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year the Imperial Government had somewhat restrained

the commanders of its undersea craft in conformity with its

promise then given to us that passenger boats should not

be sunk and that due warning would be given to all other

vessels which its submarines might seek to destroy, when

no resistance was offered or escape attempted, and care

taken that their crews were given at least a fair chance to

save their lives in their open boats. The precautions taken

were meagre and haphazard enough, as was proved in dis-

tressing instance after instance in the progress of the cruel

and unmanly business, but a certain degree of restraint was

observed. The new policy has swept every restriction aside.

Vessels of every kind, whatever their flag, their character,

their cargo, their destination, their errand, have been ruth-

lessly sent to the bottom without warning and without

thought of help or mercy for those on board, the vessels of

friendly neutrals along with those of belligerents. Even

hospitals ships and ships carrying relief to the sorely

bereaved and stricken people of Belgium, though the lat-

ter were provided with safe conduct through the pro-

scribed areas by the German Government itself and were

distinguished by unmistakable marks of identity, have been

sunk with the same reckless lack of compassion or of prin-

ciples.

I was for a little while unable to believe that such

things would in fact be done by any government that had

hitherto subscribed to the humane practices of civilized

nations. International law had its origin in the attempt to

set up some law which would be respected and observed

upon the seas, where no nation had right of dominion and

where lay the free highways of the world. By painful stage

after stage has that law been built up, with meagre enough

results, indeed, after all was accomplished that could be

accomplished, but always with a clear view, at least, of what

the heart and conscience of mankind demanded. This min-

imum of right the German Government has swept aside

under the plea of retaliation and necessity and because it

had no weapons which it could use at sea except these

which it is impossible to employ as it is employing them

without throwing to the winds all scruples of humanity or

of respect for the understandings that were supposed to

underlie the intercourse of the world. I am not now think-

ing of the loss of property involved, immense and serious

as that is, but only of the wanton and wholesale destruction

of the lives of non-combatants, men, women, and children,

engaged in pursuits which have always, even in the darkest

periods of modern history, been deemed innocent and

legitimate. Property can be paid for; the lives of peaceful

and innocent people cannot be. The present German sub-

marine warfare against commerce is a warfare against

mankind.

It is a war against all nations. American ships have

been sunk, American lives taken, in ways which it has

stirred us very deeply to learn of, but the ships and people

of other neutral and friendly nations have been sunk and

overwhelmed in the waters in the same way. There has

been no discrimination. The challenge is to all mankind.

Each nation must decide for itself how it will meet it. The

choice we make for ourselves must be made with a mod-

eration of counsel and a temperateness of judgment befit-

ting our character and our motives as a nation. We must

put excited feeling away. Our motive will not be revenge or

the victorious assertion of the physical might of the nation,

but only the vindication of right, of human right, of which

we are only a single champion.

When I addressed the Congress on the twenty-sixth

of February last I thought that it would suffice to assert

our neutral rights with arms, our right to use the seas

against unlawful interference, our right to keep our peo-

ple safe against unlawful violence. But armed neutrality,

it now appears, is impracticable. Because submarines are

in effect outlaws when used as the German submarines

have been used against merchant shipping, it is impossi-

ble to defend ships against their attacks as the law of

nations has assumed that merchantmen would defend

themselves against privateers or cruisers, visible craft giv-

ing chase upon the open sea. It is common prudence in

such circumstances, grim necessity, indeed, to endeavour

to destroy them before they have shown their own inten-

tion. They must be dealt with upon sight, if dealt with at

all. The German Government denies the right of neutrals

to use arms at all within the areas of the sea which it has

proscribed, even in the defense or rights which no mod-

ern publicist has ever before questioned their right to

defend. The intimation is conveyed that the armed guards

which we have placed on our merchant ships will be

treated as beyond the pale of law and subject to be dealt

with as pirates would be. Armed neutrality is ineffectual

enough at best; in such circumstances and in the face of

such pretensions it is worse than ineffectual: it is likely

only to produce what it was meant to prevent; it is practi-

cally certain to draw us into the war without either the

rights or the effectiveness of belligerents. There is one

choice we cannot make, we are incapable of making: we

will not choose the path of submission and suffer the most

sacred rights of our nation and our people to be ignored

or violated. The wrongs against which we now array our-

selves are no common wrongs; they cut to the very roots

of human life.

