WEBVTT 00:00:00.739 --> 00:00:03.100 Welcome, and thank you for joining us for another 00:00:03.100 --> 00:00:05.980 Deep Dive. I want you to start by picturing the 00:00:05.980 --> 00:00:09.300 United States military as it exists today. You 00:00:09.300 --> 00:00:12.380 are probably imagining a massive, technologically 00:00:12.380 --> 00:00:16.079 advanced, globally deployed force. Right. Hundreds 00:00:16.079 --> 00:00:19.300 of thousands of active duty personnel stationed 00:00:19.300 --> 00:00:21.829 all over the world. Exactly. Well, hold that 00:00:21.829 --> 00:00:23.809 thought, because I want you to completely rewind 00:00:23.809 --> 00:00:26.710 the clock to the year 1914. Just imagine this 00:00:26.710 --> 00:00:30.070 contrast. In 1914, the United States Army had 00:00:30.070 --> 00:00:34.130 fewer than 100 ,000 regular troops. Wow. Yeah. 00:00:34.250 --> 00:00:37.009 And the National Guard. That was sitting at roughly 00:00:37.009 --> 00:00:40.689 115 ,000 men. We are talking about a force that 00:00:40.689 --> 00:00:43.490 was essentially, I mean... just a fraction of 00:00:43.490 --> 00:00:45.530 the size of the mobilized Arnees tearing across 00:00:45.530 --> 00:00:47.170 Europe at the time. It was a completely different 00:00:47.170 --> 00:00:49.289 era for the military. It really was. But fast 00:00:49.289 --> 00:00:51.429 forward just a little bit to when the U .S. officially 00:00:51.429 --> 00:00:54.390 enters World War I. Suddenly, President Woodrow 00:00:54.390 --> 00:00:57.070 Wilson realizes he doesn't just need a few more 00:00:57.070 --> 00:01:00.250 soldiers. He needs a massive expeditionary force 00:01:00.250 --> 00:01:04.000 of a million men. A million men, instantly. Instantly. 00:01:04.180 --> 00:01:06.920 So they put out the national call for volunteers 00:01:06.920 --> 00:01:10.379 expecting this huge tidal wave of patriotism. 00:01:10.939 --> 00:01:13.019 But the actual turnout on that first day was 00:01:13.019 --> 00:01:15.920 frankly shockingly low. It really was a wake 00:01:15.920 --> 00:01:18.640 up call for the administration. On the very first 00:01:18.640 --> 00:01:23.200 day of the war's declaration, only 73 ,000 men 00:01:23.200 --> 00:01:25.379 volunteered across the entire country. Which 00:01:25.379 --> 00:01:27.219 sounds like a lot until you look at the target. 00:01:27.500 --> 00:01:31.299 Exactly. Now, 73 ,000 people deciding to go to 00:01:31.299 --> 00:01:33.500 war in a single day is an astonishing number 00:01:33.500 --> 00:01:36.579 in a vacuum, sure. But when your absolute baseline 00:01:36.579 --> 00:01:39.780 target is 1 million, it is mathematically just 00:01:39.780 --> 00:01:42.799 a drop in the bucket. It became immediately apparent 00:01:42.799 --> 00:01:45.959 to the military brass that relying solely on 00:01:45.959 --> 00:01:48.859 the volunteer spirit of the American public was 00:01:48.859 --> 00:01:50.579 simply not gonna work if they wanted to have 00:01:50.579 --> 00:01:52.760 any actual impact in Europe. And that massive 00:01:52.760 --> 00:01:54.819 shortfall, that's the core of our deep dive today. 00:01:54.879 --> 00:01:57.500 We are focusing entirely on the Selective Service 00:01:57.500 --> 00:02:01.620 Act of 1917. We are pulling from a really comprehensive 00:02:01.620 --> 00:02:03.799 historical article today that breaks down the 00:02:03.799 --> 00:02:06.500 origins, the execution, and the immense societal 00:02:06.500 --> 00:02:09.810 impact of this massive conscription effort. It's 00:02:09.810 --> 00:02:12.169 a fascinating piece of source material. It really 00:02:12.169 --> 00:02:15.250 is. Our mission for this deep dive is to explore 00:02:15.250 --> 00:02:18.590 exactly how the US government solved what was 00:02:18.590 --> 00:02:21.189 essentially an unprecedented mathematical and 00:02:21.189 --> 00:02:24.050 logistical problem. We are going to look at how 00:02:24.050 --> 00:02:26.830 they transformed a relatively small uninterested 00:02:26.830 --> 00:02:30.150 populace into a global fighting force. And we 00:02:30.150 --> 00:02:32.530 will examine the fascinating and sometimes quite 00:02:32.530 --> 00:02:35.110 controversial rules that governed who went to 00:02:35.110 --> 00:02:37.550 war and who got to stay home. OK, let's unpack 00:02:37.550 --> 00:02:39.930 this. To really understand the panic setting 00:02:39.930 --> 00:02:42.009 in at the War Department, we need to look at 00:02:42.009 --> 00:02:44.289 their own internal goals leading up to this, 00:02:44.289 --> 00:02:46.229 right? Yeah, absolutely. There was something 00:02:46.229 --> 00:02:49.740 called the National Defense Act of 1916. That 00:02:49.740 --> 00:02:52.379 act had authorized the steady, deliberate growth 00:02:52.379 --> 00:02:56.259 of the Army to 165 ,000 men and the National 00:02:56.259 --> 00:02:59.479 Guard to 450 ,000. But they had years to do that. 00:02:59.520 --> 00:03:02.300 Right. The crucial detail is that their timeline 00:03:02.300 --> 00:03:06.259 to hit those