Posted on May 18, 2018
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Some six weeks after the United States formally entered the First World War, the U.S Congress passes the Selective Service Act on May 18, 1917, giving the U.S. president the power to draft soldiers.
When he went before Congress on April 2, 1917, to deliver his war message, President Woodrow Wilson had pledged all of his nation’s considerable material resources to help the Allies—France, Britain, Russia and Italy—defeat the Central Powers. What the Allies desperately needed, however, were fresh troops to relieve their exhausted men on the battlefields of the Western Front, and these the U.S. was not immediately able to provide. Despite Wilson’s effort to improve military preparedness over the course of 1916, at the time of Congress’s war declaration the U.S. had only a small army of volunteers—some 100,000 men—that was in no way trained or equipped for the kind of fighting that was going on in Europe.
To remedy this situation, Wilson pushed the government to adopt military conscription, which he argued was the most democratic form of enlistment. To that end, Congress passed the Selective Service Act, which Wilson signed into law on May 18, 1917. The act required all men in the U.S. between the ages of 21 and 30 to register for military service. Within a few months, some 10 million men across the country had registered in response to the military draft.
The first troops of the American Expeditionary Force (AEF), under commander in chief General John J. Pershing, began arriving on the European continent in June 1917. The majority of the new conscripts still needed to be mobilized, transported and trained however, and the AEF did not begin to play a substantial role in the fighting in France until nearly a year later, during the late spring and summer of 1918. By that time, Russia had withdrawn from the conflict due to internal revolution, and the Germans had launched an aggressive new offensive on the Western Front. In the interim, the U.S. gave its allies much-needed help in the form of economic assistance: extending vast amounts of credit to Britain, France and Italy; raising income taxes to generate more revenue for the war effort; and selling so-called liberty bonds to its citizens to finance purchases of products and raw materials by Allied governments in the United States.
By the end of World War I in November 1918, some 24 million men had registered under the Selective Service Act. Of the almost 4.8 million Americans who eventually served in the war, some 2.8 million had been drafted.
When he went before Congress on April 2, 1917, to deliver his war message, President Woodrow Wilson had pledged all of his nation’s considerable material resources to help the Allies—France, Britain, Russia and Italy—defeat the Central Powers. What the Allies desperately needed, however, were fresh troops to relieve their exhausted men on the battlefields of the Western Front, and these the U.S. was not immediately able to provide. Despite Wilson’s effort to improve military preparedness over the course of 1916, at the time of Congress’s war declaration the U.S. had only a small army of volunteers—some 100,000 men—that was in no way trained or equipped for the kind of fighting that was going on in Europe.
To remedy this situation, Wilson pushed the government to adopt military conscription, which he argued was the most democratic form of enlistment. To that end, Congress passed the Selective Service Act, which Wilson signed into law on May 18, 1917. The act required all men in the U.S. between the ages of 21 and 30 to register for military service. Within a few months, some 10 million men across the country had registered in response to the military draft.
The first troops of the American Expeditionary Force (AEF), under commander in chief General John J. Pershing, began arriving on the European continent in June 1917. The majority of the new conscripts still needed to be mobilized, transported and trained however, and the AEF did not begin to play a substantial role in the fighting in France until nearly a year later, during the late spring and summer of 1918. By that time, Russia had withdrawn from the conflict due to internal revolution, and the Germans had launched an aggressive new offensive on the Western Front. In the interim, the U.S. gave its allies much-needed help in the form of economic assistance: extending vast amounts of credit to Britain, France and Italy; raising income taxes to generate more revenue for the war effort; and selling so-called liberty bonds to its citizens to finance purchases of products and raw materials by Allied governments in the United States.
By the end of World War I in November 1918, some 24 million men had registered under the Selective Service Act. Of the almost 4.8 million Americans who eventually served in the war, some 2.8 million had been drafted.