With a profound sense of the solemn and even tragi-

cal character of the step I am taking and of the grave

responsibilities which it involves, but in unhesitating obe-

dience to what I deem my constitutional duty, I advise that

the Congress declare the recent course of the Imperial

German Government to be in fact nothing less than war

against the government and people of the United States;

1262 ERA 7: The Emergence of Modern America

that it formally accept the status of belligerent which has

thus been thrust upon it; and that it take immediate steps

not only to put the country in a more thorough state of

defense but also to exert all its power and employ all its

resources to bring the Government of the German Empire

to terms and end the war.

What this will involve is clear. It will involve the

utmost practicable cooperation in counsel and action with

the governments now at war with Germany, and, as inci-

dent to that, the extension to those governments of the

most liberal financial credits, in order that our resources

may so far as possible be added to theirs. It will involve the

organization and mobilization of all the material resources

of the country to supply the materials of war and serve the

incidental needs of the nation in the most abundant and

yet the most economical and efficient way possible. It will

involve the immediate full equipment of the navy in all

respects but particularly in supplying it with the best

means of dealing with the enemy’s submarines. It will

involve the immediate addition to the armed forces of the

United States already provided for by law in case of war at

least five hundred thousand men, who should, in my opin-

ion, be chosen upon the principle of universal liability to

service, and also the authorization of subsequent addi-

tional increments of equal force so soon as they may be

needed and can be handled in training. It will involve also,

of course, the granting of adequate credits to the Govern-

ment, sustained, I hope, so far as they can equitably be sus-

tained by the present generation, by well conceived

taxation.

I say sustained so far as may be equitable by taxation

because it seems to me that it would be most unwise to

base the credits which will now be necessary entirely on

money borrowed. It is our duty, I most respectfully urge,

to protect our people so far as we may against the very seri-

ous hardships and evils which would be likely to arise out

of the inflation which would be produced by vast loans.

In carrying out the measures by which these things are

to be accomplished we should keep constantly in mind the

wisdom of interfering as little as possible in our own prepa-

ration and in the equipment of our own military forces

with the duty,—for it will be a very practical duty,—of sup-

plying the nations already at war with Germany with the

materials which they can obtain only from us or by our

assistance. They are in the field and we should help them

in every way to be effective there.

I shall take the liberty of suggesting, through the sev-

eral executive departments of the Government, for the

consideration of your committees, measures for the

accomplishment of the several objects I have mentioned. I

hope that it will be your pleasure to deal with them as hav-

ing been framed after very careful thought by the branch

of the Government upon which the responsibility of con-

ducting the war and safeguarding the nation will most

directly fall.

While we do these things, these deeply momentous

things, let us be very clear, and make very clear to all the

world what our motives and our objects are. My own

thought has not been driven from its habitual and normal

course by the unhappy events of the last two months, and

I do not believe that the thought of the nation has been

altered or clouded by them. I have exactly the same things

in mind now that I had in mind when I addressed the Sen-

ate on the twenty-second of January last; the same that I

had in mind when I addressed the Congress on the third

of February and on the twenty-sixth of February. Our

object now, as then, is to vindicate the principles of peace

and justice in the life of the world as against selfish and

autocratic power and to set up amongst the really free and

self-governed peoples of the world such a concert of pur-

pose and of action as will henceforth ensure the obser-

vance of those principles. Neutrality is no longer feasible

or desirable where the peace of the world is involved and

the freedom of its peoples, and the menace to that peace

and freedom lies in the existence of autocratic govern-

ments backed by organized force which is controlled

wholly by their will, not by the will of their people. We

have seen the last of neutrality in such circumstances. We

are at the beginning of an age in which it will be insisted

that the same standards of conduct and of responsibility

for wrong done shall be observed among nations and their

governments that are observed among the individual citi-

zens of civilized states.

