COPY
WAR DEPARTMENT
Official Business.

October 17, 1918.

From: Local Board for Gaston County, Gastonia, N. C.
To: The Adjutant General, Raleigh, N. C.
Subject: Worth C. Carpenter, Order 3462 (No 3,328,430, 53rd Co., 5th group, M. T. Depot).

Replying to your favor of the 7th inst., in reference to above registrant, we note that the communication to you from Camp Hancock, Ga., states that above registrant was granted an indefinite furlough, and that he was ordered to report to the Harden Manufacturing Company, Worth, N. C. for employment, and that said furlough is effective until revoked by the War Department,

Ordinarily, this Board does not concern itself regarding the disposition of registrants after induction. In this particular case, however, for reasons shown in the record, the Board is much concerned. The father of this registrant has been most defiant both to the Local and District Boards, as well as the Local Examining and Medical Advisory Boards. He has assumed an attitude which carries some weight to pro-German sympathizers in the county, and people who are slackers just as far as their moral courage will permit them, that the Boards referred to are not to be considered in these matters in his case, as he is wholly within the hands of Washington, as he terms it. His father, a man of considerable means and influence, and the owner of the Harden Manufacturing Company, to which registrant has been returned, for employment, has employed counsel on many occasions to represent him in this matter, and has left no stone unturned to extricate registrant from the draft, not because he was either useful or needed about his father's business, but for the reason that he did not want to see either of his boys, of whom he has three, serve as a soldier and at the present status, none are serving as such, though two of them at least ought to be in the service. From the inception of the draft, a bitter and determined fight was made on behalf of registrant before the Local Board and District and the Examining and Medical Advisory Boards. Unwarranted and untruthful representations were made, and boldly used for the purpose of deception, to the end that deferred classification be given. After many and full hearings the Boards placed him in Class I, Division A, and he was inducted regularly, though many months subsequent to the time when his order number was called, the failure being due to tactics adopted to avoid or put off the date of induction, and your office will show that at the time of his induction numerous telegrams were sent to Adjutant General Young for the purpose of holding up and delaying the induction beyond the hour of mobilization, and at the last moment gave this office and your office considerable trouble. The prominence of the parties waging the fight and the character of the fight combined with the universal sentiment existing in the county that the registrant had no grounds upon which to justify and in truth base a claim for deferred classification; aroused intense interest throughout the county in the case. The action of the Board in inducting the registrant met with the general approval of the people in the county. In no other case presented to us, has the integrity of the Board in the eyes of the public and the prestige of the Board been so much at stake. Members of registrant's family, and some of his near relatives and pronounced pro-German sympathizers, and this fact also is generally known, and we have had difficulty in doing our duty, in connection with some of them. An uncle became so bitter and bold in his expression that it became advisable to lay the matter before the Department of Justice.

Now in view of what has been stated, and much of the same character could be set forth, we find that the public of the county, not alone this Board, is much worked up over the appearance of this inducted man at his home in citizen's clothes, with an indefinite furlough, and an order to work for his father. Here we might say that this young man is of very bad morals, and has since his return here, seen riding in an automobile with lewd women. The whole matter is, or appears to be irregular. Throughout his life he has been more of a liability than an asset to his father. He is not now and has not been needed to manage any part of his father's business, and any pretense that he is so needed, is one hatched for the especial purpose of evading the draft service. People believe and we can neither explain or satisfy them to the contrary, that there has been gross irregularity some where along the line, and favoritism manifested in a case without the least show of merit or justice. This falls with great weight upon the Local Board, and it is suffering and has for some weeks been suffering from the situation thus created. A request for a furlough we never presented to this office, and was granted without the knowledge of the Board. The matter is of such grave moment to us as an official body endeavoring to facilitate the draft work in this county, which is difficult at best, and to us personally, by reason of our merit as we believe, to be above suspicion in the discharge of our duties, that we are constrained to request that you advise with his Excellency, the Governor, to the end that the War Department be requested to submit through you, first: the reasons prompting the department to grant an indefinite furlough; second, the person or body at whose solicitation same was granted.

With request that you act favorably upon this request, at the earliest convenient moment, we are

Very truly yours,

Local Board for the County of Gaston,
Gastonia, N. C.

By:
(Sgd) Thos. L. Craig,
Chairman.

Copy to His Excellency,
Hon. T. W. Bickett, Governor.