numbers was 1921. But by the time 00:03:06.259 --> 00:03:09.219 1917 rolled around and the U .S. actually entered 00:03:09.219 --> 00:03:12.300 the war, the Army had only organically expanded 00:03:12.300 --> 00:03:15.919 to about 121 ,000 men, and the National Guard 00:03:15.919 --> 00:03:19.280 was sitting at just 181 ,000. So even by their 00:03:19.280 --> 00:03:22.439 own modest pre -war targets, they were miles 00:03:22.439 --> 00:03:25.180 behind schedule. How did the leadership react 00:03:25.180 --> 00:03:27.259 to that reality? Did President Wilson immediately 00:03:27.259 --> 00:03:30.439 jump to the idea of a draft? He actually didn't. 00:03:30.580 --> 00:03:32.979 Wilson stubbornly wanted to use an all -volunteer 00:03:32.979 --> 00:03:36.340 force at first. Really? Yeah. But within six 00:03:36.340 --> 00:03:38.300 weeks of that initial call for a million men, 00:03:38.780 --> 00:03:41.430 the math was simply undeniable. Waiting around 00:03:41.430 --> 00:03:43.310 for men to self -elect, to leave their farms 00:03:43.310 --> 00:03:45.650 and their factories voluntarily, it just was 00:03:45.650 --> 00:03:47.909 not compatible with the urgent plans to quickly 00:03:47.909 --> 00:03:49.689 mobilize a fighting force and get them across 00:03:49.689 --> 00:03:51.849 the Atlantic. So someone had to be the bearer 00:03:51.849 --> 00:03:54.590 of bad news. Exactly. It was at this breaking 00:03:54.590 --> 00:03:56.610 point that Secretary of War Newton D. Baker stepped 00:03:56.610 --> 00:03:59.229 in and formally recommended a draft to the president. 00:03:59.669 --> 00:04:02.110 I imagine suggesting a national draft wasn't 00:04:02.110 --> 00:04:04.650 an easy sell, even to the military establishment 00:04:04.650 --> 00:04:07.270 itself. The source material mentions someone 00:04:07.270 --> 00:04:09.789 named General Enoch H. Crowder being involved. 00:04:10.319 --> 00:04:12.900 What was his role in all of this? So General 00:04:12.900 --> 00:04:15.259 Crowder was the judge advocate general in the 00:04:15.259 --> 00:04:17.899 United States Army. Essentially, he was the top 00:04:17.899 --> 00:04:20.819 legal officer in the military. When he was first 00:04:20.819 --> 00:04:23.279 consulted about a draft, he was actually opposed 00:04:23.279 --> 00:04:26.120 to it. No kidding. Yeah. But the sheer necessity 00:04:26.120 --> 00:04:28.620 of this situation eventually changed his mind. 00:04:29.279 --> 00:04:31.019 With the help of Captain Eken, who would later 00:04:31.019 --> 00:04:33.339 become Brigadier General Hugh S. Johnson and 00:04:33.339 --> 00:04:35.800 a few others, Crowder didn't just support the 00:04:35.800 --> 00:04:38.860 idea. He guided the bill through Congress. And 00:04:38.860 --> 00:04:41.639 once it passed, Crowder ended up administering 00:04:41.639 --> 00:04:44.600 the entire draft as the Provost Marshal General. 00:04:44.740 --> 00:04:46.699 Wait, let's clarify that term for a second. What 00:04:46.699 --> 00:04:49.220 exactly does a Provost Marshal General do? It 00:04:49.220 --> 00:04:51.180 basically means he was the head of military law 00:04:51.180 --> 00:04:53.420 enforcement. He was the man tasked with taking 00:04:53.420 --> 00:04:56.399 this massive theoretical legal document and turning 00:04:56.399 --> 00:04:59.079 it into a physical reality on the ground across 00:04:59.079 --> 00:05:01.740 thousands of American towns. And Captain Johnson 00:05:01.740 --> 00:05:04.009 was the one writing it. Yes, it's worth noting 00:05:04.009 --> 00:05:06.209 that Captain Hugh S. Johnson is actually the 00:05:06.209 --> 00:05:08.750 person who sat down and drafted the specific 00:05:08.750 --> 00:05:11.509 text of the act itself. While all this incredibly 00:05:11.509 --> 00:05:13.870 dense bureaucratic maneuvering is happening, 00:05:14.350 --> 00:05:17.029 the source text highlights a completely bizarre 00:05:17.029 --> 00:05:20.579 footnote involving a former president. Theodore 00:05:20.579 --> 00:05:23.399 Roosevelt. Oh, this is such a great detail. He 00:05:23.399 --> 00:05:26.139 apparently wanted to just assemble his own personal 00:05:26.139 --> 00:05:28.620 volunteer force and sail off to fight in Europe, 00:05:29.060 --> 00:05:31.660 which honestly sounds like the most Teddy Roosevelt 00:05:31.660 --> 00:05:34.360 thing I have ever heard. It absolutely fits his 00:05:34.360 --> 00:05:37.459 persona to a tee. He envisioned leading a grand 00:05:37.459 --> 00:05:40.589 cavalry charge just like the Rough Riders. But 00:05:40.589 --> 00:05:42.689 President Wilson and the various Army officers 00:05:42.689 --> 00:05:45.850 trying to organize this modern, mechanized war 00:05:45.850 --> 00:05:48.889 were highly reluctant to allow a former president 00:05:48.889 --> 00:05:51.449 to run a rogue volunteer division. I can see 00:05:51.449 --> 00:05:53.310 why that would be a logistical nightmare. Oh, 00:05:53.310 --> 00:05:55.730 entirely. They eventually reached a political 00:05:55.730 --> 00:05:58.269 compromise in the final text of the bill. It 00:05:58.269 --> 00:06:00.009 included a specific provision that permitted 00:06:00.009 --> 00:06:02.509 the president to raise four volunteer divisions. 