USA > Wisconsin > The Wisconsin blue book 1919 > Part 34
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The first step that had to be taken was the determination of an order by which these registrants might be submitted to the selective process. In the Civil War, this order of liability was determined by the local application of the jury-wheel system. There was a great deal of local criticism of manipulation and fraud in this. Some system had to be devised which would remove not only the charge but the possibility of fraud.
Immediately after the registration, the central registration Boards in each jurisdiction assigned at random numbers to the registration cards of each of the persons registered. Up to July 10, 1917, late registrants had numbers assigned to their cards by the Adjutant General. These numbers were written on the cards in red ink and are frequently called "the red ink numbers." The official designation was "serial number."
The Great Central Lottery
In order to guarantee that there could be no manipulation of this list, official copies were filed with the Provost Marshal General's office in Washington, Adjutant General's office in the state, and were offered to the newspapers for local publicity. After these safe-guards were taken, there was held on July 20 in the Senate Office Building at Wash- ington the central lottery. There was thrown indiscriminately into a large bowl and thoroughly mixed with a ladle capsules containing slips of paper bearing numbers from 1 to 10,500. This would determine the order of liability of registrants in the largest Local Boards of the country and allow a lee-way for late registrants. The highest order number in the state of Wisconsin at the time of the lottery was 4,507. This was in the Local Board for the city of Kenosha.
Preparing Wisconsin's List
As soon as these numbers were drawn and printed in the order of drawing known as the "master list", they were promulgated and dis- tributed to all Local Boards in this state and a new list was prepared of the registrants in the state of their liability for military service within each Local Board as determined by the relative order in which their "serial number" had been drawn. This list was also filed as the "serial number" list had been filed.
Under the plan of the federal authorities, after the preparation of this list, called the "available list", the states were ready for the as- signment of the number of men to be furnished: the quota.
4. APPORTIONING QUOTAS
Population the Basis
Under Section 2 of the Selective Service Law, the quotas within each state were to be determined in proportion to the population thereof, and credit was to be given for the number of men "in the military service of
22-B. B.
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WISCONSIN BLUE BOOK
the United States as members of the National Guard on April first, nineteen hundred and seventeen, or who have since said date entered the military service of the United States from any such State, Terri- tory, district, or subdivision, either as members of the Regular Army or the National Guard."
The number of men to be raised by draft in the country was 687,000, making in all an army of 1,152,985 men. Wisconsin's share in this army of one million and one-sixth was 28,199. We received credit for enlistments for 15,274, making a net quota of men actually to be sup- plied by the draft of 12,976.
Credit for Enlistments
Wisconsin furnished more than one-half of its gross quota by enlist- ments. In rank Wisconsin was the ninth state in the Union. Of the states above, all were small states except Kansas. In this particular, Wisconsin ranked higher than Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Iowa, Minnesota, Illinois, and Michigan.
There were certain communities in the various states in the Union which had furnished by enlistment all the men which the proportion of population warranted. These were called in the Provost Marshal Gen- eral's report, the "banner" communities. In this state they were as follows: Douglas county, Forest county, Green Bay, Lincoln county, Oneida county, Oshkosh, Price county, Washburn county. They had to furnish no men under the first draft.
5. PROCESS OF SELECTION
The Plan for Selection
The quotas were announced. The regulations were received and studied and the first step in the actual selection of men for military service was taken when the first group of men were called for physical examination. 1
The first order issued by the Provost Marshal General to this state was for the examination of two hundred per cent of the net quota in each Local Board. As soon developed, this was not adequate to fur- nish the net quota because of the large number of physical rejections in addition to the claims and additional registrants were called.
