William A. Chatfield knows of about 1 million young men who are committing a felony, but he doesn't want the government to put them in jail.

As director of the Selective Service System, it's Mr. Chatfield's job to persuade men 18 to 25 to register with the government in the event they are needed for a wartime draft. He's got 15.8 million names now, and he'll be looking for more this weekend at the Wings Over Pittsburgh air show at the 911th Airlift Wing Air Force Reserve Base in Moon.

Mr. Chatfield travels the country spreading the message that men are required by law to register with the Selective Service within 30 days of their 18th birthday. Their names go into a database, to be used if needed, up until their 26th birthday. President Jimmy Carter ordered creation of the current registration process in 1980.

It's been 18 years since the U.S. Justice Department prosecuted anyone for failure to register, but Mr. Chatfield said there are other ways reluctant individuals are convinced.

Primarily, they are ineligible for government-sponsored student loans and grants and for certain government jobs if they don't have a Selective Service number to put on their applications. If they haven't registered by age 26, they're ineligible for any of that assistance thereafter.

"I'd rather be more gentlemanly and use the carrot instead of the stick" to promote compliance, Mr. Chatfield said in a phone interview yesterday.

One of his reasons for visiting Allegheny County is its relatively low rate of compliance with registration requirements. Registration among 18-year-olds is 65 percent locally, compared with 76 percent nationally. For 19-year-olds, it's 84 percent in the county, compared with 92 percent nationally, and although local compliance increases at every age thereafter, it remains lower than the national average.

Mr. Chatfield said the rest of Pennsylvania is similar to Allegheny County in compliance. The relatively straightforward explanation, he said, is that the state lacks any linkage between its driver's license registration and Selective Service sign-ups.

He said 36 states have established a process for their transportation departments to forward driver's license applicants' names automatically to the Selective Service database upon their 18th birthdays.

He was uncertain why Pennsylvania has failed to set up such a system, which would require legislative action, but wishes it would.

"Someone well before my tenure came up with the idea of linking a young man's knowledge of compliance with the most important day of his young life, obtaining a driver's license," Mr. Chatfield said. "It puts him in a ready queue for when he's 18, like one-stop shopping."

Even without automatic sign-ups, the Selective Service does receive a list from the Bureau of Motor Vehicles of drivers 18 or younger, he said. The federal agency then mails to their homes notices of the requirement that they either register online, at www.sss.gov, or at a local post office.

That message is supplemented with public service announcements and use of high school guidance counselors as registrars, notifying students who are about to turn 18 and signing them up on the spot by computer.

"I'd like to think that the only reason a young man would not have for complying with federal law, and risk losing benefits and tuition assistance, is because he doesn't get the word," Mr. Chatfield said.

At air shows and elsewhere, he said, he still runs into people who believe all registration requirements halted with the end of the draft in 1973.

Mr. Chatfield said running the registration process with near 100 percent compliance is what will keep the country prepared, "as a very low-cost insurance policy" in the event of war, and help assure a fair draft if one is needed.

There has been little talk, he said, of extending Selective Service registration to women, which would require an act of Congress.

"You can only imagine that, in an election year or not, it might not be a popular thing for [federal lawmakers'] constituent base," he said. "I don't foresee that happening."