Military Service Policies
H.R. 3545 to authorize the President to increase temporarily military establishment of the United States
Compelling Policy Question: What Rights and Responsibilities should be considered when making policies regarding who serves in the military?
Policy Case Study:
H.R. 3545 to authorize the President to increase temporarily military establishment of the United States (modified/link to original)
In view of the existing emergency, which demands the raising of troops in addition to those now available, the President be is hereby, authorized to-
1. Immediately to raise, organize, officer, and equip a Regular Army;
3. To raise by draft an additional force as he decides is necessary
Section. 2. The draft shall be based on military service of all male citizens, between the ages of twenty-one and thirty-years. Those drafted shall be required to serve for the period of the existing emergency.
Sec. 3. No bounty shall be paid to induce any person to enlist in the military service of the United States; and no person liable to military service shall hereafter be permitted or allowed to furnish a substitute for such service;
Sec. 4. Nothing in this Act will require or compel any person to serve in any of the forces who is found to be a member of any religious sect or organization whose principles forbid its members to participate in war. But no person so exempted shall be exempted from service in any capacity that the President shall declare to be noncombatant;
Sec. 5. Any person who shall willfully fail or refuse to register, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and shall be punished by imprisonment for not more than one year, and being in prison shall be registered:
Historical Context of conscription (mandatory military enlistment) in the U.S.
During the Colonial Period, there was no American Army, instead individual Colonies formed militias made up of adult male citizens. But during the Revolutionary War an army is raised by offering enlisted men cash bonuses and a promise of free western land after the war is over. When this system does not attract enough soldiers, General George Washington calls on state militias. Militias were poorly trained citizens who often have to return home to farm. As president, Washington tries to register all men for service. Congress did not agree. During the War of 1812, recruitment efforts include a sign-up bonus and the promise of three months' pay and one hundred sixty acres of land after service. The Congress authorizes President James Monroe to call up one state militias, but some states refused to send their militias. At one point during the Mexican American War (1846-1848), the American Army had to wait for more troops to arrive to continue fighting.
In March of 1863, during the Civil War, Congress gives President Lincoln the authority to require draft registration by all able-bodied men between the ages of 20 and 45, regardless of their marital status or profession. Men are allowed to hire Substitute soldiers for $300. On July 13, 1863, an angry mob sets off the four-day New York City Draft Riots. City buildings are burned, shops are looted, and blacks, along with anyone refusing to join the protest, are tortured. About one thousand people die.
In 1898, during the Spanish-American War, Congress declares that all males between 18 and 45 are subject to military duty.
On April 2, 1917 President Woodrow Wilson asks Congress to declare war. Four days later Congress declares war against Germany. Then on April 27 Julius Kahn introduced H.R.3545.
Universal obligation to service should rest upon the shoulders of all. The Nation should never allow our patriotic citizens who volunteer to do the fighting alone, and let the coward stay home.
In this glorious country of ours, where a citizen enjoys many privileges, shouldn’t he gladly risk his life in defense of America?
I am afraid that this is going to be a long war. Many sacrifices will have to be made. Let us tell every American that in this hour of the country's peril the United States expects every American to do his duty. The country will demand that he pay for the blessings of liberty that he enjoys under the folds of Old Glory.
The age limit in this bill is 40. I am 56, and I would not object increasing the age limit to 65. I am willing to do my share of the fighting, if needed, to defend my country. We may need millions of men to fight, and the only way to get them is by a draft.
We have a hard fight ahead of us, and we must win this war. No matter how many men will be required, no matter what sacrifices will have to be made, the Republic must win this war.
Every man must die. What more glorious death can he die than fighting for his country? We ought to write a law for a selective draft system so that future generations will know that it is the duty of every American citizen to lay down his life, if need be, upon the altar of his country.
Whether men believed this war should have been entered into or not, every man now worthy of the name of American wants to see American soldiers sent to the battlefields of Europe as soon as we can send them.
The question now is how to create a fighting Army.
A government must consider its own preservation. It must do the things necessary to win a war.
The citizen’s duty is to give any property, or even their life, when the Nation asks. It is not a choice for him to make. The citizen does not have a right to refuse to serve. He has a duty to service as and how and when his Nation commands.
A nation can not last that does not have the right to make citizens do the things that may be necessary for the preservation of the national life.
I repeat that a citizen has no right, moral or otherwise, to refuse to give his life when his Nation calls. Any man who is not willing to accept that position has no right to live in the country.
I am not nearly so much concerned about the rights of individual citizens as I am with the duties of the citizens of America.
Henry Watterson, Editorial, Louisville Kentucky Courier-Journal, 1917 (modified/Link to original)
Our beloved country never faced a more demanding situation. Congress will make mistakes at the peril of all we hold near and dear. The volunteer system, like the stagecoach, served its purpose in primitive times, but like that stagecoach it proved unequal to the expanding needs of modern times. The selective draft system is the contribution which experience offers to intelligence. We must meet their military with an equal military and fight the enemy with both hands, not with one hand tied behind us.