U.S. Congress passes Selective Service Act - May 18, 1917 - HISTORY.com
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THE DRAFT | The Selective Service Act | PBS
Watch the full-length episode at http://video.pbs.org/video/2365472163/?Utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=pbsofficial&utm_campaign=draf_covefullprogram (US Only)...
Thank you for reminding us TSgt Joe C. that the United States Congress passed the Selective Service Act on May 18, 1917, giving the U.S. president the power to draft soldiers.
I turned in my "Draft Card" in October 1974 when I entered the U.S. Army delayed entry program. I exercised my enlistment contract on November 11, 1974 as a 12B combat engineer.
Background from encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net/article/selective_service_act
"Version 1.0|Last updated 08 October 2014
Selective Service Act by Michael Geheran
The Selective Service Act of 1917 was the official name of the military draft signed into law by President Woodrow Wilson following the United States’ entry into World War I. It authorized the federal government to expand the American armed services through conscription and was responsible for drafting approximately 2.8 million men into the U.S. military by November 1918.
President Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924) signed the Selective Service Act into law on 18 May 1917. It authorized the federal government to expand the armed forces through conscription following the United States’ declaration of war on Germany. At the time of the U.S. entry into World War I, the regular army consisted of 127,000 active duty soldiers along with 181,000 reservists in the National Guard, a force wholly inadequate to decisively influence the strategic outcome of the war in Europe. The total force raised by the end of the war numbered 4,412,533 men, including 3,893,340 soldiers, 462,229 sailors, 54,690 marines, and 2,294 Coast Guard troops. Of the 3,893,340 soldiers, 2,810,296 – some 72 percent – had been conscripted under the Selective Service Act.[1]
1917 marked the first time since the American Civil War that the federal government mandated a national draft. While many Western European countries regarded universal conscription as a civic duty and a cornerstone of democratic society, many Americans viewed compulsory military service as an infringement on their civil liberties. The Civil War era draft had been immensely unpopular with the American public. Its most controversial provision allowed draftees to opt out of performing military service by hiring a substitute, a caveat that overwhelmingly benefitted the wealthy. Moreover, the draft had been administered by army officers operating under a quota system, an arrangement known to have encouraged corruption and the coercion of volunteers. Opposition to the draft provoked four days of rioting in New York City in 1863 and resulted in repeated incidents of physical violence against federal officials. The controversial legacy of the Civil War draft reinforced Americans’ distrust of state power and contributed to the continued U.S. reliance on a small, professional army backed by state militias for national defense.
Implementation↑
President Wilson initially sought to avoid imposing a draft and proposed to raise a volunteer force of 1 million men. It was clear that this plan had failed, however, when six weeks later only 73,000 men had volunteered. A plan put forward by former president Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) to raise and lead a volunteer force to fight in Europe, which posed an obvious challenge to the president’s authority, may have further convinced Wilson of the necessity of conscription. Secretary of War Newton D. Baker (1871-1937) was thus tasked with crafting a law that balanced the manpower requirements of the armed forces with widespread domestic concerns over civil liberties. The resulting bill was a radical departure from the Civil War draft. First, it eliminated provisions for substitutes, most exemptions, and enlistment bounties. Second, although the draft contained a legal prohibition against class and group exemptions, skilled workers deemed vital to the national economy were eligible for deferments. A provision was also made for ministers and divinity students, who were permitted to serve in non-combat roles if they belonged to a recognized religion with pacifism as one of its central tenets. Third, unlike in the Civil War, the administration of the draft was placed in civilian control. Draft boards were typically comprised of local officials drawn from pre-existing voting precincts. In theory, if not in practice, they were empowered to issue draft calls and grant deferments based on essential occupations.
The federal government officially designated 5 June 1917 as “Registration Day.” On that date, all males between the ages of twenty-one and thirty were required to register for the “great national lottery,” drawing numbers that determined the order in which they were called for military service. Despite the legal prohibition against preferential treatment, local draft selections often reflected disparities along the lines of social class, race, and ethnicity. Draft boards disproportionately selected immigrants, poor rural farmers, and African-Americans for military service, groups widely deemed expendable by local community leaders, while largely exempting the upper classes.
