
The Selective Service Act of 1917 or Selective Draft Act () authorized the
United States federal government to raise a national army for
service in World War I through
conscription
Conscription, also known as the draft in the United States and Israel, is the practice in which the compulsory enlistment in a national service, mainly a military service, is enforced by law. Conscription dates back to antiquity and it conti ...
. It was envisioned in December 1916 and brought to President
Woodrow Wilson
Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856February 3, 1924) was the 28th president of the United States, serving from 1913 to 1921. He was the only History of the Democratic Party (United States), Democrat to serve as president during the Prog ...
's attention shortly after the break in relations with
Germany
Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...
in February 1917. The Act itself was drafted by then-Captain (later Brigadier General)
Hugh S. Johnson after the United States entered
World War I
World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
by declaring war on Germany. The Act was canceled with the end of the war on November 11, 1918. The Act was upheld as constitutional by the
United States Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that turn on question ...
in 1918.
History
Origins
At the time of World War I, the
US Army
The United States Army (USA) is the primary land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of the United Stat ...
was small compared with the mobilized armies of the European powers. As late as 1914, the Regular Army had under 100,000 men, while the
National Guard
National guard is the name used by a wide variety of current and historical uniformed organizations in different countries. The original National Guard was formed during the French Revolution around a cadre of defectors from the French Guards.
...
(the organized militias of the states) numbered around 115,000. The
National Defense Act of 1916 authorized the growth of the Army to 165,000 and the National Guard to 450,000 by 1921, but by 1917 the Army had only expanded to around 121,000, with the National Guard numbering 181,000.
By 1916, it had become clear that any participation by the United States in the conflict in Europe would require a far larger army. While President Wilson at first wished to use only volunteer troops, it soon became clear that this would be impossible. When war was declared, Wilson asked for the Army to increase to a force of one million. An astonishing 73,000 men had volunteered within the first day of the war's declaration, but by six weeks after the call, it was clear that waiting for more self-elected men wouldn't be compatible with the intended plans of quickly mobilizing a fighting force to Europe. Wilson then accepted the recommendation of Secretary of War
Newton D. Baker for a draft.
General
Enoch H. Crowder, the
Judge Advocate General of the United States Army, when first consulted, was opposed. But later, with the assistance of Captain Hugh Johnson and others, Crowder guided the bill through Congress and administered the draft as the
Provost Marshal General.
A problem that came up in the writing of the bill and its negotiation through Congress was the desire of former President
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt Jr. (October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), also known as Teddy or T.R., was the 26th president of the United States, serving from 1901 to 1909. Roosevelt previously was involved in New York (state), New York politics, incl ...
to assemble a volunteer force to go to Europe. President Wilson and others, including army officers, were reluctant to permit this for a variety of reasons. The final bill contained a compromise provision permitting the president to raise four volunteer divisions, a power Wilson did not exercise.
To persuade an uninterested populace to support the war and the draft,
George Creel, a veteran of the newspaper industry, became the United States' official war propagandist. He set up the
Committee on Public Information, which recruited 75,000 speakers, who made 750,000 four-minute speeches in 5,000 cities and towns across America. Creel later helped form the American Alliance for Labor and Democracy, with union leader
Samuel Gompers as president, to win working-class support for the war and "unify sentiment in the nation". The AALD had branches in 164 cities, and many labor leaders went along although "rank-and-file working class support for the war remained lukewarm ...", and the campaign was ultimately unsuccessful. Many prominent Socialist leaders became pro-war, though the majority did not.
Effects
By the guidelines set down by the Selective Service Act, all males aged 21 to 30 were required to register to potentially be selected for military service. At the request of the War Department, Congress amended the law in August 1918 to expand the age range to include all men 18 to 45, and to bar further volunteering. By the end of World War I, some two million men volunteered for various branches of the armed services, and some 2.8 million had been drafted.
This meant that more than half of the almost 4.8 million Americans who served in the armed forces were drafted. Due to the effort to incite a patriotic attitude, the World War I draft had a high success rate, with fewer than 350,000 men
"dodging" the draft. Section 7 of the act provided that men would be "as far as practicable...grouped into units by States and the political subdivisions of the same," the most prominent example being the "
National Army" infantry divisions.
Differences from previous drafts
The most important difference between the draft established by the Selective Service Act of 1917 and the
Civil War draft was that substitutes were not allowed. During the
Civil War
A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...
