View source for Selective Service Act of 1917

{{Short description|Former United States conscription law}}
{{Use American English|date = March 2019}}
{{Use mdy dates|date = March 2019}}
{{Infobox U.S. legislation
| shorttitle        = Selective Service Act of 1917
| othershorttitles  = {{unbulleted list|Conscription Act of 1917|Enrollment Act of 1917}}
| longtitle         = An Act to authorize the President to increase temporarily the military establishment of the United States.
| colloquialacronym =
| nickname          = Selective Draft Act of 1917
| enacted by        = 65th
| effective date    = May 18, 1917
| public law url    =
| cite public law   = {{USPL|65|12}}
| cite statutes at large = {{usstat|40|76}}, Chapter 15
| acts amended      =
| acts repealed     =
| title amended     = [[Title 50 of the United States Code|50 U.S.C.: War and National Defense]]
| sections created  = 50 U.S.C. [https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode50a/usc_sup_05_50.html Appendix] §§&nbsp;201–211, 213, 214
| sections amended  =
| leghisturl      =
| introducedin    = House
| introducedbill  = {{USBill|65|H.R.|3545}}
| introducedby    = [[Julius Kahn (congressman)|Julius Kahn]] ([[Republican Party (United States)|R]]–[[California|CA]])
| introduceddate  = April 27, 1917
| committees      =
| passedbody1     = House
| passeddate1     = April 28, 1917
| passedvote1     = [http://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/65-1/h14 398–24]
| passedbody2     = Senate
| passedas2       = <!-- used if the second body changes the name of the legislation -->
| passeddate2     = April 28, 1917
| passedvote2     = [http://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/65-1/s24 81–8], in lieu of S. 1871
| conferencedate  = May 16, 1917
| passedbody3     = House
| passeddate3     = May 16, 1917
| passedvote3     = [http://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/65-1/h22 198–179]
| agreedbody3     = <!-- used when the other body agrees without going into committee -->
| agreeddate3     = <!-- used when the other body agrees without going into committee -->
| agreedvote3     = <!-- used when the other body agrees without going into committee -->
| agreedbody4     = <!-- used if agreedbody3 further amends legislation -->
| agreeddate4     = <!-- used if agreedbody3 further amends legislation -->
| agreedvote4     = <!-- used if agreedbody3 further amends legislation -->
| passedbody4     = Senate
| passeddate4     = May 17, 1917
| passedvote4     = [http://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/65-1/s52 65–8]
| signedpresident = [[Woodrow Wilson]]
| signeddate      = May 18, 1917
| unsignedpresident = <!-- used when passed without presidential signing -->
| unsigneddate    = <!-- used when passed without presidential signing -->
| vetoedpresident = <!-- used when passed by overriding presidential veto -->
| vetoeddate      = <!-- used when passed by overriding presidential veto -->
| overriddenbody1 = <!-- used when passed by overriding presidential veto -->
| overriddendate1 = <!-- used when passed by overriding presidential veto -->
| overriddenvote1 = <!-- used when passed by overriding presidential veto -->
| overriddenbody2 = <!-- used when passed by overriding presidential veto -->
| overriddendate2 = <!-- used when passed by overriding presidential veto -->
| overriddenvote2 = <!-- used when passed by overriding presidential veto -->
| amendments      =
| SCOTUS cases    =
}}
[[File:I want you for U.S. Army 3b48465u original.jpg|thumb|right|200px|[[Uncle Sam]] pointing his finger at the viewer in order to recruit soldiers for the American Army during World War I, 1917-1918]]
[[File:SheetMusicCoverAmerHeresMyBoy1917.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Sheet music cover for patriotic song, 1917]]

The '''Selective Service Act of 1917''' or '''Selective Draft Act''' ({{USStatute|65|12|40|76|1917|05|18}}) authorized the [[United States federal government]] to raise a national army for [[American entry into World War I|service in World War I]] through [[conscription]]. It was envisioned in December 1916 and brought to President [[Woodrow Wilson]]'s attention shortly after the break in relations with [[German Empire|Germany]] 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]] 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]] in 1918.<ref name="back" />

==History==
===Origins===
At the time of World War I, the [[United States Army|US Army]] 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]] (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.<ref>{{cite book |first=Mark E. |last=Grotelueschen |title=The AEF Way of War: The American Army and Combat in World War I |url=https://archive.org/details/aefwaywar00grot |url-access=limited |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2007 |page=[https://archive.org/details/aefwaywar00grot/page/n22 11]|isbn=9780521864343 }}</ref>

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.<ref>{{cite book |first=Howard |last=Zinn |title=People's History of the United States |publisher=Harper Collins |year=2003 |url=http://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/zinnwarhea14.html |page=364}}</ref> 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]] 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.<ref>{{cite book |first=Edward M. |last=Coffman |title=The War to End All Wars: The American Military Experience in World War I |url=https://archive.org/details/wartoendallwarsa0000coff |url-access=registration |publisher=University Press of Kentucky |year=1998 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/wartoendallwarsa0000coff/page/25 25]–28}}</ref>

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.<ref>{{cite book |first=James |last=Weinstein |title=The Corporate Ideal in the United States 1900–1918 |location=Boston |publisher=Beacon Press |year=1969}}</ref> Many prominent Socialist leaders became pro-war, though the majority did not.<ref>Zinn, pp. 364–365.</ref>

===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.<ref>Coffman, p. 29.</ref> 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.<ref name="sss_wwi">{{cite web|url=http://www.sss.gov/induct.htm|title=Selective Service System: History & Records|access-date=2005-12-27|archive-date=May 7, 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090507211238/http://www.sss.gov/induct.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref> 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 [[draft dodger|"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 "[[Army of the United States|National Army]]" infantry divisions.

