November 15, 1917.

Gen. E. B. Crowder,
Provost Marshal General,
Washington, D.C.

My dear General Crowder:-

The people of North Carolina were deeply impressed with the wisdom and justice of the regulations promulgated on pages six, seven and eight of the Compiled Rules of the Provost Marshal General, No. 12. In strict compliance with these regulations the Adjutant General of this State entertained applications for rehearings in 1462 cases, an average of 15 to each county in the State. Of these 344 have been acted upon by the proper local and district boards, and 271 discharges have been granted and 73 denied. There are 1,118 cases in which proper affidavits have been filed with the Adjutant General and by him referred to the local and district boards with requests for rehearings in accordance with the regulations above mentioned. In a very large number of cases the Adjutant General has refused to request the reopening of cases, in fact this policy has been wellnigh universally pursued with respect to single men. Copies of circular letters instructing the local boards, and in reply to petitions of registrants are hereto attached in order that you may see how faithfully this department has endeavored to comply with the law. We are sending new men to take the places of those discharged as rapidly as possible, and there will be no difficulty about the full quota for North Carolina being made up.

I can appreciate the wisdom and the justice of the regulations outlined in your telegram 10151 in so far as these new regulations are to apply to the new cases, but I cannot believe that your Department intends that these new regulations shall apply to cases in which discharges have already been granted by local and district boards, and to cases pending before these boards under the regulations promulgated on September 27th, and found on pages six, seven and eight of Compiled Rulings No. 12. To give retroactive effect to these new regulations will seriously embarrass our local and district boards, and will so outrage the feelings of our people that the tide of loyalty which has been suddenly rising in this State will turn, and instead of a fine enthusiasm there will be sullen submission to orders that are believed to be essentially and everlastingly wrong.

The plan to send to army camps the papers upon which local and district boards reach their conclusion ought to be abandoned at once. In the first place it is simply impossible for the Commanding General to read those papers. It would require more than all of his time to read a small percent of them, and after he reads them he cannot possibly pass upon them with the same knowledge of existing conditions that is possessed by the local and district boards. The people feel that such a course simply means that the wise and just provisions under sub-section M of Compiled Rules No. 12 are to be entirely denied. Having walked in at the door opened by the War Department our people feel that it is the acme of unwisdom and injustice for this door to be closed until their cases are finally disposed of.

I have, my dear General, taxed my physical, mental and spiritual strength to keep the people of this State in lively sympathy with the administration of the Selective Draft Law, but it is my solemn conviction that if the rules and regulations of November 13th are applied to cases instituted and now being heard under the regulations of September 27th, the faith of our people in the justice of the Government will be absolutely destroyed. It is my solemn conviction that to give such retroactive effect to these new regulations would result ultimately in far more damage to the successful prosecution of the war than would the immediate discharge of every man who has applied under the old rules. The deepest sense of loyalty to you and to the cause for which all of us are willing to die, forces me to speak with the utmost candor upon this subject.

I had in my office today Mr. Clement Manly, a member of the General Counsel of the American Bar Association, Mr. W. P. Bynum, a member of the Executive Counsel of the American Bar Association, and Mr. A. W. McLean, President of the North Carolina State Bar Association, for the purpose of mobilizing the legal forces of the State in accordance with your letter of November 6th, and your telegram of November 13th. I laid this entire matter before these intensely patriotic and distinguished representatives of the Bar of this State, and their judgment in the premises coincides precisely with my own.

I deem this matter of such superlative importance to the maintenance of a proper spirit in North Carolina towards the prosecution of this war, that I am sending this letter by the hands of the Adjutant General of the State in order that I may personally deliver it to you, and, my dear General, for the sake of the cause, I beg you to issue an order permitting the cases now pending under the old rules to be disposed of under the old rules, and there will be no sort of trouble so far as future cases are concerned.

With assurances of great respect, I am,

Very sincerely yours,

[unsigned]

B_G