The plan of the selection is thus described briefly by the Provost Marshal General:
"It was therefore provided that each registrant must present a claim for exemption, under the burden of substantiation of its merits. Seven days, after notice to the registrant that he had been called for physical examination, was prescribed as the time within which the claim must be presented, and in the absence of claim, the registrant was deemed to have waived his right to claim exemption, subject to the power of the board to grant an extension of time. The procedure was necessarily swift, but every reasonable opportunity was given for the filing of claims. Every case presented to the Local Board was required to be certified to the District Board either as exempted or held for service by the Local Board. Within five days after a case had been certified to the District Board, the registrant could make his original claim on the ground of engagement in industry or agriculture before the District 'Board, or he could, within ten days after such certification, appeal from decision of the Local Board adverse to his claim before the latter."
Carrying out the Plan
The first examinations were completed, claims were made and men were classified and the state was ready to furnish its men when called
339
WISCONSIN'S WAR ACTIVITIES
for. The Provost Marshal General requested the Governor to advise him if the state would be ready to furnish its thirty per cent on Sep- tember 1. The following reply was immediately dispatched: "This state will undoubtedly be able to furnish thirty per cent of its quota on September fifth."
The actual work that was placed upon Local Boards is best told in a table quoted from a report of the Provost Marshal General giving the number of men accepted and rejected physically.
According to these statistics, 59,642 registrants were called for physical examination in order to produce the quota of 12,870. Of the number called, 2,857 had, on November 12, failed to appear. On this day, the general facts in connection with the first draft were as follows:
39,602 men had been accepted physically; 14,834 had been rejected; 26,114 claims for exemption or discharge had been made by those men physically accepted; 21,301 of these claims had been allowed and 3,908 had been disallowed. The others had evidently been withdrawn. This draft resulted in the certification of 19,966 men to the District Boards.
According to statistics filed a little later, the number of men called for physical examination was 60,149. The total number accepted was 19,820. The difference between this figure and the one given in the , preceding paragraph was evidently due to change in classification upon appeal and rehearing.
The number of colored registrants called in the first draft was 89. Of these, 37 were accepted for military service.
Aliens
In the first draft, 5,665 aliens were called and 853, or fifteen per cent, were certified for military service.
There are several indications of the effectiveness with which this work was performed by the Local Boards of this state. Perhaps one of the most significant is the comparatively few cases of appeals to the President reversing decisions of District Boards.
Work Well Done
The provision for appeal to the President in the first draft was rather liberal and many registrants in this state took advantage of it. In the United States, as a whole, there were 10,197 appeals on agricultural grounds passed upon.' Of these, 9,457 were affirmed and 740 were re- versed. In this state 492 cases were appealed to the President and the Boards of the state were affirmed in 483 and reversed in 9 cases only.
In the non-agricultural cases, 47 were appealed to the President and all were affirmed by the President.
Working under such pressure as the Boards of the state were at this time and having had such a representative number of cases appealed to the President, this affirmation of its decisions in over 98 per cent of its cases is a seal of approval that the state may well be proud of.
Another excellent indication of the efficiency of the Boards of the state in administering the law is given by the number of married men accepted for military service. The purpose of the Selective Service Law was to leave at home in the national interest married men who were actually supporting their families. The State of Wisconsin called into . military service fewer married men than any other state in the Union.
Only 914 married men were accepted for military service which is a percentage of 3.83. The percentage of the United States as a whole was 10.87.
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WISCONSIN BLUE BOOK
6. THE DRAFT-THE FIRST FIVE CALLS TO THE COLORS
The work of the Local Boards in the selection of men was performed expeditiously so that whenever a call for men was made upon this state, men were ready for induction into the military service of the United States. Whenever the Provost Marshal General wired whether certain men could be furnished, the state was always ready to furnish the men.
We were advised that the first calls for men to be made were as fol- lows: 30 per cent to be delivered commencing September 1, 30 per cent commencing September 15, 30 per cent commencing September 30, and the remainder as soon thereafter as practicable.
These dates were subsequently changed as follows: First call Sep- tember 5 (instead of September 1) .; Second call September 19 (instead of September 15); Third call October 3 (instead of September 30); the remainder as soon thereafter as practicable.
