IV

REPORT OF THE WAR COMMITTEE 1

THE War Committee begs leave to submit the following report:

This committee was appointed pursuant to a resolution adopted at the last annual meeting. Its duties were not defined; but as the war progressed, the committee has assumed that it could perform a useful function by gathering information as to the war work being done by lawyers throughout the state, and by determining whether such work could be usefully coördinated.

At the last annual meeting of the Association, the chairman of the committee made a comprehensive statement of the war work undertaken by lawyers in the city of New York (Annual Report, 1918, page 212). That work has continued with increasing activity. The Executive Committee of the War Committee of the Bar of the City of New York has recently made a comprehensive report concerning its activities and those of the Legal Advisory Boards, and your commit、 tee is of the opinion that so far as the city of New York is concerned, it can do no better than file that report as a part of its report. It is, therefore, annexed hereto and marked "Schedule 1." (Schedules 2, 3 and 4 contain merely statistical information and are omitted.)

Your committee has sought to obtain from other parts of the state information as to the activities of members of the bar in war work. It addressed a circular letter to the chairmen of 57 Legal Advisory

1 Report presented by Mr. Taft as chairman of the War Committee of the Association at the annual meeting of the New York State Bar Association held in New York City January 17-18, 1919.

Boards and the presidents of 54 county and other local bar associations.

There have been received 93 responses, reporting more or less fully what has been done. These have a certain historical value to the profession and they have therefore been delivered to the secretary of the Association in order that they may be preserved in its archives.

The work of lawyers in the rural communities has been of the same general character as that in the cities of the state. Practically the entire bar of the state has been engaged in war work similar to that done in the city of New York by both the War Committee of that city and the Legal Advisory Boards, which was fully described in the address of the chairman of this committee at the last annual meeting and also in the report of the War Committee just referred to. In some parts of the state the Legal Advisory Boards have not only aided in the enforcement of the Selective Service Law, but have also given free advice to enlisted men and their dependents, and engaged in patriotic work of a general character. In other parts of the state bar associations have organized the work. In no place outside of the city of New York has the work been of such a volume as to require an organization like the War Committee of the Bar of the City of New York, although in some cases the Legal Advisory Boards have appointed sub-committees to advise enlisted men, and much more frequently than in the city of New York, have registrants, enlisted men and their dependents been advised by lawyers at their offices. In many parts of the state the work of lawyers has been organized to aid in Liberty Loan and War Savings Stamp campaigns, and they have also coöperated in the drives of the Red Cross, the Young Men's Christian

Association, the Young Women's Christian Association, the Knights of Columbus, the Jewish Welfare Board, the War Camp Community Service, the American Library Association and the Salvation Army. They have also actively participated as "Four Minute" men in making patriotic speeches, and have naturally had to deal with war risk insurance investigations and matters of allotments to dependents of enlisted men. In some parts of the state where there were few lawyers, it has been necessary for them to call to their aid laymen who were directed by lawyers in the work of aiding registrants to fill in questionnaires. Thus, in the county of Essex, where the entire bar numbers only 20 lawyers, it was necessary to call to their aid 73 laymen with whose coöperation the legal advisory work of the county was efficiently performed.

The work of the lawyers was, of course, everywhere performed gratuitously and apparently with industry and patriotic ardor. The work was organized in the manner best adapted to the locality and particularly with reference to the means of transportation. In some of the counties headquarters had to be established at a central point and branch committees organized for the convenience of registrants, while in the larger cities it became necessary to organize auxiliary and local boards with an adequate number of associate members.

The committee has obtained from the Selective Service Headquarters, formerly the Adjutant General's office, which is the agency through which the Governor has acted in administering the Selective Service Law, certain statistical information which has historical value, and which it deems advisable to place in the archives of the Association.

There were approximately 12,000 Associate Members

of Legal Advisory Boards in this state, of whom about 5,330 were in the city of New York, all except a negligible number being lawyers. In each of 58 districts constituted by the Governor, which, except in the case of large cities, corresponded with the counties of the state, three Permanent Members of the Legal Advisory Boards and a sufficient number of Associate Members were appointed. In each district for which a Local (Exemption) Board was established, a Government Appeal Agent was appointed. In most of the counties this officer was the District Attorney or the Corpor ation Counsel, although in the larger cities it was not possible to fill the office in that way. That was particularly the case in New York City. The duties of the office required the appointment of a lawyer and the duties of the agents were generally arduous and of great value to the local boards. There were 435 appeal agents appointed. It is estimated by Major Hutchinson, in charge of the Selective Service Headquarters at Albany, that ninety-five per cent. of all registrants throughout the state received the assistance of members of the Legal Advisory Boards. The magnitude of the work may be inferred from the fact that 2,521,988 men were registered in this state, of whom 1,482,859 were registered in New York City. Each of the twelve thousand Associate Members of the Legal Advisory Boards thus advised on the average 200 registrants.

Your committee has been furnished by the Provost Marshal General with some interesting information concerning the participation of lawyers throughout the country in the execution of the Selective Service Law. Approximately 1,500 lawyers have been members of local boards; and many attorneys served upon the District Boards which held the relation of appellate