Dissent↑
Resistance to the draft was significant, especially in rural areas. In addition to the 337,649 “draft deserters” who refused to report for military service, political opposition came from both parties, labor unions, women’s organizations, and interest groups on the political left. Progressive Democrats from Wilson’s party also questioned the government’s authority over individual freedoms, arguing that compulsory service would destroy “democracy at home while fighting for it abroad.” Opponents of the draft challenged the new law in federal court, arguing that it directly violated the Thirteenth Amendment’s prohibition against slavery and involuntary servitude. However, the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the draft act in the Selective Service Draft Law Cases on 7 January 1918. The unanimous decision reaffirmed that the Constitution empowered Congress to declare war and to raise and supply armies.
The original law was amended by Secretary of War Baker in August 1918. It broadened the age range to include all men between eighteen and forty-five and included a provision that allowed conscientious objectors to opt for alternate, non-combat military service. By the end of World War I, some 24 million men had been registered; of these 2.8 million were actually drafted into the armed forces. Despite the inequities of local draft selections and persisting controversies over universal conscription, the Selective Service Act was generally well received by the American public. It constituted a key component of the U.S. war effort, enabling the AEF to deploy some 1 million men to France by June 1918.
Michael Geheran, Clark University
Section Editor: Lon Strauss
Notes
↑ United States Provost Marshal General’s Bureau: Second Report of the Provost Marshal General to the Secretary of War on the Operations of the Selective Service System to December 20, 1918, Washington, D.C. 1919, p. 227.
Selected Bibliography
Chambers, John Whiteclay: To raise an army. The draft comes to modern America, New York; London 1987: Free Press; Collier Macmillan.
Coffman, Edward M.: The war to end all wars. The American military experience in World War I, Lexington 1998: University Press of Kentucky.
Flynn, George Q.: Conscription and democracy. The draft in France, Great Britain, and the United States, Westport 2002: Greenwood Press.
Keene, Jennifer D.: Doughboys, the Great War, and the remaking of America, Baltimore 2001: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Millett, Allan Reed / Maslowski, Peter: For the common defense. A military history of the United States of America, New York; London 1984: Free Press; Collier Macmillan.
Stewart, Richard W. (ed.): American military history. The United States Army in a global era, 1917-2008, volume 2, Washington, D. C. 2010: Center of Military History, U.S. Army.
United States Provost Marshal General’s Bureau: Second report of the Provost Marshal General to the Secretary of War on the operations of the Selective Service System to December 20, 1918, Washington 1919: G.P.O..
Citation
Geheran, Michael: Selective Service Act , in: 1914-1918-online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War, ed. by Ute Daniel, Peter Gatrell, Oliver Janz, Heather Jones, Jennifer Keene, Alan Kramer, and Bill Nasson, issued by Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin 2014-10-08. DOI: 10.15463/ie1418.10414.
License
This text is licensed under: CC by-NC-ND 3.0 Germany - Attribution, Non-commercial, No Derivative Works."
THE DRAFT | The Selective Service Act | PBS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCwlFHJ4lJk
FYI COL Mikel J. Burroughs LTC Stephen C. LTC (Join to see) Lt Col John (Jack) Christensen Lt Col Charlie Brown Maj Bill Smith, Ph.D. Maj William W. "Bill" Price Maj Marty Hogan SCPO Morris Ramsey SSG John Ross SGT Mark Halmrast Sgt Randy Wilber Sgt John H. SGT Gregory Lawritson CPL Dave Hoover SPC Margaret Higgins SrA Christopher Wright Cpl Gabriel F. Cpl Scott McCarroll
I turned in my "Draft Card" in October 1974 when I entered the U.S. Army delayed entry program. I exercised my enlistment contract on November 11, 1974 as a 12B combat engineer.