00:06:02.689 --> 00:06:04.410 But Wilson never actually let him do it, did 00:06:04.410 --> 00:06:06.529 he? He just left the options sitting there on 00:06:06.529 --> 00:06:09.329 the table, completely unexercised. He never touched 00:06:09.329 --> 00:06:12.459 it. The era of the independently raised volunteer 00:06:12.459 --> 00:06:15.279 regiment was over. If we connect this to the 00:06:15.279 --> 00:06:17.860 bigger picture, shifting from a volunteer army 00:06:17.860 --> 00:06:21.879 to a massive, centrally controlled, drafted military 00:06:21.879 --> 00:06:25.160 was a profound philosophical change for the country. 00:06:25.160 --> 00:06:27.420 Because of the scale. Because it fundamentally 00:06:27.420 --> 00:06:29.300 altered the relationship between the American 00:06:29.300 --> 00:06:32.389 citizen and the federal government. For the first 00:06:32.389 --> 00:06:34.629 time on this scale, the government was claiming 00:06:34.629 --> 00:06:37.649 the absolute authority to compel millions of 00:06:37.649 --> 00:06:39.910 individual men to leave their homes, cross an 00:06:39.910 --> 00:06:42.370 ocean and fight a war they previously had very 00:06:42.370 --> 00:06:44.110 little interest in. And that brings us to the 00:06:44.110 --> 00:06:46.829 next massive hurdle. You have the legal authority 00:06:46.829 --> 00:06:49.470 to draft people, sure. But how do you convince 00:06:49.470 --> 00:06:53.050 a highly uninterested, sometimes openly hostile 00:06:53.050 --> 00:06:55.790 populace to actually support this war, let alone 00:06:55.790 --> 00:06:58.230 support a draft? They had to build a public relations 00:06:58.230 --> 00:07:01.050 machine completely from scratch. Exactly. The 00:07:01.050 --> 00:07:03.769 source introduces a man named George Creel. Who 00:07:03.769 --> 00:07:06.750 was he and what was his strategy? George Creel 00:07:06.750 --> 00:07:09.329 was a veteran of the newspaper industry and he 00:07:09.329 --> 00:07:11.569 was brought in to be the United States official 00:07:11.569 --> 00:07:14.259 war propagandist. He established something called 00:07:14.259 --> 00:07:17.060 the Committee on Public Information. And the 00:07:17.060 --> 00:07:19.240 scale of what they accomplished is just staggering. 00:07:19.819 --> 00:07:23.639 They recruited a literal army of 75 ,000 public 00:07:23.639 --> 00:07:26.000 speakers. Wow. They called them the four -minute 00:07:26.000 --> 00:07:28.500 men. Because their speeches were meticulously 00:07:28.500 --> 00:07:31.959 timed to last exactly four minutes. Can you imagine 00:07:31.959 --> 00:07:34.420 trying to get a crowd's attention for four straight 00:07:34.420 --> 00:07:36.879 minutes today? They had essentially invented 00:07:36.879 --> 00:07:39.259 the analog equivalent of a TikTok algorithm. 00:07:39.579 --> 00:07:42.879 Short. punchy, highly targeted content delivered 00:07:42.879 --> 00:07:45.500 everywhere all at once. That's a great way to 00:07:45.500 --> 00:07:49.560 put it. The numbers are wild. These 75 ,000 speakers 00:07:49.560 --> 00:07:53.120 delivered 750 ,000 of these four -minute speeches 00:07:53.120 --> 00:07:56.480 in 5 ,000 different cities and towns across America. 00:07:56.939 --> 00:07:58.879 There were movie theaters, town squares, union 00:07:58.879 --> 00:08:00.920 halls. You just couldn't escape them. What's 00:08:00.920 --> 00:08:03.399 fascinating here is the sheer length the government 00:08:03.399 --> 00:08:05.959 went to in order to manufacture consent, especially 00:08:05.959 --> 00:08:08.990 among the working class. Creel knew that labor 00:08:08.990 --> 00:08:11.209 strikes or anti -war sentiment among factory 00:08:11.209 --> 00:08:13.930 workers could entirely cripple the war effort. 00:08:14.509 --> 00:08:17.529 So they targeted them specifically. Yes. He later 00:08:17.529 --> 00:08:19.569 helped form the American Alliance for Labor and 00:08:19.569 --> 00:08:22.689 Democracy. They brought in Samuel Gompers, a 00:08:22.689 --> 00:08:25.110 massively prominent union leader to serve as 00:08:25.110 --> 00:08:27.829 president of the alliance. The explicit goal 00:08:27.829 --> 00:08:30.290 was to win working class support for the war 00:08:30.290 --> 00:08:33.330 and unify national sentiment. They even set up 00:08:33.330 --> 00:08:36.500 branches in 164 different cities. But according 00:08:36.500 --> 00:08:38.740 to the source material, this massive push wasn't 00:08:38.740 --> 00:08:41.100 a total home run, was it? Did the working class 00:08:41.100 --> 00:08:44.419 actually buy into it? Not entirely. While many 00:08:44.419 --> 00:08:46.620 labor leaders went along with it and some prominent 00:08:46.620 --> 00:08:48.879 socialist leaders actually shifted to a pro -war 00:08:48.879 --> 00:08:51.740 stance, the majority really did not. The rank 00:08:51.740 --> 00:08:53.759 -and -file working class support for the war 00:08:53.759 --> 00:08:56.539 remained lukewarm at best. So the propaganda 00:08:56.539 --> 00:08:59.309 had its limits. Right. The source explicitly 00:08:59.309 --> 00:09:01.669 states that this specific propaganda campaign 00:09:01.669 --> 00:09:04.549 targeting the working class was ultimately unsuccessful 00:09:04.549 --> 00:09:06.710 in changing their underlying sentiments. But 00:09:06.710 --> 00:09:09.230 even if the propaganda didn't entirely win over 00:09:09.230 --> 00:09:11.429 the working class, the government did something 00:09:11.429 --> 00:09:13.690 else structurally that fundamentally changed 00:09:13.690 --> 00:09:16.049 how the public viewed the fairness of this draft. 00:09:16.730 --> 00:09:19.750 They closed a massive, highly controversial loophole 00:09:19.750 --> 00:09:22.690 that had existed since the Civil War. Walk us 00:09:22.690 --> 00:09:24.769 through how the Civil War draft worked and why 00:09:24.769 --> 00:09:27.370 people hated it so much. This is a critical distinction 00:09:27.370 --> 00:09:30.990 that really shifted public morale. During the 00:09:30.990 --> 00:09:33.990 Civil War draft, a drafted man could legally 00:09:33.990 --> 00:09:37.009 avoid service by simply hiring another man to 00:09:37.009 --> 00:09:39.759 serve as his substitute. Or... he could pay a 00:09:39.759 --> 00:09:42.000 commutation fee directly to the government. Just 00:09:42.000 --> 00:09:44.679 buy his way out. Exactly. As you can imagine, 00:09:44.799 --> 00:09:47.220 this created a very powerful perception that 00:09:47.220 --> 00:09:49.460 the wealthy were just buying their way out of 00:09:49.460 --> 00:09:51.960 the war while the poor were sent to die. It led 00:09:51.960 --> 00:09:54.840 to the phrase, a rich man's war and a poor man's 00:09:54.840 --> 00:09:57.710 fight. He was deeply resented and seen by the 00:09:57.710 --> 00:09:59.970 general public as highly dishonorable. And the 00:09:59.970 --> 00:10:03.110 Selective Service Act of 1917 squashed that entirely. 00:10:03.710 --> 00:10:06.090 Section 3 of the Act explicitly prohibited the 00:10:06.090 --> 00:10:08.730 practice. It stated that no person liable to 00:10:08.730 --> 00:10:10.450 military service could furnish a substitute, 00:10:10.669 --> 00:10:12.929 nor could any substitute be received. Right. 00:10:13.149 --> 00:10:15.730 Furthermore, no one could escape service or be 00:10:15.730 --> 00:10:18.210 discharged prior to the expiration of their term 00:10:18.210 --> 00:10:20.750 by a payment of money or any other valuable thing. 00:10:20.929 --> 00:10:24.120 You couldn't buy your release, period. That single 00:10:24.120 --> 00:10:26.740 legislative decision leveled the playing field 00:10:26.740 --> 00:10:30.179 in a very visible, tangible way. And when you 00:10:30.179 --> 00:10:33.519 look at the final results, this draft was incredibly 00:10:33.519 --> 00:10:36.419 effective compared to historical attempts. By 00:10:36.419 --> 00:10:39.019 the end of World War I, Around 2 million men 00:10:39.019 --> 00:10:42.259 had volunteered for various branches, but some 00:10:42.259 --> 00:10:45.320 2 .8 million had been successfully drafted. Think 00:10:45.320 --> 00:10:47.840 about that ratio. More than half of the almost 00:10:47.840 --> 00:10:50.299 4 .8 million Americans who served in the armed 00:10:50.299 --> 00:10:52.899 forces during World War I were drafted. And despite 00:10:52.899 --> 00:10:54.820 the lukewarm feelings of the working class we 00:10:54.820 --> 00:10:57.899 discussed, the overall effort to incite a patriotic 00:10:57.899 --> 00:11:00.240 attitude, combined with the perceived fairness 00:11:00.240 --> 00:11:03.539 of the new rules, paid off. the World War I draft 00:11:03.539 --> 00:11:05.960 had a remarkably high compliance rate. Did many 00:11:05.960 --> 00:11:08.759 people try to dodge it? Out of millions processed, 00:11:09.220 --> 00:11:13.419 fewer than 350 ,000 men actively dodged the draft. 00:11:14.240 --> 00:11:16.919 Furthermore, Section 7 of the Act helped build 00:11:16.919 --> 00:11:19.980 local camaraderie by providing that men would, 00:11:20.279 --> 00:11:22.679 as far as practicable, be grouped into units 00:11:22.679 --> 00:11:25.500 by their states and political subdivisions. Oh, 00:11:25.500 --> 00:11:27.559 that makes sense. Yeah, the most prominent example 00:11:27.559 --> 00:11:29.919 of this was the National Army Infantry Divisions. 00:11:30.509 --> 00:11:33.789 You were going to war, but you were serving alongside 00:11:33.789 --> 00:11:36.919 the men from your very own hometown. I want you, 00:11:37.000 --> 00:11:39.539 the listener, to just imagine being in one of 00:11:39.539 --> 00:11:42.679 those 5 ,000 towns at the time. You are sitting 00:11:42.679 --> 00:11:45.000 in a local theater, someone walks out and gives 00:11:45.000 --> 00:11:48.080 a fiery four -minute speech about patriotic duty, 00:11:48.080 --> 00:11:50.659 and you know for an absolute fact that the richest 00:11:50.659 --> 00:11:52.539 guy down the street cannot just write a check 00:11:52.539 --> 00:11:54.820 to get out of this war. It creates a completely 00:11:54.820 --> 00:11:57.139 different psychological environment than previous 00:11:57.139 --> 00:11:59.500 conflicts. Here's where it gets really interesting. 