Walter B. Adams 28. John Knapek 29. John Henry McMahon 30. Joseph Brown
32. David P. Williamson 33. Charles Miller 34. Floyd Riggle
35. Jay Baish 36. John Jasinski 37. Joseph W. Malesky 38. George Fehl 39. Jan Kazinski
40. Frank Golier 41. Pete Dudaik
42. Jozef Sowinski 43. Paul Mistrik
44. Martin Bolewicz 45. Boleslaw Kurzawa
46.
47. Waudec Bartosovic
Adam Roman 49. Szcepan Pajewski 50 Boleslaw Laskowski 48 51. Joseph Franceska 52. John Gaspermont 53. 54. Melvin Elliott 55. Clarence Elliott 56. William Chestnut 57. Robert B. Bouch 58. J. Brownlee Gibson 59. John Chmiel 60. 61. Roy Metzgar 62. Chester C. Oberleas 63. Joseph Boney
64. William John Heck 65. William Goldinger 66. 67. Charles Houseman 68. Homer McKrell 69. Thomas Farrell
70. Nikodem Dembek
71. Frank Kepple
72. Leroy Sackett
73. Edgar Davis
74. George A. J. Bash 75. Ernest Smith
76. Clarence Audley Grunden 77. Mike Rampulla 78. Stanislaw Szewczykowski 79. Harry Smith
PLATE IV
80. Alex Briggs 81. Joseph Frank Esser 81a. Steve Kassai 82. Andrew S. Krajci
83. Louis Horan
84. Jacob Perr
85. Joseph Smarick
86. Claude Painter
87. John T. Horan 88. Jacob Smith 89. John Miller 90. Harry Reed
91. William H. Clark
92. Benjamin Shiffman 92b. Thomas Conroy 93. Andy Strah
94. Pete Samara 95. Sam Comallo 96 Miller R. Bryson 96b. Stefan Duriga 97. Joseph Lapesa 98. Edward J. Ewing 99. Henry Paustenbach
100. Thomas Reese 101. Robert C. Clark 102. Paul Vnuk 103. Andrew Wida
104. 105. Andrew Barczykowski 106. Jesse B. Bracken 107. John Geahry 108. John Borland
109. Robert H. Wolfe 110. William Schaffer 111. John Bogacki 112. John Serafinas
113. Henry Mills 114. Jan Pawtoski 115. Earl D. Mahaffey 116. Harvey J. Hosick 117. Frank Markwell 118. Clarence E. Ferree 119. Thomas Friel
120. John Bell 121. Joseph Horning 122.
123. Ralph G. Altman
126. John Cochran 127. Harold Weaver 128. Earl E. McGraw 129. Paul Fish 130. Charles F. Bryan 131. Walter D. Murphy 132. George Stadelmaier 133. 134. Roland Nolf 135. Earl Mccutcheon 136. Clarence Claassen 137. Charles Schlenke 138. Howard J. Painter
124. Samuel Patterson
125.
30 36
37
29
36
25
CLASSIFICATION
As indicating some of the things the average Local Board had to contend with, the following extract from a very humorous but significant letter seems pertinent. This letter was written by a member of a certain Local Board in the State of New Jersey at eleven o'clock at night after the office was closed for the day and was in answer to a telegram from headquarters inquiring concern- ing a "Progress Chart" report, which was a few days delayed in transmission.
