Recruits

Last week the stubbornest man in Eagle County, Colo, enlisted in the U.S. Army.

Eldon Gerald Smith, a rancher, regarded Census queries as an invasion of his rights. Last spring he refused to fill in his draft questionnaire, on the grounds that there was too much red tape in the Government. And he meant it. Alienists examined him. Draft boards harangued him. Finally he was indicted and sent to jail to await trial for draft-dodging. Nothing could budge him. Said he, still wrathy at the memory of the draft questionnaire that had started the whole fuss: "The tone was overbearing and impertinent. It asked questions I thought the Government had no right to ask."

After he had spent the summer in clink, Attorney General Biddle offered to turn Eldon Smith loose if he would go into the Army. Smith, feeling that he had somehow won, agreed. Observed he:

"I made my point--I'm glad it turned out this way. . . . The people I met were no more ignorant or ignoble than ordinary men. Some of them taught me a lot. I learned how to palm a deck of cards, how to cook spaghetti and even some valuable information on radium from a man who was jailed on confidence-game charges." Grinding out its grist for the Army, the draft struck some other strange sparks:

> In Amarillo, Tex., Farm Boy Roy William Helfenbein was convicted of having six good teeth pulled to help him flunk the draft's physical exam. Penalty: three years in prison. Said the court: "He should serve in prison for the duration. . . ."

> In Brooklyn, 22-year-old Frank Waltz, ordered up for examination, killed himself.

> In Eau Claire, Wis., 27-year-old John Weisbrocker passed his physical test, was told he was in fine shape, forthwith fell dead of a heart attack.

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