The 156 district boards which were established as above stated, proved to be the fulcrum of balance between the local boards and the registrants. In practically every instance their members have been chosen from among the most able and conspicuous representatives of the legal and medical professions, and from the fields of industry, commerce, and labor. [Sidenote: Appeal agents appointed.] By regulation the case of every person discharged from the operation of the selective service law by a local board on the ground of dependency was automatically taken to the district board for review, the appeal being noted by Government appeal agents appointed by the Provost Marshal General. [Sidenote: Dependency cases the most difficult.] Registrants whose claims were disallowed by local boards appealed in large numbers to district boards. Thus was obtained a high degree of uniformity of decisions in dependency cases, which were by far the most difficult of determination and disposition, as well as the most numerous, of the classes of cases throughout the first draft. Cases involving claims for discharge on agricultural and industrial grounds, of which district boards have original jurisdiction, are appealable to the President, and to date approximately 20,000 of these have been received and indexed, of which about 80 per cent are claims for discharge based on agricultural grounds and 20 per cent on industrial grounds. Of cases already disposed of on appeal from the district boards less than 7 per cent have been reversed. The pending of an appeal to the President does not operate as a stay of induction into military service except where the district board has expressly so directed, and the number of such stays is negligible. [Sidenote: The total cost of the draft.] The total cost of the draft can not be estimated accurately at this time, but, based upon the data at hand, the total registration and selection of the first 687,000 men has amounted to an approximate expenditure of $5,600,000, or about $8.11 unit cost. [Sidenote: Universal willingness to serve.] [Sidenote: High quality of men obtained.]