Background from encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net/article/selective_service_act
"Version 1.0|Last updated 08 October 2014
Selective Service Act by Michael Geheran
The Selective Service Act of 1917 was the official name of the military draft signed into law by President Woodrow Wilson following the United States’ entry into World War I. It authorized the federal government to expand the American armed services through conscription and was responsible for drafting approximately 2.8 million men into the U.S. military by November 1918.
President Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924) signed the Selective Service Act into law on 18 May 1917. It authorized the federal government to expand the armed forces through conscription following the United States’ declaration of war on Germany. At the time of the U.S. entry into World War I, the regular army consisted of 127,000 active duty soldiers along with 181,000 reservists in the National Guard, a force wholly inadequate to decisively influence the strategic outcome of the war in Europe. The total force raised by the end of the war numbered 4,412,533 men, including 3,893,340 soldiers, 462,229 sailors, 54,690 marines, and 2,294 Coast Guard troops. Of the 3,893,340 soldiers, 2,810,296 – some 72 percent – had been conscripted under the Selective Service Act.[1]
1917 marked the first time since the American Civil War that the federal government mandated a national draft. While many Western European countries regarded universal conscription as a civic duty and a cornerstone of democratic society, many Americans viewed compulsory military service as an infringement on their civil liberties. The Civil War era draft had been immensely unpopular with the American public. Its most controversial provision allowed draftees to opt out of performing military service by hiring a substitute, a caveat that overwhelmingly benefitted the wealthy. Moreover, the draft had been administered by army officers operating under a quota system, an arrangement known to have encouraged corruption and the coercion of volunteers. Opposition to the draft provoked four days of rioting in New York City in 1863 and resulted in repeated incidents of physical violence against federal officials. The controversial legacy of the Civil War draft reinforced Americans’ distrust of state power and contributed to the continued U.S. reliance on a small, professional army backed by state militias for national defense.
Implementation↑
President Wilson initially sought to avoid imposing a draft and proposed to raise a volunteer force of 1 million men. It was clear that this plan had failed, however, when six weeks later only 73,000 men had volunteered. A plan put forward by former president Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) to raise and lead a volunteer force to fight in Europe, which posed an obvious challenge to the president’s authority, may have further convinced Wilson of the necessity of conscription. Secretary of War Newton D. Baker (1871-1937) was thus tasked with crafting a law that balanced the manpower requirements of the armed forces with widespread domestic concerns over civil liberties. The resulting bill was a radical departure from the Civil War draft. First, it eliminated provisions for substitutes, most exemptions, and enlistment bounties. Second, although the draft contained a legal prohibition against class and group exemptions, skilled workers deemed vital to the national economy were eligible for deferments. A provision was also made for ministers and divinity students, who were permitted to serve in non-combat roles if they belonged to a recognized religion with pacifism as one of its central tenets. Third, unlike in the Civil War, the administration of the draft was placed in civilian control. Draft boards were typically comprised of local officials drawn from pre-existing voting precincts. In theory, if not in practice, they were empowered to issue draft calls and grant deferments based on essential occupations.
The federal government officially designated 5 June 1917 as “Registration Day.” On that date, all males between the ages of twenty-one and thirty were required to register for the “great national lottery,” drawing numbers that determined the order in which they were called for military service. Despite the legal prohibition against preferential treatment, local draft selections often reflected disparities along the lines of social class, race, and ethnicity. Draft boards disproportionately selected immigrants, poor rural farmers, and African-Americans for military service, groups widely deemed expendable by local community leaders, while largely exempting the upper classes.
Dissent↑
Resistance to the draft was significant, especially in rural areas. In addition to the 337,649 “draft deserters” who refused to report for military service, political opposition came from both parties, labor unions, women’s organizations, and interest groups on the political left. Progressive Democrats from Wilson’s party also questioned the government’s authority over individual freedoms, arguing that compulsory service would destroy “democracy at home while fighting for it abroad.” Opponents of the draft challenged the new law in federal court, arguing that it directly violated the Thirteenth Amendment’s prohibition against slavery and involuntary servitude. However, the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the draft act in the Selective Service Draft Law Cases on 7 January 1918. The unanimous decision reaffirmed that the Constitution empowered Congress to declare war and to raise and supply armies.