The numbers requested were subsequently changed as follows: 5 per cent beginning September 5-at the rate of 1 per cent each day; 40 per cent beginning September 19; 40 per cent beginning October 3; 15 per cent beginning October 17.
On August 25, the Governor received telegraphic order for five per cent of the net quota of each Local Board in the state, white men only. These men were to be entrained on the five day period beginning Sep- tember fifth at the rate of one per cent a day and were so entrained.
The telegram of August 25 also advised that the state would be re- quired to furnish forty per cent of the net quota of all white men in the state to be called in the five day period beginning September 19. The men were entrained accordingly.
The third call was for twenty per cent of the net quotas of Local Boards to go to Camp Grant, to be entrained on the five day period beginning October 3. This was in place of the original order for forty per cent of all Local Boards. The men were entrained as instructed.
The fifth call was for twenty per cent of the net quotas of Local contributing to Camp Custer. They were moved during the five day period beginning November 19.
The succeeding calls, 6, 7, and 8, were made in other sections of the country and were not made in Wisconsin.
The total number of men called for in the first draft in the state in the five calls was 8,965. The figures may be summarized in a brief table:
Wisconsin Calls -- First Draft
Camp Grant
Camp Custer
Sept. 5
W
359
285
Sept. 19
W
2,872
2,278
Oct. 3 .
W
1,437
Oct. 27
Col.
11
14
Nov. 19
W
1,709
4,679
4,286
The registrants qualified for military service and within the first quota of the state who, on November 20, the date that the new regulations went into effect, had not been called, were nevertheless held liable to military service until the new classification scheme should produce enough available men for any immediate need.
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WISCONSIN'S WAR ACTIVITIES
Under the original quota of the state, men were called as follows from the new classification list:
Date, 1918
Camp or Fort
Numbers of Men
March 29
Grant.
502
March 29
Custer
1,712
April 3.
Stevens.
900
April 3
Worden.
600
April 5.
Grant,
497
4,211
This number was in excess of the actual first quota of the state by three hundred. This was due to the fact that the federal authorities did not wish to assign a new quota on the basis of population, because the quota basis was to be changed by action of Congress. The legisla- tion embodying the change was finally approved by the President on May 16, 1918.
The number of men called in the United States as a whole was 527,100, of the national net quota of 687,000, or 76.72. This did not include men enlisted or who were inducted into the service as individuals.
II. A RADICAL CHANGE IN PLANS
The New Classification Scheme
The selective process of the first draft was regarded by the Provost Marshal General's office merely as an effective "stop gap." Under the circumstances, it was an effective means of securing the immediate re- sult desired. In this state it did result in the selection of 12,976 men ready for service in September. It did this with a relatively slight disturbance of the industrial or domestic life of the communities of the state. The first method merely said that there were so many men avail- able. It made absolutely no discrimination between over seventy per cent of the registrants who were not selected for military service. A selective process must be devised which would immediately determine the availability of the whole ten million men in the country and the quarter of million men in this state.
For this reason, in November the Provost Marshal General's office proposed an entirely new scheme of selection. The Governor was asked to send representatives to Washington to assist in working out the scheme. A. L Lindemann, George Lines, and Major Edward A. Fitz- patrick were designated. Mr. Lindemann at this time was away on a business trip and was not available. Mr. Lines and Major Fitzpatrick were in Washington three weeks rendering assistance as they could in this scheme.
It was made possible at this time because the various large army cantonments in the country were not ready to absorb the number of men available for military service. The New Selective Service Regula- tions of over 250 pages were promulgated on the eighth of November, embodying the new selective process. "The New Regulations are in- tended to accomplish two principal things," says the Provost Marshal General in his report on the first draft. "The first is to make a scientific and most complete inventory of our man power, with a searching in- quiry into the qualifications and the industrial and domestic circum- stances of each man registered; with this at hand, the second is to make a scientific classification of their relative availability for military service and for all the war-time activities of the nation."
CLAIMS FOR EXEMPTION OR DEFERRED CLASSIFICATION.
