APPENDIX C. Graduated numbers of the male population of the continental United States, ages 18-49, by single years of life and conjugal condition, estimated for the year 1918. NOTE. The actual age returns, by single years of life, according to the census, include numerous inaccuracies in matters of minor detail. It has therefore seemed, advisable to graduate the data in conformity to standardized methods of statistical practice. The combined totals for the three groups, by conjugal condition, varies slightly from the estimated graduated total, but the differences are relatively unimpor tant. The estimates are, of course, without reference to the effect of the first and second selective drafts and the mortality of the American forces at home and abroad since the outbreak of the war. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, Washington, August 20, 1918. DEAR SIR: In response to a telephone request from the clerk of your committee just received, I am inclosing three memoranda prepared in the Legislative Reference Division bearing on the question of the age limits in the pending military-service bill. The note on the recent extension of the franchise in Great Britain to young men of 19 in the military or naval service is pertinent to the question because it shows a recognition of the relation between the right to vote and liability to military service. Very truly, yours, Hon. S. H. DENT, Jr., J. DAVID THOMPSON, Chairman House Military Affairs Committee, Law Librarian. AGE LIMITS IN THE CIVIL WAR DRAFT LAWS. The act of March 3, 1863 (12 Stat., 731) provided for the enrollment and liability to military service of male persons "between the ages of 20 and 45 years," in two classes: (1) Men "between the ages of 20 and 35 years" and unmarried men "above the age of 35 and under the age of 45"; (2) all other persons subject to military duty. The act of February 24, 1864 (13 Stat., 7, sec. 6), provided for the enrollment of 'persons who shall arrive at the age of 20 years before the draft," and the discharge of 'persons who, between the time of the enrollment and the draft, shall have arrived at the age of 45 years." The same act repealed (p. 8, sec. 11) the provision for dividing the persons subject to military duty into two classes. No act of Congress authorized the drafting of persons under the age of 20 during the Civil War period. W. H. MCCLEnon. AUGUST 20, 1918. CANADA-AGE LIMITS IN THE MILITARY SERVICE ACT, 1917. Division into classes.-Section 3 provides as follows: 3. (1) The men who are liable to be called out shall consist of six classes described as follows: Class 1: Those who have attained the age of 20 years and were born not earlier than the year 1883 and are unmarried, or are widowers but have no child. Class 2: Those who have attained the age of 20 years and were born not earlier than the year 1883 and are married, or are widowers who have a child or children. Class 3: Those who were born in the years 1876 to 1882, both inclusive, and are unmarried, or are widowers who have no child. Class 4: Those who were born in the years 1876 to 1882, both inclusive, and are married, or are widowers who have a child or children. Class 5: Those who were born in the years 1872 to 1875, both inclusive, and are unmarried, or are widowers who have no child. Class 6: Those who were born in the years 1872 to 1875, both inclusive, and are married, or are widowers who have a child or children. (2) For the purposes of this section, any man married after the 6th day of July, 1917, shall be deemed to be unmarried. (3) Any class, except class 1, shall include men who are transferred thereto from another class as hereinafter provided, and men who have come within class 1 since the previous class was called out. (4) The order in which the classes are described in this section shall be the order in which they may be called out on active service, provided the governor in council may divide any class into subclasses, in which case the subclasses shall be called out in order of age beginning with the youngest. Termination of liability.-Section 2 (1) provides that a man shall cease to be liable to military service if he reaches the age of 45 before the class or subclass to which he belongs, as described in section three, is called out. GREAT BRITAIN-EXTENSION OF THE FRANCHISE TO YOUNG MEN OF 19 IN THE MILITARY OR NAVAL SERVICE. Subsection (4) of section 5 of the representation of the people act, 1918, which received the royal assent on February 6, 1918, provides as follows: "(4) A male naval or military voter who has served or hereafter serves in or in connection with the present war shall, notwithstanding anything in this or any other act, be entitled to be registered as a parliamentary elector if that voter at the commencement of service had attained, or during service attains, the age of 19 years, and is otherwise qualified." O 2d Session. RESTORATION TO ENTRY OF 80-ROD STRIP No. 760. AUGUST 23, 1918.-Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union and ordered to be printed. Mr. SULZER, from the Committee on the Public Lands, submitted the following REPORT. [To accompany H. R. 12210.] The Committee on the Public Lands, to which was referred the bill (H. R. 12210) providing an amendment to the homestead laws as extended to Alaska, having had the same under consideration, respectfully recommend its passage without amendment. The act of May 14, 1898 (30 Stat. L., 409), extended the homestead laws of the United States to Alaska and contained the following proviso: Provided, That no entry shall be allowed extending more than eighty rods along the shore of any navigable water, and along such shore a space of at least eighty rods shall be reserved from entry between all such claims. This provision of the homestead laws has been applicable only in the Territory of Alaska, and has had the effect of greatly retarding the settlement and development of the Territory. The coast line of Alaska is 26,000 miles in extent, and the river frontage measured on both sides of all navigable streams must be several times the length of the coast, as the departments have found it necessary, under the law, to consider all streams navigable that would float the smallest craft at any season of the year. The sinuosities of the coast and rivers of Alaska are remarkably extensive, and the effect of this 80-rod reservation has been the elimination from entry of probably 50,000 miles of land fronting on waterways. Topographical and other natural conditions have made it very difficult to locate agricultural entries upon suitable land without coming in conflict with this 80-rod space required to be reserved between all entries of every nature. These waste spaces have prevented cooperation among settlers, and they exert a most depressing influence upon development. The isolation of the farmer in Alaska must be serious enough under the best circumstances, but with this arbitrary wilderness barrier erected by law between all neighbors the attractiveness of farm life along the waterways of Alaska has not been great. Most of the agricultural lands of Alaska are covered with a heavy growth of scrub timber and brush, and these 80-rod reserve spaces intervening between each location make a community development almost impossible. Naturally the pioneer settlers in a wilderness must. work along the lines of least resistance and must locate where they have some means of transportation; therefore the early homesteads have been located largely along the streams and waterways. The Alaska homestead laws were further amended by the act of March 3, 1903 (32 Stat. L., 1028), as follows: Provided, That no entry shall be allowed extending more than one hundred and sixty rods along the shore of any navigable water, and along such shore a space of at least eighty rods shall be reserved from entry between all such claims. This amendment prevented the location of any entry having a frontage of more than 160 rods along the shore of any navigable water in Alaska, and this act has been interpreted to mean a width not greater than 160 rods following the sinuosities of the shore. Many of the waterways of Alaska are of glacial origin, and the volume of these streams fluctuates tremendously during different seasons. The shore lines are constantly changing, and many settlers who originally located only 160 rods along the shore discovered years later by reason of this condition an official survey showed a greater distance. In the meanwhile other locations having been made a distance of 80 rods on either side, they all eventually fell within the 80-rod prohibition, and pioneer settlers found themselves involved in expensive litigation, and after many years of the hardest kind of pioneering and the expenditure of thousands of dollars and the best years of their lives, they eventually found their applications for patent denied because of technical violations of a burdensome law. It is this condition that the people of Alaska and the administrative officials of the Government seek to have remedied by the passage of this bill. Along the Alaskan coast there are tens of thousands of islands, many of which are most suitable for agricultural development, but owing to the very irregular contour of the shore lines many complications have arisen which make the administration of the present law impracticable and prevents the settlement of these lands. One of Alaska's greatest industries is the fisheries, and in order to properly protect and develop this great resource it is very necessary to get the Alaskan fishing population permanently settled along the shores. Such a settlement will afford an intelligent and interested labor supply and be the means of stimulating an all-year production in many lines instead of the present short summer season. settlement will create homes with small truck gardens and dairies that can be carried on in connection with the fisheries, and the population being permanently attached to the soil will give an assurance of the best protection and preservation of the food-fish supply. The prohibitions in the present law practically prevent the development of such a population. Such There are many cases pending in the Land Office that require the passage of this bill before justice can be done to many worthy Alaskan citizens. Parts of a few of the letters received from Alaskans will suffice to show the great injustice that would be done by a failure of Congress to grant the relief provided by this measure. JUNEAU, ALASKA, January 14, 1918. The HONORABLE COMMISSIONER OF THE GENERAL LAND Office, Washington, D. C. DEAR SIR: It is nearly two years since I received your letter stating my homestead papers had been sent to the honorable Secretary. When the Secretary of the Interior listed the land for settlement you gave me the land if I complied with the law. I have complied with the law and I have spent all my money to improve the place to make a good home. If I had only known before what this ruling would be perhaps my dear wife would be alive. Some party told her we would never get patent to this land, and she started |