"This Board and its meagre staff is so busy counselling registrants, reconciling mothers, patiently answering dozens of inquiries by mail, telephone and telegraph, issuing permits for passports, writing to Transfer Boards and telling them what to do with Form 2008-A, making out induction papers for S. A. T. C. registrants, copying our 4439 registration cards, writing up cover-sheets, hunting up questionnaires without order numbers in order to append additional late-arrival affidavits of the American Can Company for deferred industrial classification in Class Two, of aliens who are sure to be in Class Five, preparing routings and transportation requests for individual inductions under competent orders who are to be entrained for Kelly Field, San Antonio, Texas, or Carlstrom Field, Arcadia, Florida, counselling the poor innocents as to how many 'suits of underwear shall I take?' advising them firmly though with kindness that while requests for 'tourist-sleeping car accommo- dations' will be issued to them our experience is that there will be no tourist-cars available and that they will sleep on the floor, preparing seven meal tickets, three copies for each man, issuing new registration cards and new final classification cards to men who have their 'pocket-books stolen' and are afraid of being rounded up, issuing certificates of immunity to 46-year-old men, who present proofs of birth date so that they won't be rounded up, advising colored ladies (to their manifest satisfaction) as to prospective government allotments and allowances to come from their casual spouses when in the service, telling anxious Y. M. C. A. recruits how they can apply to have their cases reopened and claims for occupational exemption considered, advising by mail the Assist- ant District Attorney of Bronx County, New York, who desires to prosecute a boy for not support- ing his wife, trying to keep several thousand questionnaires and registration cards, minus order num- bers as yet, out of irremediable chaos due to lack of filing cabinets or other facilities, reconciling our hard-working limited service man to writing up his 'daily morning reports' on a form adapted for a full company of men (including mules), conducting voluminous correspondence with per- turbed mustering-in officers at distant cantonments about registrants who have been picked up without Form 1007 in their possession and shot into camp without proper or justified induction papers in order that some yap deputy-sheriff can get the $50 reward because he needed the money, futilely registering ex-sailors and soldiers discharged for physical disabilities, getting into a corner occasionally and going crazy trying to study out an abstruse legal problem from an interesting 433- page text-book called Selective Service Regulations, Second Edition, Form 999-A, doing dozens of things daily and nightly (and on Sundays and Holidays), of which the foregoing are mere samples and classifying questionnaires, engaging for physical examinations of several hundred men doctors who are already bereft of their wits on account of the Spanish Influenza epidemic, preparing dozens and dozens and dozens of Form 1010, three copies each, postponing the examinations because the doctors simply can't come, redating all the forms IOIO.
"Because the Board and its meagre staff (its best volunteer aids being at the temporary influenza hospital, or in the service) are so busy with a number of such matters, I beg to report that though probably about half the Questionnaires of the 'First Series, Registrants of September, 1918,' have been classified, we haven't time nor inclination nor energy to count them, even approxi- mately; about half the physical examinations have been concluded, and on Sunday we are going to try to catch up with our correspondence, if the Master List doesn't come, which we presume it will, in which event we hope to have four volunteer typists pound out five copies of Form 102 (the churches are all closed, so it won't matter); and, most regrettably, we lost the 'Progress Chart' the very day it arrived."
26
LOCAL BOARD
By November first the epidemic seemed to be abating and general calls for men began to appear.
On the sixth of November a call was announced by the Local Board for twenty-five men to go to Camp Meade on the 13th. This was the third time that this group of men had been ordered for entrainment. Previous calls had been postponed on account of the epidemic.
On November 9, another call was announced for eleven men to go to Camp Greenleaf on the 13th.
Two men were called for induction on November II, the day the armistice was signed. One of these, Albert Smith, left in the morning for an Engineering School in Pittsburg to fill a vacancy caused by a rejection. Shortly after he left, a telegram was received from Harrisburg directing that all shipments be postponed until further notice. He was therefore the last man to be inducted by the Local Board of this District.
A second induction, scheduled for the same day, was canceled.
The other calls for men to report on the 13th were also canceled. It thus came about that the particular group of men called to go to Camp Meade had been three times called and never inducted.
With the announcement of the armistice, there was a sudden cessation of all activities.
In the Second Report of the Provost Marshal General, we read, "Calls had been issued and all arrangements had been made for some 250,000 men to be entrained during the five-day period beginning November II. The United States Railway Administration was advised by telephone at 10: 25 A.M. on Monday, November II, of the cancellation of these calls by order of the Secretary of War. In thirty-five minutes they had notified all the railroads in the country; had stopped further entrainments; had reversed such contingents as were en route; and were restoring the men to the original points of entrainment. This achievement stands out as a marvel of ef- ficiency, and is but an indication of the cooperation which they constantly tendered."
The Local Board had a chance for the first time in months to draw a full breath at leisure, and yet there was no leisure, except by contrast, for although inductions and entrainments and classifica- tion had ceased, the tremendous task of compiling reports and completing records looking to the final closing of the work and the discharge of the Local Board must be carried on under no incon- siderable handicap, due to the fact that the stimulus had been removed, and this was merely the aftermath. The difference in work of the Board before and after the armistice might perhaps be compared by somewhat crude simile to the difference between preparing for a banquet and cleaning up afterwards.
Questionnaires had been prepared for all registrants up to 46 years of age and were ready to be sent out, but the Local Board of this District had not anticipated the mailing notice from the government as had the boards in some districts and were thus saved considerable extra work.
Not the least among the duties of the Board at this time was the complete rechecking and reporting of the list of delinquents and deserters. For several weeks not a day passed on which there was not required some special investigation or report for some of these men. While a large number of them had not yet been apprehended, it was necessary that all possible clues and in- formation in possession of the Local Board as to their whereabouts be committed to writing and forwarded to the proper Federal authorities.
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