00:11:59.639 --> 00:12:01.759 Because the government didn't just throw all 00:12:01.759 --> 00:12:03.759 these millions of names into a giant hat and 00:12:03.759 --> 00:12:06.129 pull them out at random. This wasn't a blind 00:12:06.129 --> 00:12:09.669 lottery. They created a highly organized, deeply 00:12:09.669 --> 00:12:12.350 calculated class system to determine exactly 00:12:12.350 --> 00:12:14.389 who went to the front lines and who stayed behind. 00:12:14.669 --> 00:12:17.370 That is the real logistical genius of the 1917 00:12:17.370 --> 00:12:20.970 Act. They broke the entire male population down 00:12:20.970 --> 00:12:24.169 into five distinct categories, Class I through 00:12:24.169 --> 00:12:27.490 Class V. And conscription was strictly sequential 00:12:27.490 --> 00:12:30.720 by class. Meaning they started at the top. Exactly. 00:12:30.980 --> 00:12:33.139 Draft boards were instructed that you only drafted 00:12:33.139 --> 00:12:36.460 from the classes below class I if the pool of 00:12:36.460 --> 00:12:38.539 all available and potential candidates in the 00:12:38.539 --> 00:12:41.840 class above it was completely 100 % exhausted. 00:12:42.220 --> 00:12:44.399 So the government is essentially playing God 00:12:44.399 --> 00:12:46.980 here, assigning an essential or non -essential 00:12:46.980 --> 00:12:50.519 value to millions of individual lives. How did 00:12:50.519 --> 00:12:52.700 they define these categories? Who ended up in 00:12:52.700 --> 00:12:54.899 class one? Class I was the prime candidates. 00:12:55.230 --> 00:12:57.450 These were the men who were eligible and liable 00:12:57.450 --> 00:12:59.850 for military service right away. No excuses. 00:13:00.409 --> 00:13:02.330 We're talking about unmarried registrants with 00:13:02.330 --> 00:13:05.129 no dependents. What about married men? It also 00:13:05.129 --> 00:13:07.169 included married registrants, but only if their 00:13:07.169 --> 00:13:09.210 spouses were financially independent or if they 00:13:09.210 --> 00:13:11.250 had dependent children over the age of 16 with 00:13:11.250 --> 00:13:13.350 sufficient family income to survive if the man 00:13:13.350 --> 00:13:15.690 was drafted. Basically, if your family wouldn't 00:13:15.690 --> 00:13:17.509 starve without you, you were packing your bags. 00:13:17.690 --> 00:13:20.509 What about classes two and three? Classes 2 and 00:13:20.509 --> 00:13:24.230 3 were the temporarily deferred or exempted categories. 00:13:24.909 --> 00:13:27.429 Now, they were technically still available for 00:13:27.429 --> 00:13:29.830 service if the war dragged on and things got 00:13:29.830 --> 00:13:32.450 truly desperate, but for the time being they 00:13:32.450 --> 00:13:35.570 stayed home. Class 2 included married registrants 00:13:35.570 --> 00:13:37.809 with a dependent spouse or dependent children 00:13:37.809 --> 00:13:40.750 under 16, again, provided they had sufficient 00:13:40.750 --> 00:13:43.480 family income if drafted. And Class 3. Class 00:13:43.480 --> 00:13:46.340 3 is where it gets into societal roles. This 00:13:46.340 --> 00:13:49.000 included local officials, registrants who provided 00:13:49.000 --> 00:13:51.259 the sole family income for dependent parents 00:13:51.259 --> 00:13:55.200 or dependent siblings under 16. And very importantly, 00:13:55.779 --> 00:13:58.360 Class 3 protected registrants employed in agricultural 00:13:58.360 --> 00:14:00.840 labor or industrial enterprises that the government 00:14:00.840 --> 00:14:03.200 deemed essential to the war effort. So if you 00:14:03.200 --> 00:14:05.379 were a farmer growing the food to feed the army 00:14:05.379 --> 00:14:07.500 or a steel worker making the artillery shells, 00:14:07.740 --> 00:14:09.539 the government recognized you were more valuable 00:14:09.539 --> 00:14:12.470 at home than in a trench. Then we moved to class 00:14:12.470 --> 00:14:15.090 four, which was exemption due to extreme hardship. 00:14:15.149 --> 00:14:17.649 Right, the real hardship cases. This included 00:14:17.649 --> 00:14:19.889 married registrants with a dependent spouse or 00:14:19.889 --> 00:14:22.309 children, where the family income would be completely 00:14:22.309 --> 00:14:25.250 insufficient if they were drafted. It also included 00:14:25.250 --> 00:14:27.769 men with a deceased spouse who provided the sole 00:14:27.769 --> 00:14:31.110 income for dependent children under 16 or registrants 00:14:31.110 --> 00:14:33.289 with deceased parents who provided the sole income 00:14:33.289 --> 00:14:36.190 for dependent siblings under 16. It's fascinating 00:14:36.190 --> 00:14:39.169 to see the bureaucracy try to map out every possible 00:14:39.169 --> 00:14:42.090 family tragedy to avoid creating a generation 00:14:42.090 --> 00:14:45.370 of destitute orphans. And finally you have Class 00:14:45.370 --> 00:14:48.980 V. These were the men who were completely exempted 00:14:48.980 --> 00:14:51.440 or deemed outright ineligible for induction. 