, a drafted man could avoid service by hiring another man to serve in his place. A mostly inaccurate perception spread that substitutes were used primarily by wealthy men and was resented by those who could not afford them or considered them dishonorable.
The practice of substitutes was prohibited in Section Three of the Selective Service Act of 1917:
No person liable to military service shall hereafter be permitted or allowed to furnish a substitute for such service; nor shall any substitute be received, enlisted, or enrolled in the military service of the United States; and no such person shall be permitted to escape such service or to be discharged therefrom prior to the expiration of his term of service by the payment of money or any other valuable thing whatsoever as consideration his release from military service or liability there to.
National registration days and termination
During World War I, there were three registrations.
*The first, on June 5, 1917, was for all men between the ages of 21 and 30.
*The second, on June 5, 1918, registered those who attained age 21 after June 5, 1917. A supplemental registration, included in the second registration, was held on August 24, 1918, for those becoming 21 years old after June 5, 1918.
*The third, on September 12, 1918, was for men age 18 through 45.
The Selective Service Act was upheld by the
United States Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that turn on question ...
in the ''
Selective Draft Law Cases'', . The
Solicitor General's argument and the court's opinion were based primarily on ''Kneedler v. Lane'', 45 Pa. 238, 252 (1863) and
Vattel's 1758 treatise ''
The Law of Nations''.
After the signing of the armistice of November 11, 1918, the activities of the Selective Service System were rapidly curtailed. On March 31, 1919, all local, district, and medical advisory boards were closed, and on May 21, 1919, the last state headquarters closed operations. The Provost Marshal General was relieved from duty on July 15, 1919, thereby finally terminating the activities of the Selective Service System of World War I.
Draft categories
Conscription was by class. The first candidates were to be drawn from Class I. Members of each class below Class I were available only if the pool of all available and potential candidates in the class above it were exhausted.
African-Americans
The American military was entirely segregated at the time of World War I. While the Army had several regiments of black "
Buffalo Soldiers", many politicians such as Sen.
James K. Vardaman (Mississippi) and Sen.
Benjamin Tillman (South Carolina) staunchly opposed any expanded military role for black Americans. Nevertheless, the War Department decided to include black people in the draft.
A total of 2,290,527 black Americans were ultimately registered for the draft during the two calls of June 2 and September 12, 1917 – 9.6 percent of the total American pool for potential conscription.
Draft board officials were told to tear off the lower left-hand corner of the Selective Service form of a black registrant, indicating his designation for segregated units.
The August 1917
Houston Riot, when armed black soldiers fired upon Houston police and civilians, also affected the War Department's decision-making. The great majority of black soldiers were employed only in labor functions, such as road-building and freight-handling. Only two black combat units were ultimately established – the
92nd and
93rd Infantry Divisions. Black Americans were entirely excluded from the
United States Marine Corps
The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines or simply the Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is responsible for conducting expeditionar ...
and were consigned to menial labor in the
United States Navy
The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...
for the duration of the war.
[Williams, ''Torchbearers of Democracy'', p. 6.]
See also
*
Conscription in the United States
In the United States, military conscription, commonly known as the draft, has been employed by the U.S. federal government in six conflicts: the American Revolutionary War, the American Civil War, World War I, World War II, the Korean War, and ...
*
Selective Service System
The Selective Service System (SSS) is an Independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the United States government that maintains a database of registered male U.S. Citizenship of the United States, citizens and o ...
References
External links
* Geheran, Michael
Selective Service Act in
* Strauss, Lon
Social Conflict and Control, Protest and Repression (USA) in
*
ttps://blogs.loc.gov/loc/2016/09/world-war-i-conscription-laws/ Wood, Margaret. "World War I: Conscription Laws." ''Library of Congress Blog.'' September 13, 2016. Last accessed May 9, 2017.br>
"World War I." Library of Congress Online. Last accessed May 9, 2017."An Act To authorize the President to increase temporarily the Military Establishment of the United States." ''Statutes at Large.'' May 18, 1917, H.R. 3545. Last accessed May 9, 2017.An Act Amending the Act entitled "An Act to authorize the President to increase temporarily the Military Establishment of the United States," approved May eighteenth, nineteen hundred and seventeen. ''Statutes at Large.'' Web. August 31, 1918, H.R. 12731. Last accessed May 9. 2017.
{{World War I
1917 in American law
1917 in military history
65th United States Congress
Conscription in the United States
Conscription law
United States federal defense and national security legislation
United States in World War I
World War I legislation