===Differences from previous drafts===
[[File:Young men registering for military conscription, New York City, June 5, 1917.jpg|thumb|right|240px|Young men at the first national registration day held in association with the Selective Service Act of 1917.]]

The most important difference between the draft established by the Selective Service Act of 1917 and the [[Enrollment Act|Civil War draft]] was that substitutes were not allowed. During the [[American Civil War|Civil War]], 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:

<blockquote>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.</blockquote>

===National registration days and termination===
During World War I, there were three registrations.<ref>[https://www.archives.gov/research/military/ww1/draft-registration "World War I Draft Registration Cards"], US National Archives</ref>
*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]] in the ''[[Selective Draft Law Cases]]'', {{ussc|245|366|1918}}. The [[United States Solicitor General|Solicitor General]]'s argument and the court's opinion were based primarily on ''Kneedler v. Lane'', 45 Pa. 238, 252 (1863) and [[Emerich de Vattel|Vattel]]'s 1758 treatise ''[[The Law of Nations]]''.<ref name="back">{{cite book |title=Conscription in the United States: Historical Background |oclc=1727243 |last=Leach |first=Jack Franklin |year=1952 |page=vi |publisher=C.E. Tuttle Pub. Co. |location=Rutland, Vermont}}</ref>

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.

{|class="wikitable"
!
!width=25%|Class
!Categories (May 1917 – July 1919)
|-
!I.
!''Eligible and liable for military service.''
|Unmarried registrants with no dependents,<br /> Married registrants with independent spouse or one or more dependent children over 16 with sufficient family income if drafted.
|-
!II.
!''Temporarily deferred, but available for military service.''
|Married registrants with dependent spouse or dependent children under 16 with sufficient family income if drafted.
|-
!III.
!''Temporarily exempted, but available for military service.''
|Local officials.<br /> Registrants who provide sole family income for dependent parents or dependent siblings under 16.<br />Registrants employed in agricultural labor or industrial enterprises essential to the war effort.
|-
!IV.
!''Exempted due to extreme hardship.''
|Married registrants with dependent spouse or dependent children with insufficient family income if drafted.<br /> Registrants with deceased spouse who provide sole family income for dependent children under 16.<br /> Registrants with deceased parents who provide sole family income for dependent siblings under 16.
|-
!V.
!''Exempted or ineligible for induction into military service.''
|State or Federal officials.<br/>Officers and enlisted men in the military or naval service of the United States,<ref name="swarthmore.edu">[https://web.archive.org/web/20070419145610/http://www.swarthmore.edu/Library/peace/conscientiousobjection/MilitaryClassifications.htm Swarthmore College Peace Collection, ''Military Classifications For Draftees'', World War I (1917)]</ref><br/>Licensed pilots employed in the pursuit of their vocation.<ref name="swarthmore.edu"/><br/>Members of the clergy.<br/>Students who on or before May 18, 1917 had been preparing for the ministry in a recognized theological or divinity school.<ref name="swarthmore.edu"/><br/>Registrants who were deemed either medically disabled (permanently physically or mentally unfit) or "morally unfit" for military service.<br/>Registrants shown to have been convicted of any crime designated as treason or felony, or an "infamous" crime.<ref name="swarthmore.edu"/><br/>[[Enemy alien]]s and [[resident alien]]s.<ref name="swarthmore.edu"/>
|}

==African-Americans==
[[Racial segregation in the United States Armed Forces|The American military was entirely segregated]] at the time of World War I. While the Army had several regiments of black "[[Buffalo Soldier]]s", 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.<ref name=Williams53>{{cite book |first=Chad L. |last=Williams |title=Torchbearers of Democracy: African American Soldiers in the World War I Era |location=Chapel Hill, North Carolina |publisher=University of North Carolina Press |year=2010 |page=53}}</ref> 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.<ref name=Williams53 />

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.<ref name=Williams53 /> The August 1917 [[Houston Riot (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.<ref>Williams, ''Torchbearers of Democracy'', p. 54.</ref> Only two black combat units were ultimately established – the [[92nd Infantry Division (United States)|92nd]] and [[93rd Infantry Division (United States)|93rd Infantry Divisions]].<ref>Williams, ''Torchbearers of Democracy'', p. 2.</ref> Black Americans were entirely excluded from the [[United States Marine Corps]] and were consigned to menial labor in the [[United States Navy]] for the duration of the war.<ref>Williams, ''Torchbearers of Democracy'', p. 6.</ref>

==See also==
* [[Conscription in the United States]]
* [[Selective Service System]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
{{External links|section|date=October 2023}}
{{Wikisource}}
* Geheran, Michael: [https://encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net/article/selective_service_act Selective Service Act], in: [https://encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net/home.html 1914-1918-online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War].
* Strauss, Lon: [https://encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net/article/social_conflict_and_control_protest_and_repression_usa Social Conflict and Control, Protest and Repression (USA)], in: [https://encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net/home.html 1914-1918-online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War].
*[https://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.]
*[https://www.loc.gov/topics/world-war-i/ "World War I." Library of Congress Online. Last accessed May 9, 2017.]
*[https://www.loc.gov/law/help/statutes-at-large/65th-congress/session-1/c65s1ch15.pdf?loclr=blogloc-ww1 "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.]
*[https://www.loc.gov/law/help/statutes-at-large/65th-congress/session-2/c65s2ch166.pdf?loclr=blogloc-ww1 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.]

{{Woodrow Wilson}}
{{World War I}}

[[Category:1917 in American law]]
[[Category:1917 in military history]]
[[Category:65th United States Congress]]
[[Category:Conscription in the United States]]
[[Category:Conscription law]]
[[Category:United States federal defense and national security legislation]]
[[Category:United States in World War I]]
[[Category:World War I legislation]]