NOTE TO CLAIMANTS .- This form is to be used for claiming exemption or deferred classification by or in respect of any registrant and for stating the grounds of claim. Place a cross (x) in Column A. opposite the division that states the ground of claim. Boards are required to consider only grounds thus indicated by the claimant in Column A.
Col- umn A.
Di- vi- sion
CLASS I.
Col- umn A.
Di- vi- sion
CLASS III-Continued.
A
Single man with dependent relatives.
Necessary customhouse clerk.
B
Married man, with or without children, or father or mother- less children, who has habitually failed to support his family.
H
Necessary artificer or workman in the United States armory or arsenal,
C
Married man dependent on wife for support.
ecessary employee in service of the United States.
D
..
Married man, with or without children, or father or mother- less children : man not usefully engaged, family supported by income independent of his labor.
J
Necessary assistant, associate or hired manager of necessary agricultural enterprise.
K
Necessary highly specialized technical or mechanical expert of necessary industrial interprise.
L
Necessary assistant or associate manager of necessary indus- trial enterprise.
CLASS IV.
A
Man whose wife or children are mainly dependent on his labor for support.
B
Mariner actually. employed in sea service of citizen or merch- ant in the United States.
C
Necessary sole managing, controlling, or directing head of necessary agricultural enterprise.
D
Necessary sole managing, controlling, or directing head of necessary industrial enterprise.
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WISCONSIN BLUE BOOK
E
Unskilled or not a necessary farm laborer.
F
Unskilled or not a necessary industrial laborer.
G
Registrant by or in respect of whom no deferred classifica- tion is claimed.
H
...
..
Registrant who fails to submit Questionnaire and in respect of whom no deferred classification is claimed.
I
.
X
Registrant not deferred and not included in any of above divisions.
G
Necessary employee of the United States in transmission of the mails.
....
.
. .
.
DEFERRED CLASSES. CLASS II.
CLASS V.
A
Married man with children, or father of motherless children, where such wife or children or such motherless children are not mainly dependent upon his labor for support for reason that there are other reasonably certain sources of adequate support (excluding earnings or possible earnings from labor of wife), available, and that the removal of registrant will not deprive such dependents of support.
A
Officer-legislative, executive, or judicial of the United States or of State, Territory, or District of Columbia.
B
Regularly or duly ordained minister of religion.
C
Student who on May 18, 1917, or on May 20, 1918, or since May 20, 1918, was preparing for ministry in recognized theologi- cal or divinity school, or who on May 20, 1918, or since May 20, 1918. was preparing for practice of medicine and surgery in recognized medical school.
B
Married man, without children, whose wife, although regis- trant is engaged in a useful occupation, is not mainly de- pendent upon his labor for support, for the reason that the wife is skilled in some special class of work which she is physically able to perform and in which she is employed, or in. which there is an immediate opening for her under conditions that will enable her to support herself decently and without suffering or hardship.
D
Person in military or naval service of the United States.
E
Alien enemy.
F
Resident alien (not an enemy) who claims exemption.
C
Necessary skilled farm laborer in necessary agricultural en- terprise.
D
Necessary skilled industrial laborer in necessary industrial enterprise.
I
Licensed pilot actually employed in the pursuit of his voca- tion.
J
Person discharged from the Army on the ground of alienage or upon diplomatic request.
K
A
Man with dependent children (not his own), but toward whom he stands in relation of parent.
B
Man with dependent aged or infirm parents.
L
C Man with dependent helpless brothers or sisters.
D County or municipal officer.
.
E
Highly trained fireman or policeman in service of munici- pality.
Member of well recognized religious sect or organization, organized and existing on May 18, 1917, whose then existing creed or principles forbid its members to participate in war in any form and whose religious convictions are against war or participation therein.
No. V-I .- When the first edition of the questionaire was issued, the highest class was V-1. The later classes noted were headed as developements warranted.
343
-
G
Person totally and permanently physically or mentally unfit for military service.