Out here in God’s country the people understand the question perfectly. They know that the volunteer system favors the slacker and the person who wants to avoid his responsibilities to the country, while the selective draft system is fair to each and every man.
But, above all, they know that the volunteer system has been a failure whenever tried, and seeking efficiency they prefer the selective draft system. Just as seeking speed they would prefer a locomotive to an oxcart.
I am distressed that you can not see your way to this view, but seem about to all yourself with a policy that can only embarrass us and aid the enemy. And it is in deep concern for our country and sincere affection for you that I venture to present this protest.
DEAR MADAM,
I have been shown a statement from the War Department telling me that you to are the mother of five sons who have died gloriously on the field of battle. I feel how weak and fruitless must be any word of mine which should attempt to help relieve you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming.
But I can not refrain from sending to you the consolation that may be found in the thanks of the Republic they died to save. I pray that our Heavenly Father may ease the anguish of your bereavement and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom.
Yours, very sincerely and respectfully,
A. Lincoln
Letter from the Community Club of Birmingham to Senator Bankhead of Alabama, April 1917
The club, consisting of 120 young business men between the ages of twenty and thirty, sent Sen. Bankhead a copy of their resolution supporting conscription.
The “Community Club” is composed of 120 representative young business men of the city of Birmingham between twenty and thirty. Some of them are already in the service as members of the Alabama National Guard and a great many of them will be subject to conscription, if the Army Administration Bill passes.
BE IT RESOLVED, that the Community Club of Birmingham, Alabama, endorses the conscription feature of the Administration Army Bill, and that it urges each and every member of the Alabama Delegation in Congress to give it his unqualified support.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that in the opinion of this Club, the plan of the Administration for a Draft is the only practical, efficient and democratic means of providing an army to meet the present crisis.
Such plan represents the view of the overwhelming majority of the people of the State of Alabama.
James Montgomery Flagg, I Want You For U.S. Army, 1917
United States Government Enlistment Poster
United States Government Enlistment Poster
Australian Government Enlistment Poster
It is important for us to speak out when the question is one of peace or war, certain to involve the lives and fortunes of our people and, it may be, the destiny of all of the civilized world as well.
Millions are suffering from want; millions are dead and rotting on foreign battlefields; millions are crippled and maimed, blinded, and dismembered. Their children’s children for generations to come has been laid a burden of debt which will cause poverty and suffering. We are pledged by the President, to make our fair, free, and happy land the bottomless pit of horror that we see in Europe today
The President’s says this is a war “for the things which we have always carried nearest to our hearts—for democracy, for the right of those who submit to authority to have a voice in their own government.”
This war is being forced upon our people without their knowing why and without their approval. The forcible military measures which coming out of the war machine in this country is the complete proof that those responsible for this war fear that it has no popular support and that armies sufficient to satisfy the demand of the Entente Allies cannot be recruited by voluntary enlistments.
The poor, Sir, who are the ones called upon to rot in the trenches.
The question is nothing less, than if the rights of personal liberty shall be surrendered, and despotism embraced in its worst form.
Conscription takes a person by force, and puts them into an army. They may be sent to fight in any war, at home or overseas, for defense or for invasion, according to the will and pleasure of Government. Is this the character of a free Government? Is this civil liberty? Is this the real character of our Constitution? No, Sir, indeed it is not. Where is it written in the Constitution, that you may take children from their parents, and parents from their children, and make them fight in any war?
A free Government, with an uncontrolled power of military conscription, is the most ridiculous and horrible idea that ever entered into the head of man. You are not drafting the man into the military to defend his own house and home. You will put him upon a service equally against his interests and abhorrent to his feelings.
Emma Goldman, “We Don’t Believe in Conscription”, May, 1917 (modified/link to original).
Emma Goldman was an Anarchist who was against the war.
We are told America is a free Republic. The only people who still believe in the Constitution are the poor people who believe the politicians. I will stand up to supporters of the war and say: “Keep your dirty hands off America.” You have no right to tell people to give their lives for democracy, when this war is not about democracy and is not a war people want.
If the American people want war, why not give them a chance to say so. The same is true about conscription. People born under a free sky — conscription has been imposed upon you. You cannot have democracy and have compulsory military training. You have become Russia.
Do you believe this Government is powerful enough to stop men who will not engage in the war because they don’t support the war? What is the Government going to do with them? They don’t have enough prisons to lock them all up. They may prepare the noose, they may prepare the gallows, they may build more prisons — for the spread of revolt and conscience.
Friends, remember that you are not alone — that tonight, in every city, there are hearts beating that they don’t want war, that they don’t want conscription — that they are not going to be conscripted.
The future belongs to the young men. They must be free from militarism. They must be free from the military yoke. If you want war, help yourself. Fight your own battle. We are not going to fight it for you.
