Fine Points for Eligibles

Oct. 16 will be a unique day in U. S. history: the day when, for the first time in peace, men born between Oct. 16, 1904 and Oct. 15, 1919 will have to register for the draft. Most of the 16,500,000 know just what to do (go to their local precinct centre, fill out a simple registration form), will do it with no fuss & fumble. But some fussing & fumbling there is bound to be. To cut confusion to a minimum, last week the Army's Temporary Draft Administrator, Lieut. Colonel Lewis B. Hershey, and his associates tried to answer all puzzlers in advance. Some answers:

>Officers of the Japanese Army (and of other foreign services) on detail in the U. S. but not diplomatically accredited must register (but of course cannot be drafted). Informal but angry protests failed to shake the legal fact that all aliens between 21 and 36, unless specifically exempted, must register (but can be drafted only if they have applied for citizenship). Though the fact was not heralded, the U. S. will thus get a complete census of all aliens of military age.

>Indians must register (even Florida Seminoles, who are still technically at war with the U. S.). They can be drafted as well.

>Men who are on vacation, away on business, or otherwise too far from home to register in their own precincts, will not have to go home to register: they must find a nearby registration place, fill out the prescribed blank, which will be mailed to their home towns. Draft-age travelers on trains and airplanes Oct. 16 will have to interrupt their journeys.

>U. S. men who are abroad need not rush home, need not even mail in a registration form. But they must register within five days after they return to the U. S.

>Bedridden men also must register. If they are at home, they may send some friend to the registration place, to be sworn in as a temporary registrar who will return to the sick man's home with a form, take the filled-in form back to the registration officer. If the invalid cannot get someone to act for him he must register within five days after he gets up. Hospital superintendents, doctors, nurses will be delegated to register their patients. Portable invalids (e.g., in wheel chairs) can take their choice of sending a friend or of wheeling to the registration office.

>Draftables in U. S. territories (Alaska, Hawaii, the Philippines, Puerto Rico, etc.) will register later, on a date yet to be chosen.

>The Army hopes that big employers will let their men off in staggered sections (for two or three hours, at least), thus avoid jamming up registration places.

>Most commuters may register near their city offices or at home. But in New York City Colonel Arthur V. McDermott, local draft director, has ruled that they must register in their home precincts.

>Last week in Buffalo and Atlantic City, citizens who had been asked to serve without pay as registrars put up a fuss. By strict interpretation, for refusing to serve they could be fined up to $10,000, jailed for five years. Actually, they were unnamed but collectively branded as "unworthy of being Americans," threatened with "exposure through publicity."

>Lieut. Colonel Hershey last week reminded married men that they are not exempt from registration and the draft. But word got around that President Roosevelt, for the time being, expected to "defer" all men with dependents, let the Army draw its first 400,000 from carefree bachelors.

>The first drawing (by lot) of registrants to be called into service will be held Oct. 21, or soon thereafter. But no draftees will be taken into the Army until after election day (Nov. 5).

>Eligibles who expect to volunteer, or have already volunteered, must register anyway.

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