We have no quarrel with the German people. We

have no feeling towards them but one of sympathy and

friendship. It was not upon their impulse that their gov-

ernment acted in entering this war. It was not with their

previous knowledge or approval. It was a war determined

upon as wars used to be determined upon in the old,

unhappy days when peoples were nowhere consulted by

their rulers and wars were provoked and waged in the

interest of dynasties or of little groups of ambitious men

who were accustomed to use their fellow men as pawns

and tools. Self-governed nations do not fill their neigh-

bour states with spies or set the course of intrigue to bring

about some critical posture of affairs which will give them

an opportunity to strike and make conquest. Such designs

can be successfully worked out only under cover and

where no one has the right to ask questions. Cunningly

contrived plans of deception or aggression, carried, it may

be, from generation to generation, can be worked out and

kept from the light only within the privacy of courts or

behind the carefully guarded confidences of a narrow and

privileged class. They are happily impossible where pub-

lic opinion commands and insists upon full information

concerning all the nation’s affairs.

Causes and Consequences of World War I 1263

A steadfast concert for peace can never be maintained

except by a partnership of democratic nations. No auto-

cratic government could be trusted to keep faith within it

or observe its covenants. It must be a league of honour, a

partnership of opinion. Intrigue would eat its vitals away;

the plottings of inner circles who could plan what they

would and render account to no one would be a corruption

seated at its very heart. Only free peoples can hold their

purpose and their honour steady to a common end and

prefer the interests of mankind to any narrow interest of

their own.

Does not every American feel that assurance has been

added to our hope for the future peace of the world by the

wonderful and heartening things that have been happen-

ing within the last few weeks in Russia? Russia was known

by those who knew it best to have been always in fact

democratic at heart, in all the vital habits of her thought, in

all the intimate relationships of her people that spoke their

natural instinct, their habitual attitude towards life. The

autocracy that crowned the summit of her political struc-

ture, long as it had stood and terrible as was the reality of

its power, was not in fact Russian in origin, character, or

purpose; and now it has been shaken off and the great,

generous Russian people have been added in all their

naive majesty and might to the forces that are fighting for

freedom in the world, for justice, and for peace. Here is a

fit partner for a League of Honour.

One of the things that has served to convince us that

the Prussian autocracy was not and could never be our

friend is that from the very outset of the present war it has

filled our unsuspecting communities and even our offices

of government with spies and set criminal intrigues every-

where afoot against our national unity of counsel, our

peace within and without, our industries and our com-

merce. Indeed it is now evident that its spies were here

even before the war began; and it is unhappily not a mat-

ter of conjecture but a fact proved in our court of justice

that the intrigues which have more than once come per-

ilously near to disturbing the peace and dislocating the

industries of the country have been carried on at the insti-

gation, with the support, and even under the personal

direction of official agents of the Imperial Government

accredited to the Government of the United States. Even

in checking these things and trying to extirpate them we

have sought to put the most generous interpretation pos-

sible upon them because we knew that their source lay,

not in any hostile feeling or purpose of the German peo-

ple towards us (who were, no doubt as ignorant of them

as we ourselves were), but only in the selfish designs of a

Government that did what it pleased and told its people

nothing. But they have played their part in serving to con-

vince us at last that that Government entertains no real

friendship for us and means to act against our peace and

security at its convenience. That it means to stir up ene-

mies against us at our very doors the intercepted note to

the German Minister at Mexico City is eloquent evi-

dence.

We are accepting this challenge of hostile purpose

because we know that in such a government, following

such methods, we can never have a friend; and that in the

presence of its organized power, always lying in wait to

accomplish we know not what purpose, there can be no

assured security for the democratic governments of the

world. We are now about to accept gauge of battle with

this natural foe to liberty and shall, if necessary, spend the

whole force of the nation to check and nullify its preten-

sions and its power. We are glad, now that we see the facts

with no veil of false pretence about them, to fight thus for

the ultimate peace of the world and for the liberation of its

peoples, the German peoples included: for the rights of

nations great and small and the privilege of men every-

where to choose their way of life and of obedience. The

world must be made safe for democracy. Its peace must be

planted upon the tested foundations of political liberty. We

have no selfish ends to serve. We desire no conquest, no

dominion. We seek no indemnities for ourselves, no mate-

rial compensation for the sacrifices we shall freely make.

