Judge — June 22, 1918 — page 3: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# "A Plea to the Provost-Marshal" This poem by Howard Dietz addresses General Crowder, the U.S. Provost-Marshal during World War I, who oversaw military draft administration. The satire targets Crowder's draft policies by cataloging occupations the author claims shouldn't be conscripted—gamblers, baseball players, clerks, waiters, peddlers, and others deemed "unessential" but who "look as though they shirk." The final plea is sarcastic: don't draft these "prolific 'potes' who write / What they call the free verse lay." Instead, make them do labor or write in traditional "rhyme and metre"—a jab at modernist free verse poetry as frivolous compared to wartime sacrifice. The author positions himself as this "old-fashioned bard" pleading for exemption. The decoration features figures in classical dress, referencing artistic/literary tradition.