00:14:52.019 --> 00:14:54.759 This covered state or federal officials, officers, 00:14:54.879 --> 00:14:56.860 and enlisted men who were already in the military 00:14:56.860 --> 00:14:59.700 or naval service, licensed pilots actively working 00:14:59.700 --> 00:15:01.580 in their vocation, and members of the clergy. 00:15:01.950 --> 00:15:04.690 The source notes a very specific caveat about 00:15:04.690 --> 00:15:07.169 divinity students in Class V. It included students 00:15:07.169 --> 00:15:11.190 who, on or before May 18th, 1917, had been preparing 00:15:11.190 --> 00:15:13.470 for the ministry in a recognized theological 00:15:13.470 --> 00:15:15.669 or divinity school. So you couldn't just suddenly 00:15:15.669 --> 00:15:17.909 decide you had a calling from God on May 19th 00:15:17.909 --> 00:15:20.110 to avoid the draft. They anticipated people trying 00:15:20.110 --> 00:15:22.909 to game the system. They certainly did. Class 00:15:22.909 --> 00:15:25.210 V also caught anyone who was deemed medically 00:15:25.210 --> 00:15:28.610 disabled, meaning permanently physically or mentally 00:15:28.610 --> 00:15:31.899 unfit. or morally unfit for service. Morally 00:15:31.899 --> 00:15:34.899 unfit. Yeah, that morally unfit category included 00:15:34.899 --> 00:15:37.759 those convicted of treason, any felony, or an 00:15:37.759 --> 00:15:40.620 infamous crime. It also included enemy aliens 00:15:40.620 --> 00:15:43.519 and resident aliens. Managing a system with this 00:15:43.519 --> 00:15:46.159 many nuances and exceptions required a massive 00:15:46.159 --> 00:15:48.309 data collection effort. They were essentially 00:15:48.309 --> 00:15:50.889 building a nationwide database of the male population 00:15:50.889 --> 00:15:53.990 from scratch, using paper and pencil. How did 00:15:53.990 --> 00:15:56.429 they actually gather all this information? Through 00:15:56.429 --> 00:15:59.289 a series of highly publicized mandatory registration 00:15:59.289 --> 00:16:02.350 days. During World War I, there were three separate 00:16:02.350 --> 00:16:04.830 national registration days to build this database. 00:16:05.049 --> 00:16:08.830 The first was on June 5, 1917. That initial call 00:16:08.830 --> 00:16:11.269 was for all men between the ages of 21 and 30. 00:16:11.350 --> 00:16:14.590 Just 21 to 30. Right. But as the war ground on, 00:16:15.029 --> 00:16:16.889 that initial pool of men simply wasn't enough. 00:16:17.039 --> 00:16:18.899 They had to keep going back to the well. So it 00:16:18.899 --> 00:16:21.299 became a narrative of escalating desperation 00:16:21.299 --> 00:16:24.019 for the War Department. Exactly. Over the next 00:16:24.019 --> 00:16:25.919 year, they ran two more registration drives. 00:16:26.500 --> 00:16:28.779 The second registration was exactly a year later, 00:16:28.779 --> 00:16:32.019 on June 5th, 1918, which captured guys who had 00:16:32.019 --> 00:16:34.899 just turned 21 since the first draft. They also 00:16:34.899 --> 00:16:37.440 held a supplemental registration on August 24th, 00:16:37.600 --> 00:16:40.200 1918. But even that wasn't enough, was it? No. 00:16:40.379 --> 00:16:42.600 The demand for fresh troops in Europe was so 00:16:42.600 --> 00:16:45.080 insatiable that they had to ask Congress to amend 00:16:45.080 --> 00:16:48.320 the law entirely. In August of 1918, Congress 00:16:48.320 --> 00:16:50.259 barred any further volunteering and expanded 00:16:50.259 --> 00:16:53.419 the age range dramatically. So the third National 00:16:53.419 --> 00:16:56.440 Registration Day, held on September 12th, 1918, 00:16:56.899 --> 00:17:00.039 threw the net impossibly wide. It required registration 00:17:00.039 --> 00:17:03.860 from all men ages 18 all the way up to 45. This 00:17:03.860 --> 00:17:06.259 raises an important question. How did a deeply 00:17:06.259 --> 00:17:09.000 legally segregated America handle a massive national 00:17:09.000 --> 00:17:11.460 draft that suddenly required processing millions 00:17:11.460 --> 00:17:13.980 of its citizens? The source material details 00:17:13.980 --> 00:17:15.599 this, frankly, and it's vital to understanding 00:17:15.599 --> 00:17:17.579 the full complex scope of the Selected Service 00:17:17.579 --> 00:17:20.599 Act. That is a crucial point. The American military 00:17:20.599 --> 00:17:23.980 and much of American society was entirely segregated 00:17:23.980 --> 00:17:26.500 at the time of World War I. So when the government 00:17:26.500 --> 00:17:29.400 is trying to mobilize millions of men in 1917, 00:17:30.160 --> 00:17:32.339 how did they handle this? Did they draft Black 00:17:32.339 --> 00:17:35.200 Americans too, or did the racial politics of 00:17:35.200 --> 00:17:38.059 the era prevent it? It was a point of massive 00:17:38.059 --> 00:17:41.150 political contention. The Army did have several 00:17:41.150 --> 00:17:43.650 existing regiments of black soldiers, historically 00:17:43.650 --> 00:17:46.490 known as the Buffalo Soldiers. But when it came 00:17:46.490 --> 00:17:49.309 time for the national draft, many politicians 00:17:49.309 --> 00:17:51.930 staunchly opposed expanding the military role 00:17:51.930 --> 00:17:54.390 for black Americans. Who was leading that opposition? 