We are but one of the champions of the rights of mankind.

We shall be satisfied when those rights have been made as

secure as the faith and the freedom of nations can make

them.

Just because we fight without rancour and without

selfish object, seeking nothing for ourselves but what we

shall wish to share with all free peoples, we shall, I feel

confident, conduct our operations as belligerents without

passion and ourselves observe with proud punctilio the

principles of right and of fair play we profess to be fighting

for.

I have said nothing of the governments allied with

the Imperial Government of Germany because they have

not made war upon us or challenged us to defend our

right and our honour. The Austro-Hungarian Govern-

ment has, indeed, avowed its unqualified endorsement

and acceptance of the reckless and lawless submarine

warfare adopted now without disguise by the Imperial

German Government, and it has therefore not been pos-

sible for this Government to receive Count Tarnowski,

the Ambassador recently accredited to this Government

by the Imperial and Royal Government of Austria-Hun-

gary; but that Government has not actually engaged in

warfare against citizens of the United States on the seas,

and I take the liberty, for the present at least, of postpon-

ing a discussion of our relations with the authorities at

Vienna. We enter this war only where we are clearly

forced into it because there are no other means of

defending our rights.

1264 ERA 7: The Emergence of Modern America

It will be all the easier for us to conduct ourselves as

belligerents in a high spirit of right and fairness because we

act without animus, not in enmity towards a people or with

the desire to bring any injury or disadvantage upon them,

but only in armed opposition to an irresponsible govern-

ment which has thrown aside all considerations of human-

ity and of right and is running amuck. We are, let me say

again, the sincere friends of the German people, and shall

desire nothing so much as the early re-establishment of

intimate relations of mutual advantage between us,—how-

ever hard it may be for them, for the time being, to believe

that this is spoken from our hearts. We have borne with

their present government through all these bitter months

because of that friendship,—exercising a patience and for-

bearance which would otherwise have been impossible.

We shall, happily, still have an opportunity to prove that

friendship in our daily attitude and actions towards the mil-

lions of men and women of German birth and native sym-

pathy who live amongst us and share our life, and we shall

be proud to prove it towards all who are in fact loyal to

their neighbours and to the Government in the hour of

test. They are, most of them, as true and loyal Americans

as if they had never known any other fealty or allegiance.

They will be prompt to stand with us in rebuking and

restraining the few who may be of a different mind and

purpose. If there should be disloyalty, it will be dealt with

with a firm hand of stern repression; but, if it lifts its head

at all, it will lift it only here and there and without counte-

nance except from a lawless and malignant few.

It is a distressing and oppressive duty, Gentlemen of

the Congress, which I have performed in thus addressing

you. There are, it may be, many months of fiery trial and

sacrifice ahead of us. It is a fearful thing to lead this great

peaceful people into war, into the most terrible and disas-

trous of all wars, civilization itself seeming to be in the bal-

ance. But the right is more precious than peace, and we

shall fight for the things which we have always carried

nearest our hearts,—for democracy, for the right of those

who submit to authority to have a voice in their own gov-

ernments, for the rights and liberties of small nations, for

a universal dominion of right by such a concert of free peo-

ples as shall bring peace and safety to all nations and make

the world itself at last free. To such a task we can dedicate

our lives and our fortunes, everything that we are and

everything that we have, with the pride of those who know

that the day has come when America is privileged to spend

her blood and her might for the principles that gave her

birth and happiness and the peace which she has trea-

sured. God helping her, she can do no other.

Source:

Link, Arthur S., The Papers of Woodrow Wilson. Princeton, N.J.:

Princeton University Press, 1966–94.

Selective Service Act, 1917

Federal legislation enacted on May 18, 1917, establishing reg-

istration and classification for military service of all men

between the ages of 21 and 30, inclusive. Local civilian draft

boards were given responsibility for administering the draft.

Exemptions were allowed for alienage, physical unfitness, and

conscientious objections on religious grounds. The act was

amended by the Man Power Act, passed on August 31, 1918,

which required registration of all men from age 18 to 45. More

than 24 million men were registered over the course of World

War I (1914–18). Conscription was halted after the war.

