no uniformity of detail. Such must necessarily be the case, where the minds of men are differently constituted. If the returns were collected and reported upon a uniform system, by State officers, acting throughout upon the same general plan, and treating alike all the various classes of cases which come in view, and with the time necessary to secure accuracy and uniformity, the present inequality of apportionment would not exist. III. If it should not be thought desirable to have the draft operate directly upon the citizens of the State, but bounties should be found necessary, it would seem that such bounties should be paid by the State, instead of the separate towns, and should be uniform throughout the Commonwealth, without any competition or emulation as to the amount. It may be a question worthy of consideration, whether all bounties should not be raised, like other taxes; that is to say, mainly upon property rather than upon the proportion of able-bodied men in a town; thus equalizing the burden of payment in proportion to the ability to pay. And if bounties are continued, more stringent and severe measures are necessary, to prevent the desertion of recruits who come from abroad, or have no recognized residence, after receiving the money advanced for enlistment. IV. It would also seem that exemptions for physical disability should not be made an element of calculation in an apportionment. The average of well-founded causes of exemption is probably very nearly the same throughout the State; but when hearings of applications for exemption are had, some towns, from their geographical position, facilities of travel, and opportunities for knowledge of individual cases, will be able to bring a much larger number of bodily defects to the knowledge of the commissioner, than other towns which are less favorably situated, or bestow less attention to the subject; and thereby, as has been shown in the recent apportionments in this State, much inequality will be produced, without intentional unfairness. A comparison of three different calculations in the following schedule, all based upon the same state of facts, but upon different returns, will show what wide diversities of result are produced, and in a great degree from this cause alone. Other columns which have been added to the same schedule, may prove suggestive in other points of view, in case legislation upon the subject should be thought advisable. V. It is also worthy of consideration, whether the list of causes for exemption, now allowed by statute, should not be somewhat modified. It may admit of a question, whether any sufficient reason exists, for instance, for exempting firemen from draft, or officers who have held a commission in the militia. And there can be no doubt that persons employed in the naval service of the United States should be expressly exempted, although they are not at present, either by statute, or the instructions issued from the War Department. Quota as it would be on the August enrolment, (42,89288 per cent.,) 2,130. |