World's War Events Volume II Part 40

[Sidenote: Great national strength in a free people.]

Those who believed that the obvious and daily exhibition of power which takes place in an autocracy is necessary for national strength, discovered that a finer, and freer, and greater national strength subsists in a free people, and that the silent processes of democracy, with their normal accent on the freedom of individuals, nevertheless afford springs of collective action and inspiration for self-sacrifice as wide and effective as they are spontaneous. The several Government departments, the Council of National Defense, and other agencies of a more or less formal character subdivided the work of organization.

Congress rapidly perfected its legislative program, and in a few weeks very definite direction began to appear in the work of preparation.

[Sidenote: Act to increase Military Establishment.]

The act of May 18, 1917, ent.i.tled "An act to authorize the President to increase temporarily the Military Establishment of the United States,"

looked to three sources for the Army which it created:

[Sidenote: Regular Army to be increased.]

1. The regular Army, of which the actual strength on June 30, 1917, was 250,157 men and officers. The provisions of the act, however, contemplated an increase of the Regular Army to 18,033 officers and 470,185 enlisted men, the increase being effected by the immediate call of the increments provided in the National Defense Act of 1916, and the raising of all branches of the service to war strength.

[Sidenote: National Guard to be reorganized.]

2. The National Guard, reorganized under the National Defense Act, and containing on the 30th of June, 1917, approximately 3,803 officers and 107,320 enlisted men. The National Guard, however, by recruiting of its numbers and the raising of all arms to war strength, contemplated a total of 13,377 officers and 456,800 enlisted men.

[Sidenote: National Army to be raised by Selective Draft.]

3. In addition to this, the act provided for a National Army, raised by the process of selective conscription or draft, of which the President was empowered to summon two units of 500,000 men each at such time as he should determine wise.

[Sidenote: National Guard training camps.]

On the 3d day of July, 1917, the President by proclamation called into the Federal service and drafted the National Guard of the several States and the District of Columbia. And 16 divisional camps were established for their mobilization and training, as follows:

Charlotte, N. C.; Spartanburg, S. C.; Augusta, Ga.; Anniston, Ala.; Greenville, S. C.; Macon, Ga.; Waco, Tex.; Houston, Tex.; Deming, N.

Mex.; Fort Sill, Okla.; Forth Worth, Tex.; Montgomery, Ala.; Hattiesburg, Miss.; Alexandria, La.; Buena Vista, Cal.; Palo Alto, Cal.

[Sidenote: Voluntary enlistment in the Regular Army and National Guard.]

[Sidenote: A spirit of cooperation.]

The principle of voluntary enlistment to fill up the ranks of the Regular Army and the National Guard, and to raise them to war strength was preserved in the act of May 18, 1917, the maximum age for enlistment in both services being fixed at 40 years. Even before the pa.s.sage of the act, however, very great recruiting activity was shown throughout the country, the total number of enlistments in the Regular Army for the fiscal year 1917 being 160,084. The record of National Guard enlistments has not yet been completely compiled, but the act authorizing a temporary increase in the military establishment provided that any deficiency remaining in either the Regular Army or the National Guard should be made up by selective conscription. The introduction of this new method of enlistment so far affected the whole question of selection for military service that any deductions, either favorable or unfavorable, from the number of voluntary enlistments, would be unwarranted. It is entirely just to say that the States generally showed a most sympathetic spirit of cooperation with the National Government, and the National Guard responded with zeal and enthusiasm to the President's call.

[Sidenote: No exact precedent to follow.]

[Sidenote: England finally resorted to draft.]

[Sidenote: Organized industry back of armies.]

In the preparation of the act providing for the temporary increase in the Military Establishment, very earnest consideration was given by the committees of the two Houses of Congress and by the Department to the principles which would be followed in creating a military establishment under modern conditions adequate for the tremendous emergency facing the Nation. Our own history and experience with the volunteer system afforded little precedent because of the new conditions, and the experience of European nations was neither uniform nor wholly adequate.

Our adversary, the German Empire, had for many years followed the practice of universal compulsory military training and service, so that it was a nation of trained soldiers. In France the same situation had existed. In England, on the other hand, the volunteer system had continued, and the British army was relatively a small body. The urgency, however, of the British need at the outbreak of the war, and the unbroken traditions of England, were against even the delay necessary to consider the principle upon which action might best be taken, so that England's first effort was reduced to that volunteer system, and her subsequent resort to the draft was made after a long experience in raising vast numbers of men by volunteer enlistment as a result of campaigns of agitation and patriotic appeal. The war in Europe, however, had lasted long enough to make quite clear the character of the contest. It was obviously no such war as had ever before occurred, both in the vast numbers of men necessary to be engaged in strictly military occupations and in the elaborate and far-reaching organization of industrial and civil society of the Nation back of the Army.

Our military legislation was drafted after very earnest consideration, to accomplish the following objects:

1. To provide in successive bodies adequate numbers of men to be trained and used as combatant forces.

2. To select for these armies men of suitable age and strength.

[Sidenote: Universal obligation to service.]