________________________

_______________________

An Act

To authorize the President to increase temporarily the Mil-

itary Establishment of the United States.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-

tives of the United States of America in Congress assem-

bled, That in view of the existing emergency, which

demands the raising of troops in addition to those now

available, the President be, and he is hereby, authorized—

First. Immediately to raise, organize, officer, and

equip all or such number of increments of the Regular

Army provided by the national defense Act approved June

third, nineteen hundred and sixteen, or such parts thereof

as he may deem necessary; to raise all organizations of the

Regular Army, including those added by such increments,

to the maximum enlisted strength authorized by law.

Vacancies in the Regular Army created or caused by the

addition of increments as herein authorized which can not

be filled by promotion may be filled by temporary appoint-

ment for the period of the emergency or until replaced by

permanent appointments or by provisional appointments

made under the provisions of section twenty-three of the

national defense Act, approved June third, nineteen hun-

dred and sixteen, and hereafter provisional appointments

under said section may be terminated whenever it is deter-

mined, in the manner prescribed by the President, that the

officer has not the suitability and fitness requisite for per-

manent appointment.

Second. To draft into the military service of the

United States, organize, and officer, in accordance with the

provisions of section one hundred and eleven of said

national defense Act, so far as the provisions of said section

may be applicable and not inconsistent with the terms of

this Act, any or all members of the National Guard and of

the National Guard Reserves, and said members so

drafted into the military service of the United States shall

serve therein for the period of the existing emergency

unless sooner discharged: Provided, That when so drafted

the organizations or units of the National Guard shall, so

Causes and Consequences of World War I 1265

far as practicable, retain the State designations of their

respective organizations.

Third. To raise by draft as herein provided, organize

and equip an additional force of five hundred thousand

enlisted men, or such part or parts thereof as he may at any

time deem necessary, and to provide the necessary offi-

cers, line and staff, for said force and for organizations of

the other forces hereby authorized, or by combining orga-

nizations of said other forces, by ordering members of the

Officers’ Reserve Corps to temporary duty in accordance

with the provisions of section thirty-eight of the national

defense Act approved June third, nineteen hundred and

sixteen; by appointment from the Regular Army, the Offi-

cers’ Reserve Corps, from those duly qualified and regis-

tered pursuant to section twenty-three of the Act of

Congress approved January twenty-first, nineteen hun-

dred and three (Thirty-second Statutes at Large, page

seven hundred and seventy-five), from the members of the

National Guard drafted into the service of the United

States, from those who have been graduated from educa-

tional institutions at which military instruction is compul-

sory, or from those who have had honorable service in the

Regular Army, the National Guard, or in the volunteer

forces, or from the country at large; by assigning retired

officers of the Regular Army to active duty with such force

with their rank on the retired list and the full pay and

allowances of their grade; or by the appointment of retired

officers and enlisted men, active or retired, of the Regular

Army as commissioned officers in such forces: Provided,

That the organization of said force shall be the same as that

of the corresponding organizations of the Regular Army:

Provided, further, That the President is authorized to

increase or decrease the number of organizations pre-

scribed for the typical brigades, divisions, or army corps of

the Regular Army, and to prescribe such new and different

organizations and personnel for army corps, divisions,

brigades, regiments, battalions, squadrons, companies,

troops, and batteries as the efficiency of the service may

require: Provided further, That number of organizations in

a regiment shall not be increased nor shall the number of

regiments be decreased: Provided further, That the Presi-

dent in his discretion may organize, officer, and equip for

each Infantry and Cavalry brigade three machine-gun

companies, and for each Infantry and Cavalry division four

machine-gun companies, all in addition to the machine-

gun companies comprised in organizations included in

such brigades and divisions: Provided further, That the

President in his discretion may organize for each division

one armored motor-car machine-gun company. The

machine-gun companies organized under this section shall

consist of such commissioned and enlisted personnel and

be equipped in such manner as the President may pre-

scribe: And Provided further, That officers with rank not

above that of colonel shall be appointed by the President

alone, and officers above that grade by the President by

and with the advice and consent of the Senate: Provided

further, That the President may in his discretion recom-

mission in the Coast Guard persons who have heretofore

held commissions in the Revenue-Cutter Service or the

Coast Guard and have left the service honorably, after

ascertaining that they are qualified for service physically,

morally, and as to age and military fitness.

