REPORT OF THE AUTUMN MEETING 755 
appropriate Reserve Corps or in such br^anch of the service as in your judgment will enable 
them to make their special knowledge and training of greatest use to their country: 
Agriculturists Civil Engineers Pathologists 
Anatomists Electrical Engineers Physicists 
Astronomers Geologists Physiologists 
Bacteriologists Mechanical Engineers Psychologists 
Biologists Metallurgical Engineers ' Zoologists 
Botanists Meteorologists Experts in Public Health, 
Chemists Mining Engineers Hygiene and Sanitation. 
Chemical Engineers 
The Academy Recommends that, pending the working out of the details requisite for the 
establishment of these privileges, the professional men affected by the same be placed in 
Class III of the new classification of drafted men. 
The purpose of the establishment of the Academy by special act of Congress, as stated in 
its charter, was to create an organization whose duty it should be to advise the Government 
on scientific matters. It would be recreant to this duty, therefore, if it failed to point out 
the urgent need of the action recommended above, and to express its firm conviction that to 
win this war our scientifically trained men must be used to do the work which they alone 
can do. The inclusion of such men in Class I of the new draft classification would result in 
a wholly disproportionate loss of national efficiency in comparison with the size of the army 
so created. Of the many grievous losses sustained by our Allies, the one felt most keenly, 
according to their own oft-repeated statements, is that of the scientific men who went to the 
front at the first call, and laid down their lives there. 
These recommendations are prompted by the following further considerations: 
1. The failure of many of the District Boards created by the selective draft legislation, to 
recognize the necessity of retaining these scientific men for the kind of work for which they 
have been especially trained. 
2. The retention of many scientific men as privates in the training camps of the national 
army, who it is believed could render much more valuable service to their country if employed 
in the lines of their special profession. 
3. The eager patriotism of our university men has led large numbers to enlist in the rank 
and file of our Army an,d Navy, and has correspondingly thinned the ranks of students, 
teachers and investigators. There is immediate danger that without specific provision to 
the contrary, the Universities will lack the teachers and students necessary to insure a steady 
flow of new effectives to the industrial and military fronts. 
4. Many industrial establishments now of the utmost importance for the security and de- 
fense of our country, are seriously impeded in their work by the fact that numbers of their 
highly trained scientists already have either been drafted, or have volunteered for service and 
sought commissions for fear thajt they would be drafted and assigned to military duties of 
such a character as would not enable them to render to their country the greatest service of 
which they were capable. The result of this has been to reduce the working force of scien- 
tists in such establishments to the point where, unless further withdrawals are made with the 
greatest care, many of these plants will have to close their doors and go out of business. 
It is respectfully urged that professional students be instructed to enlist in the appropriate 
Reserve Corps of the service, with the privilege of furlough for the completion of their train- 
ing, similar to that adopted to secure the most efficient service of the medical men, and 
that this opportunity be granted only to men of proven ability. Students, teachers, and re- 
search men should be given the opportunity of enlistment with the privilege of furlough or 
discharge subject to the recommendations of the presidents of the institutions concerned. 
For others, the decision should rest with the authorities designated by the Secretary of War. 
In case the Academy can be of assistance in working out any of the details involved in the 
foregoing recommendations, it will esteem it both an honor and a patriotic duty to cooperate 
with whomsoever you may designate. 
