Behind Schedule

Last week the draft passed its hand-&-bunting stage, became serious business for the young men of the U. S. Some took it with a smile. First man called up in Cook County, Ill., Truck Driver Richard Rizzo (5 ft. 2 1/2, 110 lb.) posed with his draft board, a picture of an admired good fellow. But for some, the draft was tragic business. Eight divinity students in Manhattan ignored the last pleas of their families, teachers and lawyers, accepted Federal prison sentences of one year and a day for refusing to register. An Oakland, Calif. house painter, Raymond L. Belisle, was nabbed for the same offense, photographed in handcuffs. To his blank registration card he had attached a notice: "The undersigned will not serve in any Army or Navy as long as Roosevelt is dictator of the U. S. A." Tomas Godina, a U. S. born Mexican who had registered in Texas and later got hurt in a brawl, died hoping that other good men would not think he had dodged the draft. A Danish-born vagrant in Valhalla, N. Y., a wandering hitchhiker, a speeding motorist in Chicago, were caught without registration cards, held for Federal investigation.

Draft Administrator Clarence Addison Dykstra in Washington meantime moved slowly, patiently to fit conscription into U. S. life. He cautioned big employers not to get panicky (on the average, said he, less than 5% of any one concern's eligible employes would be called). From national to State headquarters, then to local draft boards throughout the U. S., went computations of the first quotas to be called by November's end. Nearly everywhere, enough registrants had volunteered to supply the first 30,000 trainees. No man was accepted just because he had volunteered; rascals who hoped to flee family responsibilities were turned down cold. Some tried to evade service before they were called. Thousands of letters from parents, wives, sweethearts, employers deluged Director Dykstra 's office, pleading for exemptions. All such requests were referred to local draft boards. Here & there a local board did not have enough volunteers to fill its particular quota, might have to draft a few of its registered hundreds of thousands. But in the main, there were enough armsworthy volunteers to postpone nation wide conscription until early 1941.

At mid-week this postponement became official. Reason: Army supply services had broken down sadly in some areas. Troops at Fort Dix in New Jersey, at Camp Upton in New York, even at Fort McClellan in "sunny" Alabama, battled mud, cold, rain, the discomforts of temporary housing in tents, on the whole kept their chins up if not dry. But strikes, bad weather, poor planning in some instances delayed construction of permanent bar racks, finally caused the Army to put off calling its second quota of 60,000 trainees until early next year. Originally, the plan was to have 800,000 draftees and one-year volunteers in uniform by next June. By last week, it looked as if the Army would have to add perhaps three months to its lagging draft schedule.

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