Fourth. The President is further authorized, in his dis-

cretion and at such time as he may determine, to raise and

begin the training of an additional force of five hundred

thousand men organized, officered, and equipped, as pro-

vided for the force first mentioned in the preceding para-

graph of this section.

Fifth. To raise by draft, organize, equip, and officer, as

provided in the third paragraph of this section, in addition

to and for each of the above forces, such recruit training

units as he may deem necessary for the maintenance of

such forces at the maximum strength.

Sixth. To raise, organize, officer, and maintain during

the emergency such number of ammunition batteries and

battalions, depot batteries and battalions, and such

artillery parks, with such numbers and grades of personnel

as he may deem necessary. Such organizations shall be offi-

cered in the manner provided in the third paragraph of

this section, and enlisted men may be assigned to said

organizations from any of the forces herein provided for or

raised by selective draft as by this Act provided.

Seventh. The President is further authorized to raise

and maintain by voluntary enlistment, to organize, and

equip, not to exceed four infantry divisions, the officers of

which shall be selected in the manner provided by para-

graph three of section one of this Act: Provided, That the

organization of said force shall be the same as that of the

corresponding organization of the Regular Army: And pro-

vided further, That there shall be no enlistments in said

force of men under twenty-five years of age at time of

enlisting: And provided further, That no such volunteer

force shall be accepted in any unit smaller than a division.

Sec. 2. That the enlisted men required to raise and

maintain the organizations of the Regular Army and to

complete and maintain the organizations embodying the

members of the National Guard drafted into the service of

the United States, at the maximum legal strength as by this

Act provided, shall be raised by voluntary enlistment, or if

and whenever the President decides that they can not

effectually be so raised or maintained, then by selective

draft; and all other forces hereby authorized, except as

provided in the seventh paragraph of section one, shall be

raised and maintained by selective draft exclusively; but

1266 ERA 7: The Emergence of Modern America

this provision shall not prevent the transfer to any force of

training cadres from other forces. Such draft as herein pro-

vided 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 twenty-one and thirty-years, both inclusive, and

shall take place and be maintained under such regulations

as the President may prescribe not inconsistent with the

terms of this Act. Quotas for the several States, Territories,

and the District of Columbia, or subdivisions thereof, shall

be determined in proportion to the population thereof,

and credit shall be given to any State, Territory, District, or

subdivision thereof, for the number of men who were in

the military service of the United States as members of the

National Guard on April first, nineteen hundred and sev-

enteen, or who have since said date entered the military

service of the United States from any such State, Territory,

District, or subdivision, either as members of the Regular

Army or the National Guard. All persons drafted into the

service of the United States and all officers accepting com-

missions in the forces herein provided for shall, from the

date of said draft or acceptance, be subject to the laws and

regulations governing the Regular Army, except as to pro-

motions, so far as such laws and regulations are applicable

to persons whose permanent retention in the military ser-

vice on the active or retired list is not contemplated by

existing law, and those drafted shall be required to serve

for the period of the existing emergency unless sooner dis-

charged: Provided, That the President is authorized to

raise and maintain by voluntary enlistment or draft, as

herein provided, special and technical troops as he may

deem necessary, and to embody them into organizations

and to officer them as provided in the third paragraph of

section one and section nine of this Act. Organizations of

the forces herein provided for, except the Regular Army

and the divisions authorized in the seventh paragraph of

section one, shall, as far as the interests of the service per-

mit, be composed of men who come, and of officers who

are appointed from, the same State or locality.

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 permit-

ted 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 dis-

charged therefrom prior to the expiration of his term of

service by the payment of money or any other valuable

thing whatsoever as consideration for his release from mil-

itary service or liability thereto.

