College Students Face Increase in Draft Call

A Presidential order announced yesterday may increase the number of college men drafted by the armed services.

The new decree puts childless men between 19 and 25 at the top of the list in the order of men drafted. The ruling also now makes it possible for those who are fathers, or are over 26 to escape the draft altogether.

The move, designed to get younger men into the army, alters present selective policy, which has been to call the oldest eligible men under 35, regardless of parental status.

The older men and fathers could conceivably avoid military service, since the present monthly draft, which varies between 6,000 and 16,000, could adequately be filled by the 200,000 entering the 19-25-year-old age group annually, it was learned.

The Presidential order divides registrants into four categories of eligibility:

1.) Childless men between 19 and 25, starting with the oldest.

2.) Fathers between 19 and 25, starting with the oldest.

3.) Those over 26 who have not yet served.

4.) Registrants between 18 1/2 and 19.

Deferments Now Uncertain

Although the decree does not affect present draft deferments, the future of college deferments was uncertain last night.

Undergraduates have generally not been drafted from the College in recent years, but the individual boards have always retained the right to make the necessary inductions to fill their quotas.

The new system, according to a White House spokesman, will secure younger draftees for the Army and obtain more volunteers for the reserve training program initiated last year. The present program permits 18-year-olds to volunteer for a six-month training period in the reserves followed by 7 1/2 years in the ready reserve as a substitute for active service.