The original law was amended by Secretary of War Baker in August 1918. It broadened the age range to include all men between eighteen and forty-five and included a provision that allowed conscientious objectors to opt for alternate, non-combat military service. By the end of World War I, some 24 million men had been registered; of these 2.8 million were actually drafted into the armed forces. Despite the inequities of local draft selections and persisting controversies over universal conscription, the Selective Service Act was generally well received by the American public. It constituted a key component of the U.S. war effort, enabling the AEF to deploy some 1 million men to France by June 1918.
Michael Geheran, Clark University
Section Editor: Lon Strauss
Notes
↑ United States Provost Marshal General’s Bureau: Second Report of the Provost Marshal General to the Secretary of War on the Operations of the Selective Service System to December 20, 1918, Washington, D.C. 1919, p. 227.
Selected Bibliography
Chambers, John Whiteclay: To raise an army. The draft comes to modern America, New York; London 1987: Free Press; Collier Macmillan.
Coffman, Edward M.: The war to end all wars. The American military experience in World War I, Lexington 1998: University Press of Kentucky.
Flynn, George Q.: Conscription and democracy. The draft in France, Great Britain, and the United States, Westport 2002: Greenwood Press.
Keene, Jennifer D.: Doughboys, the Great War, and the remaking of America, Baltimore 2001: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Millett, Allan Reed / Maslowski, Peter: For the common defense. A military history of the United States of America, New York; London 1984: Free Press; Collier Macmillan.
Stewart, Richard W. (ed.): American military history. The United States Army in a global era, 1917-2008, volume 2, Washington, D. C. 2010: Center of Military History, U.S. Army.
United States Provost Marshal General’s Bureau: Second report of the Provost Marshal General to the Secretary of War on the operations of the Selective Service System to December 20, 1918, Washington 1919: G.P.O..
Citation
Geheran, Michael: Selective Service Act , in: 1914-1918-online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War, ed. by Ute Daniel, Peter Gatrell, Oliver Janz, Heather Jones, Jennifer Keene, Alan Kramer, and Bill Nasson, issued by Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin 2014-10-08. DOI: 10.15463/ie1418.10414.
License
This text is licensed under: CC by-NC-ND 3.0 Germany - Attribution, Non-commercial, No Derivative Works."
THE DRAFT | The Selective Service Act | PBS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCwlFHJ4lJk
FYI COL Mikel J. Burroughs LTC Stephen C. LTC (Join to see) Lt Col John (Jack) Christensen Lt Col Charlie Brown Maj Bill Smith, Ph.D. Maj William W. "Bill" Price Maj Marty Hogan SCPO Morris Ramsey SSG John Ross SGT Mark Halmrast Sgt Randy Wilber Sgt John H. SGT Gregory Lawritson CPL Dave Hoover SPC Margaret Higgins SrA Christopher Wright Cpl Gabriel F. Cpl Scott McCarroll
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Lt Col John (Jack) Christensen
Hmm, not sure what happened to my 'Draft Card'. I got drafted after I was already commissioned but not yet on active duty. Suspect Draft Board must have taken it when I was at their office explaining why I couldn't meet their report to order.
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SGT Brian Nile SGT Robert George SFC Shirley Whitfield MSG Mark Million Christine C Cullinan COL Lee Flemming SFC George Smith SrA Christopher Wright LTC (Join to see) PO1 William "Chip" Nagel SSgt Harvey "Skip" Porter SCPO Morris Ramsey SFC William Farrell SGT (Join to see) Alan K. SPC Mike Lake SFC Anthony Beck LTC Greg Henning SSgt (Join to see) Sgt Trevor Barrett
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