Sec. 4. That the Vice President of the United States,

the officers, legislative, executive, and judicial, of the

United States and of the several States, Territories, and the

District of Columbia, regular or duly ordained ministers of

religion, students who at the time of the approval of this

Act are preparing for the ministry in recognized theologi-

cal or divinity schools, and all persons in the military and

naval service of the United States shall be exempt from the

selective draft herein prescribed; and nothing in this Act

contained shall be construed to require or compel any per-

son to serve in any of the forces herein provided for who is

found to be a member of any well-recognized religious

sect or organization at present organized and existing and

whose existing creed or principles forbid its members to

participate in war in any form and whose religious convic-

tions are against war or participation therein in accordance

with the creed or principles of said religious organizations,

but no person so exempted shall be exempted from service

in any capacity that the President shall declare to be non-

combatant; and the President is hereby authorized to

exclude or discharge from said selective draft and from the

draft under the second paragraph of section one hereof, or

to draft for partial military service only from those liable to

draft as in this Act provided, persons of the following

classes: County and municipal officials; customhouse

clerks; persons employed by the United States in the trans-

mission of the mails; artificers and workmen employed in

the armories, arsenals, and navy yards of the United States,

and such other persons employed in the service of the

United States as the President may designate; pilots;

mariners actually employed in the sea service of any citizen

or merchant within the United States; persons engaged in

industries, including agriculture, found to be necessary to

the maintenance of the Military Establishment or the

effective operation of the military forces or the mainte-

nance of national interest during the emergency; those in

a status with respect to persons dependent upon them for

support which renders their exclusion or discharge advis-

able; and those found to be physically or morally deficient.

No exemption or exclusion shall continue when a cause

therefor no longer exists: Provided, That notwithstanding

the exemptions enumerated herein, each State, Territory,

and the District of Columbia shall be required to supply its

quota in the proportion that its population bears to the

total population of the United States.

The President is hereby authorized, in his discretion,

to create and establish throughout the several States and

subdivisions thereof and in the Territories and the District

of Columbia local boards, and where, in his discretion,

practicable and desirable, there shall be created and estab-

lished one such local board in each county or similar sub-

division in each State, and one for approximately each

thirty thousand of population in each city of thirty thou-

sand population or over, according to the last census taken

Causes and Consequences of World War I 1267

or estimates furnished by the Bureau of Census of the

Department of Commerce. Such boards shall be

appointed by the President, and shall consist of three or

more members, none of whom shall be connected with the

Military Establishment, to be chosen from among the local

authorities of such subdivisions or from other citizens

residing in the subdivision or area in which the respective

boards will have jurisdiction under the rules and regula-

tions prescribed by the President. Such boards shall have

power within their respective jurisdictions to hear and

determine, subject to review as hereinafter provided, all

questions of exemption under this Act, and all questions of

or claims for including or discharging individuals or classes

of individuals from the selective draft, which shall be made

under rules and regulations prescribed by the President,

except any and every question or claim for including or

excluding or discharging persons or classes of persons from

the selective draft under the provisions of this Act autho-

rizing the President to exclude or discharge from the selec-

tive draft “Persons engaged in industries, including

agriculture, found to be necessary to the maintenance of

the Military Establishment, or the effective operation of

the military forces, or the maintenance of national interest

during the emergency.”

The President is hereby authorized to establish addi-

tional boards, one in each Federal judicial district of the

United States, consisting of such number of citizens, not

connected with the Military Establishment, as the Presi-

dent may determine, who shall be appointed by the Presi-

dent. The President is hereby authorized, in his discretion,

to establish more than one such board in any Federal judi-

cial district of the United States, or to establish one such

board having jurisdiction of an area extending into more

than one Federal judicial district.

Such district boards shall have review on appeal and

affirm, modify, or reverse any decision of any local board

having jurisdiction in the area in which any such district

board has jurisdiction under the rules and regulations pre-

scribed by the President. Such district boards shall have

exclusive original jurisdiction within their respective areas

to hear and determine all questions or claims for including

or excluding or discharging persons or classes of persons

from the selective draft, under the provisions of this Act,

not included within the original jurisdiction of such local

boards.

The decisions of such district boards shall be final

except that, in accordance with such rules and regulations

as the President may prescribe, he may affirm, modify or

reverse any such decision.