H
Person morally unfit to be a soldier of the United States.
X
CLASS III.
Subject or citizen of cobeligerent country who has enlisted or enrolled in the forces of such country under the terms of a treaty between such country and the United States pro- viding for reciprocal military service of their respective citizens and subjects.
Subject or citizen of neutral country who has declared his in- tention to become a citizen of the United States and has withdrawn such intention under the provisions of act of Congress approved July 9, 1918, and Selective Service Reg- ulations.
WISCONSIN'S WAR ACTIVITIES
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WISCONSIN BLUE BOOK
The Problem and the Solution
The purpose of these Regulations of the new selective process was very excellently expressed in section 70 of the Regulations themselves as follows:
"The military needs of the nation require that there be provided in every community a list of names of men who shall be ready to be called into service at any time. The economic needs of the nation, while de- ferring to the paramount military necessity, require that men whose removal would interfere with the civil, family, industrial, and agricul- tural institutions of the Nation shall be taken in the order in which they best can be spared. For this reason the names of all men liable to selection shall be arranged in five classes in the inverse order of their importance to the economic interests of the nation, which include the maintenance of necesary industry and agriculture and the support of dependents.
"The group of registrants within the jurisdiction of each Local Board is taken as a unit to be classified. Within each class the order of liability is determined by the drawing, which has hitherto assigned to every man an order of availability for military service relative to all men not permanently or temporarily exempted or discharged. The ef- fect of classification in Class I is to render every man so classified presently liable to military service in the order determined by the national drawing. The effect of classification in Class II is to grant a temporary discharge from draft, effective until Class I in the jurisdic- tion of the same Local Board is exhausted. The effect of classification in Class III is to grant a temporary discharge from draft, effective until Classes I and II, in the jurisdiction of the same Local Board are exhausted; and, similarly, Class IV becomes liable only when Classes I, II, and III are exhausted. The effect of classification in Class V is to grant exemption or discharge from draft. The term "deferred classifica- tion" as used in these regulations is equivalent to the term "temporary discharge."
The Classification Scheme
The new plan as above noted was to place all registrants in five classes. There were two principal bases of classification: dependency and occupation.
With reference to dependency there were placed in the first class registrants who were immediately available for military service be- cause they had no domestic ties which in the national interest could not be severed if they existed.
In the second class were placed certain relationships where the de- pendents were not dependent absolutely on the labor of the registrant. In the third class were placed certain dependencies not of wife or children.
In the fourth class were placed dependencies of wife and children where the wife or children were mainly dependent on the labor of the registrant for support.
With reference to occupation, there were placed in the first class un- skilled or unnecessary farm or industrial laborers.
In the second class were placed necessary farm or industrial laborers. In the third class were placed certain highly specialized experts and assistant associates or hired managers of industrial or agricultural en- terprises.
In the fourth class was placed necessary sole managing, controlling or directing heads of necessary agricultural or industrial enterprises.
Necessary public employes, whether state or federal, or county or municipal officers as defined in the regulations were placed in Class III.
In Class V were placed such registrants as were regarded as abso- lutely exempt from military service, during the continuance of their status upon which the classifications were based.
This scheme may be shown in detail by copying the schedule used on the first page of the questionnaire as shown on pages 342 and 343,
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WISCONSIN'S WAR ACTIVITIES
The Questionnaire
1
The essential element in the new selective process was the question- naire. This was a sixteen page document containing 191 questions. These questions were grouped under certain headings in accordance with the classification scheme above noted.
The questions were divided into twelve series as follows:
Series I. General Questions
Series
II. Physical Fitness
Series III. Legislative, Executive, and Judicial Officers.
Series IV. Ministers of Religion
Series V. Divinity and Medical Students
Series VI. Military or Naval Service
Series VII.
Citizenship
1 Series VIII. Part A. County and Municipal Officials and Federal Employes
Part B. Pilots and Mariners
Part C. Firemen and Policemen
Series IX.
Religious conviction against War
Series X.
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