3. To distribute the burden of the military defense of the Nation in the most equitable and democratic manner, and to that end to recognize the universality of the obligation of service.

[Sidenote: Necessary men to be kept in industry.]

4. To reserve to the public authorities power so to control the selection of soldiers as to prevent the absorption of men indispensable to agriculture and industry, and to prevent the loss of national strength involved by the acceptance into military service of men whose greatest usefulness is in scientific pursuits or in production.

5. To select, so far as may be, those men for military service whose families and domestic obligations could best bear their separation from home and dependents, and thus to cause the least possible distress among the families of the Nation which are dependent upon the daily earnings of husbands and fathers for their support.

These considerations, shortly stated, amount to a policy which, recognizing the life of the nation as a whole, and a.s.suming both the obligation and the willingness of the citizen to give the maximum of service, inst.i.tutes a national process for the expression of our military, industrial, and financial strength, all at their highest, and with the least waste, loss, and distress.

[Sidenote: Regular Army and National Guard increased.]

The act of Congress authorizing the President to increase temporarily the Military Establishment of the United States, approved May 18, 1917, provided for the raising and maintaining by selective draft of increments (in addition to the Regular Army and National Guard) of 500,000 men each, together with recruit training units for the maintenance of such increments at the maximum strength, and the raising, organizing, and maintaining of additional auxiliary forces, and also for raising and maintaining at their maximum strength, by selective draft when necessary, the Regular Army and the National Guard drafted into the service of the United States.

[Sidenote: Male citizens between 21 and 30 years liable to military service.]

It also provided that such draft "shall be based upon liability to military service of all male citizens, or male persons not alien enemies, who have declared their intention to become citizens, between the ages of 21 and 30 years, both inclusive"; that the several States, Territories, and the District of Columbia should furnish their proportionate shares or quotas of the citizen soldiery determined in proportion to the population thereof, with certain credits allowed for volunteer enlistments in branches of the service then organized and existing.

The Nation was confronted with the task of constructing, without delay, an organization by which the selection might be made for the entire country by means of a uniform and regulated system.

[Sidenote: The Provost Marshal General begins registration.]

A suggestion of administration, incomplete because of entirely different conditions, arose from the precedent of the Civil War draft; and on May 22, 1917, the Judge Advocate General was detailed as "Provost Marshal General" and charged with the execution, under the Secretary of War, of so much of the act of May 18 "as relates to the registration and the selective draft." Plans had already been formulated for the operation of the selective draft, and with the formal designation of the Provost Marshal General the work of organization began.

[Sidenote: State organization utilized.]

It was obvious that to build up a new Federal organization would require a greater period of time than was afforded by the military necessity.

The existing governmental organizations of the several States presented an available subst.i.tute, and the statute authorized their use. This expedient was unprecedented, but its practice has abundantly justified its adoption.

[Sidenote: State registration boards.]

The immediate need was for a comprehensive registration of every male of draft age. To effect this registration each State was divided into districts containing a population of approximately 30,000, in each of which a registration board was appointed by the governor. Usually this board consisted of the sheriff, the county health officer, and the county clerk; and where the county's population, exclusive of cities of more than 30,000 inhabitants, exceeded that number, additional registration boards were appointed. Cities of over 30,000 were treated as separate units. The election district was established as the actual unit for registration in order that the normal election machinery might be utilized, and a registrar for every 800 of population in each voting or election precinct was appointed by the registration board. In cities approximating 30,000 of population, the registration board was made up of city officials, and where the population exceeded the unit number additional registration boards of three members were appointed, one a licensed physician.

[Sidenote: The scheme of organization.]

Governors and mayors were given considerable lat.i.tude in making geographical divisions of the States and cities for the purpose of defining registration jurisdictions; the only limitation being that approximately 30,000 inhabitants should be included within the confines of a district. The general scheme was that the board of three should exercise supervision over the precinct registrars, the governors supervising the work of the registration boards, while the mayors of cities containing 30,000 or more inhabitants acted as intermediaries between governors and registration boards. Each State was const.i.tuted a separate unit and each governor was charged with the execution of the law in his State.

[Sidenote: Ten million young men register.]

By proclamation of the President, dated May 18, 1917, Tuesday, June 5, 1917, was designated as registration day throughout the United States, with the exception of Alaska, Hawaii, and Porto Rico; and, due to the fact that registration organization of the States had been so quickly and thoroughly completed, about 10,000,000 male citizens of the designated ages were registered on the day set, and the first step in the operation of the selective service law was accomplished.

Registration consisted in entering on a card essential facts necessary to a complete identification of the registrant and a preliminary survey of his domestic and economic circ.u.mstances.

[Sidenote: Citizens carry out registration.]

It is noteworthy that this registration throughout the entire country was carried out in the main by the voluntary and energetic efforts of citizens, and the Government was thereby saved a very great expense through the efficient organization which had been constructed and furnished with all necessary materials during the short period of sixteen days.