00:17:54.990 --> 00:17:57.390 Specifically, the text notes fierce opposition 00:17:57.390 --> 00:17:59.589 from Senator James K. Vardaman of Mississippi 00:17:59.589 --> 00:18:02.029 and Senator Benjamin Tillman of South Carolina. 00:18:02.490 --> 00:18:04.509 Nevertheless, the War Department pushed forward 00:18:04.509 --> 00:18:06.490 and made the decision to include black people 00:18:06.490 --> 00:18:09.160 in the draft. And the numbers were highly significant. 00:18:09.240 --> 00:18:10.740 How many are we talking about? During the two 00:18:10.740 --> 00:18:14.740 calls of June 1917 and September 1918, a total 00:18:14.740 --> 00:18:20.779 of 2 ,290 ,527 Black Americans are ultimately 00:18:20.779 --> 00:18:24.720 registered. That represented 9 .6 % of the total 00:18:24.720 --> 00:18:27.630 American pool for potential conscription. But 00:18:27.630 --> 00:18:30.990 the mechanics of how the local draft boards actually 00:18:30.990 --> 00:18:34.069 handled these registrations reflected the rigid 00:18:34.069 --> 00:18:38.109 segregation of the era in a very physical, undeniable 00:18:38.109 --> 00:18:41.170 way. The source describes a specific instruction 00:18:41.170 --> 00:18:43.450 given to draft board officials regarding the 00:18:43.450 --> 00:18:45.569 Selective Service forms of black registrants. 00:18:45.809 --> 00:18:48.630 Yes. Draft board officials were explicitly instructed 00:18:48.630 --> 00:18:51.650 to physically tear off the lower left -hand corner 00:18:51.650 --> 00:18:54.410 of the Selective Service form of a black registrant. 00:18:54.519 --> 00:18:57.279 That missing corner was the immediate visual 00:18:57.279 --> 00:18:59.920 indicator designating that man for segregated 00:18:59.920 --> 00:19:01.819 units. Just think about the cold bureaucracy 00:19:01.819 --> 00:19:04.059 of that for a second. Prejudice wasn't just a 00:19:04.059 --> 00:19:06.660 sentiment or a quiet understanding. It was physically 00:19:06.660 --> 00:19:08.480 engineered into the shape of a piece of paper. 00:19:09.039 --> 00:19:11.779 A torn corner dictated your entire military fate 00:19:11.779 --> 00:19:13.980 before you even put on a uniform. Once they were 00:19:13.980 --> 00:19:16.200 drafted, how did the military deploy them? Their 00:19:16.200 --> 00:19:18.220 military roles were heavily restricted by the 00:19:18.220 --> 00:19:20.640 War Department. The decision -making was influenced 00:19:20.640 --> 00:19:23.339 by several factors, including racial prejudices 00:19:23.339 --> 00:19:25.799 of the time and specific events like the August 00:19:25.799 --> 00:19:29.200 1917 Houston riot, where armed black soldiers 00:19:29.200 --> 00:19:32.319 fired upon Houston police and civilians. So what 00:19:32.319 --> 00:19:34.880 roles did they end up in? As a result of these 00:19:34.880 --> 00:19:37.079 policies, the great majority of black soldiers 00:19:37.079 --> 00:19:39.839 were employed solely in labor functions. jobs 00:19:39.839 --> 00:19:42.400 like road building, stevedore work, and freight 00:19:42.400 --> 00:19:45.279 handling behind the lines. Out of all those drafted 00:19:45.279 --> 00:19:48.019 and mobilized, only two black combat units were 00:19:48.019 --> 00:19:50.480 ultimately established by the Army, the 92nd 00:19:50.480 --> 00:19:53.039 and 93rd Infantry Divisions. And the other branches 00:19:53.039 --> 00:19:55.259 of the military were even more restrictive, right? 00:19:55.480 --> 00:19:58.000 Yes. The source notes that Black Americans were 00:19:58.000 --> 00:20:00.220 entirely excluded from serving in the United 00:20:00.220 --> 00:20:02.400 States Marine Corps, and they were consigned 00:20:02.400 --> 00:20:04.500 strictly to medial labor roles in the United 00:20:04.500 --> 00:20:06.480 States Navy for the entire duration of the war. 00:20:07.059 --> 00:20:08.960 It is a stark reflection of the realities of 00:20:08.960 --> 00:20:11.259 the time, built directly into the administrative 00:20:11.259 --> 00:20:14.119 machinery of this massive mobilization. So what 00:20:14.119 --> 00:20:16.869 does this all mean? When you step back and look 00:20:16.869 --> 00:20:19.650 at the Selective Service Act of 1917 as a whole, 00:20:20.170 --> 00:20:22.829 the sheer speed of this historical event is almost 00:20:22.829 --> 00:20:25.990 hard to comprehend. It goes from an idea to a 00:20:25.990 --> 00:20:28.650 nationwide reality and then vanishes in the blink 00:20:28.650 --> 00:20:31.210 of an eye. The timeline is truly breathtaking. 