1278 Register At Widener As 18-20 Group Sings Up

Scholarship took a back sent at Widener yesterday as the awesome main reading room became the scene of Selective Service registration for members of the University between 18 and 20. When the weary registrars closed shop at 9 o'clock, 1278 Harvard men had signed up.

Most of the last batch of men who joined the vast manpower pool available for service in the armed forces are not subject to immediate call. As yet there is no law authorizing the drafting of men under 20, but Congress is ready to pass it whenever the Army's demands become strong enough.

Cards Have Long Trips

Since most of the students who registered at Widener gave home addresses far from Cambridge, their cards will follow a complicated route. From Local Board 47 at PBH, the cards travel to the State Board. Here they will be sorted and sent out to the registrants' home boards, where they will be filed.

For the first time in the history of Selective Service, future soldiers will not be picked out of a goldfish bowl. Except for the 20-year-olds, men will be listed in order of their birthdays, and questionnaires will go out to them in that order.

Like Ebbets Field

Long before the doors were opened yesterday morning, a sizeable group had collected on the steps in front of the Library, and an hour later the crowd was to large that a few were shunted to a supplementary registration center at PBH.

Widener Reading Room itself presented a strange picture to those who had seen it under less riotous conditions. At several times during the day the rush was overpowering, with waiting registrees obliterating the line of chairs carefully arranged in the lobby. The large group of registrars slowly became acquainted with nine little questions, and as the day advanced got to the point where they could turn out cards in about five minutes.

Widener retained its position as a library through the efforts of a steady but small stream of students who came to read and not to sign up. They seemed to succeed despite the interference of the war and the yellow-clad nurses who helped with the registering.