Manifesto of the No-Conscription League, 1917 (modified/link to original)
The No-Conscription League was an organization run by the anarchists Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman.
Conscription may become a fact in this country. It took England fully 18 months after she engaged in the war to impose compulsory military service on her people. “Free” America may pass a conscription bill six weeks after she declared war against Germany.
What becomes of the patriotic boast of America to have entered the European war on behalf of the principle of democracy? But that is not all. Every country in Europe has recognized the right of conscientious objectors-or men who refuse to engage in war on the ground that they are opposed to taking life. Yet this democratic country makes no such provision for those who will not commit murder at the behest of others. Thus the “land of the free and the home of the brave” is ready to force free men into the military yoke.
The crime of all crimes, the youth of the country is to be forced into murder whether or not they believe in war or in the ability to save democracy in Europe by the destroying of democracy at home.
Liberty of conscious is the most fundamental of all human rights, the pivot of all progress. No man may be deprived of it without losing every vestige of freedom of thought and action.
We will fight for what we choose to fight for; we will never fight simply because we are ordered to fight.
We believe that the militarization of America is an evil that far outweighs any good that may come from America’s participation in the war.
William Jennings Bryan, “A Few War Facts.” The commoner, August 01, 1915 (modified)
Bryan was Wilson’s Secretary of State, but he was unhappy with how Wilson handled the Lusitania sinking. He resigned on June 9, 1915. His biography
TWENTY-ONE MILLION of soldiers are engaged in the unparalleled war now raging in Europe: what will be our quota if we are foolish enough to enter into it?
More than TWO MILLION men have been killed Thus far. What will be our toll if we take part? Over FIVE MILLIONS Wounded. What will be our share if we become a participant?
The nations at war are now spending FOUR HUNDRED MILLION dollars per week—more than TWENTY BILLIONS per year—what will our expenditures be? Before we decide to “go in” “at any cost” let some of the advocates of war give us an estimate.
We are a great nation and cannot be stingy with blood or money if we cast in our lot with the belligerents. And what it to be gained by war…Those who talk war misrepresent the wishes of the people. You can no more measure the sentiment of the masses by the froth of the jingo press than you can measure the ocean’s silent depths by the foam upon its waves.
W.J. Bryan
Telegram from W. P. Lay to Senator Bankhead. April 1917(modified)
W.P. Lay was an Alabama citizen and Senator Bankhead was one of Alabama’s Senator’s
Senator John H Bankhead,
Your many friends are glad to see that you are firm against conscription of American youth for services in the trenches of Europe.
Well paid labor is always the best labor.
Well paid volunteers should likewise be good soldiers.
If our country is able to pay for its soldiers why draft them?
Increase the pay for volunteers to serve in Europe to four or five times the present pay if necessary and I believe a highly efficient army can be raised very quickly.
A well paid volunteer policy would have the hearty and moral support of the people.
They would resent very bitterly conscription only as a last resort.
Flyer from the Anti-Enlistment League, Working Men and Women of the United States, Brooklyn, New York
Young Men’s Anti Militarist League Flyer
Claude Marquet, The “Blood Vote”
'the "Blood Vote" cartoon was made in Australia, but on December 8, 1916, The Topeka Daily Capital ran an article saying the “Blood Vote Cartoon Caused defeat of conscription in Australia (below cartoon is image of the paper). The cartoon has a verse by W.R. Winspear featuring an image a deeply worried woman casting a 'Yes' vote while Billy Hughes, Australia's labor prime minister and supporter of conscription, looks on gleefully. It was printed by Fraser & Jenkinson in Melbourne, 1917 and authorised by J. Curtin, Secretary for the 'National Executive'.
Anti-conscription cartoon from North Dakota
A man holding a sword reading “Conscription” stands on top of Lady Liberty, whose torch reads “Civil Liberties” and a worker holding a sign reading “Labor’s Rights”
Henry J. Glintenkamp, “Physically Fit”, The Masses, 1917
George Bellows, Blessed are the peacemakers, The Masses, 1917
Boardman Robinson, “All Ready to Fight for Liberty, The Masses, 1917
Uncle Sam is bound in chains and a ball and chain. The chains on his arm are labeled "Censorship" and the ball is labeled "Conscription." A woman, depicting Liberty, swoons behind him. The caption reads "All ready to fight for Liberty."
Boardman Robinson, The Deserter, The Masses, 1916
What was the result of the debate?
In 1917 Congress passed the Selective Service Act creating a Draft to raise an army to fight in WW1. During World War One, while two million men volunteered for various branches of the armed services, and 2.8 million were drafted into the military.
Since the creation of the Selective Service Act in 1917 the United States Government has had two additional drafts, one for World War Two, and the last for the Vietnam war. The Vietnam Draft led to large protests, and people burned their draft cards. Many refused to surrender, including the famous boxer Muhammad Ali. Many who refused left the country, those who stayed were put in jail (including Muhammad Ali).