00:20:31.690 --> 00:20:34.089 The act was drafted, debated, and signed into 00:20:34.089 --> 00:20:37.900 law by May 18, 1917. Now, it immediately faced 00:20:37.900 --> 00:20:40.440 legal challenges from people arguing the conscription 00:20:40.440 --> 00:20:43.480 was unconstitutional. But the law was firmly 00:20:43.480 --> 00:20:45.619 upheld by the United States Supreme Court in 00:20:45.619 --> 00:20:49.220 1918 in a sweeping ruling known as the Selective 00:20:49.220 --> 00:20:52.180 Draft Law Cases. Wait, what was the legal argument 00:20:52.180 --> 00:20:54.039 that the government used to win that Supreme 00:20:54.039 --> 00:20:56.640 Court case? How did they legally justify forcing 00:20:56.640 --> 00:20:58.740 citizens to fight? The government's argument 00:20:58.740 --> 00:21:00.880 and the court's ultimate opinion leaned heavily 00:21:00.880 --> 00:21:03.480 on a very specific Civil War precedent called 00:21:03.480 --> 00:21:06.480 Meathler v. Lane. That was a case that established 00:21:06.480 --> 00:21:08.619 the constitutionality of the federal government 00:21:08.619 --> 00:21:11.019 instituting a draft during a time of national 00:21:11.019 --> 00:21:12.839 crisis. Were there any other precedents they 00:21:12.839 --> 00:21:15.240 used? Yeah, the court also relied on an older 00:21:15.240 --> 00:21:18.319 foundational 1758 treatise on international law 00:21:18.319 --> 00:21:21.190 by a philosopher named Vitell. called the Law 00:21:21.190 --> 00:21:23.730 of Nations, which basically affirmed the inherent 00:21:23.730 --> 00:21:26.369 right of a sovereign nation to call upon its 00:21:26.369 --> 00:21:28.609 citizens for its own defense. So they had the 00:21:28.609 --> 00:21:31.210 legal backing. They built this massive bureaucratic 00:21:31.210 --> 00:21:33.289 machine. They processed millions of men. And 00:21:33.289 --> 00:21:35.849 then as quickly as it spun up, it completely 00:21:35.849 --> 00:21:38.470 vanished. The armistice ending the fighting was 00:21:38.470 --> 00:21:42.230 signed on November 11th, 1918. And by March 31st, 00:21:42.230 --> 00:21:45.829 1919, just a few months later, all local district 00:21:45.829 --> 00:21:47.829 and medical advisory boards across the country 00:21:47.829 --> 00:21:49.849 were permanently closed. It was incredibly fast. 00:21:49.829 --> 00:21:53.269 On May 21, 1919, the last state headquarters 00:21:53.269 --> 00:21:56.150 closed operations. And General Crowder, the provost's 00:21:56.150 --> 00:21:58.210 marshal general, was formally relieved from duty 00:21:58.210 --> 00:22:01.890 on July 15, 1919. The entire machinery of the 00:22:01.890 --> 00:22:04.390 World War I selective service system was completely 00:22:04.390 --> 00:22:06.369 terminated and swept into the history books. 00:22:06.710 --> 00:22:09.250 It was a temporary, almost terrifying expansion 00:22:09.250 --> 00:22:12.289 of government power. I think the major takeaway 00:22:12.289 --> 00:22:15.690 for anyone studying this is the staggering organizational 00:22:15.690 --> 00:22:19.180 feed it required. In roughly 18 months, using 00:22:19.180 --> 00:22:22.359 paper, pencils, and thousands of local volunteers, 00:22:22.920 --> 00:22:25.339 the United States categorized, mobilized, and 00:22:25.339 --> 00:22:27.559 controlled the lives of millions of men. That's 00:22:27.559 --> 00:22:30.039 unbelievable. They calculated precisely who was 00:22:30.039 --> 00:22:33.140 essential, who was expendable, and forced a completely 00:22:33.140 --> 00:22:36.579 uninterested public into a global conflict fundamentally 00:22:36.579 --> 00:22:39.140 altering the nation's scale of operations and 00:22:39.140 --> 00:22:41.940 its relationship with its citizens forever. It's 00:22:41.940 --> 00:22:43.779 incredible to think about the logistics and the 00:22:43.779 --> 00:22:46.549 sheer willpower involved. And it leaves us with 00:22:46.549 --> 00:22:48.829 a provocative thought for you to ponder as we 00:22:48.829 --> 00:22:51.690 wrap up. Building on that intricate class system 00:22:51.690 --> 00:22:54.950 we discussed, if a sudden massive national mobilization 00:22:54.950 --> 00:22:57.650 were required tomorrow, how do you think society 00:22:57.650 --> 00:22:59.829 would define an essential versus a non -essential 00:22:59.829 --> 00:23:02.539 worker today? That's a great question. Our economy 00:23:02.539 --> 00:23:06.240 looks vastly different than it did in 1917. Who 00:23:06.240 --> 00:23:08.240 do you think would be placed in Class I, heading 00:23:08.240 --> 00:23:10.000 straight to the front lines, and who would be 00:23:10.000 --> 00:23:12.779 safely deferred into Class V? It is definitely 00:23:12.779 --> 00:23:14.319 something to think about the next time you look 00:23:14.319 --> 00:23:16.579 at the jobs that keep our modern world running. 00:23:17.039 --> 00:23:18.839 Thank you so much for joining us on this deep 00:23:18.839 --> 00:23:21.500 dive. Keep asking questions and keep learning.