Any vacancy in any such local board or district board

shall be filled by the President, and any member of any

such local board or district board may be removed and

another appointed in his place by the President, whenever

he considers that the interest of the nation demands it.

The President shall make rules and regulations gov-

erning the organization and procedure of such local boards

and district boards, and providing for and governing

appeals from such local boards to such district boards, and

reviews of the decisions of any local board by the district

board having jurisdiction, and determining and prescrib-

ing the several areas in which the respective local boards

and district boards shall have jurisdiction, and all other

rules and regulations necessary to carry out the terms and

provisions of this section, and shall provide for the issuance

of certificates of exemption, or partial or limited exemp-

tions, and for a system to exclude and discharge individu-

als from selective draft.

Sec. 5. That all male persons between the ages of

twenty-one and thirty, both inclusive, shall be subject to

registration in accordance with regulations to be pre-

scribed by the President; and upon proclamation by the

President or other public notice given by him or by his

direction stating the time and place of such registration it

shall be the duty of all persons of the designated ages,

except officers and enlisted men of the Regular Army, the

Navy, and the National Guard and Naval Militia while in

the service of the United States, to present themselves for

and submit to registration under the provisions of this Act;

and every such person shall be deemed to have notice of

the requirements of this Act upon the publication of said

proclamation or other notice as aforesaid given by the

President or by his direction; and any person who shall

willfully fail or refuse to present himself for registration or

to submit thereto as herein provided, shall be guilty of a

misdemeanor and shall, upon conviction in the district

court of the United States having jurisdiction thereof, be

punished by imprisonment for not more than one year, and

shall thereupon be duly registered: Provided, That in the

call of the docket precedence shall be given, in courts try-

ing the same, to the trial of criminal proceedings under

this Act: Provided further, That persons shall be subject to

registration as herein provided who shall have attained

their twenty-first birthday and who shall not have attained

their thirty-first birthday on or before the day set for the

registration, and all persons so registered shall be and

remain subject to draft into the forces hereby authorized,

unless exempted or excused therefrom as in this Act pro-

vided: Provided further, That in the case of temporary

absence from actual place of legal residence of any person

liable to registration as provided herein such registration

may be made by mail under regulations to be prescribed

by the President.

Sec. 6. That the President is hereby authorized to

utilize the service of any or all departments and any or all

1268 ERA 7: The Emergence of Modern America

officers or agents of the United States and of the several

States, Territories, and the District of Columbia, and sub-

divisions thereof, in the execution of this Act, and all offi-

cers and agents of the United States and of the several

States, Territories, and subdivisions thereof, and of the

District of Columbia, and all persons designated or

appointed under regulations prescribed by the President

whether such appointments are made by the President

himself or by the governor or other officer of any State or

Territory to perform any duty in the execution of this Act,

are hereby required to perform such duty as the Presi-

dent shall order or direct, and all such officers and agents

and persons so designated or appointed shall hereby have

full authority for all acts done by them in the execution of

this Act by the direction of the President. Correspon-

dence in the execution of this Act may be carried in

penalty envelopes bearing the frank of the War Depart-

ment. Any person charged as herein provided with the

duty of carrying into effect any of the provisions of this

Act or the regulations made or directions given thereun-

der who shall fail or neglect to perform such duty; and

any person charged with such duty or having and exercis-

ing any authority under said Act, regulations, or direc-

tions, who shall knowingly make or be a party to the

making of any false or incorrect registration, physical

examination, exemption, enlistment, enrollment, or

muster; and any person who shall make or be a party to

the making of any false statement or certificate as to the

fitness or liability of himself or any other person for ser-

vice under the provisions of this Act, or regulations made

by the President thereunder, or otherwise evades or aids

another to evade the requirements of this Act or of said

regulations, or who, in any manner, shall fail or neglect

fully to perform any duty required of him in the execu-

tion of this Act, shall, if not subject to military law, be

guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction in the dis-

trict court of the United States having jurisdiction

thereof, be punished by imprisonment for not more than

one year, or, if subject to military law, shall be tried by

court-martial and suffer such punishment as a court-mar-

tial may direct.

Sec. 7. That the qualifications and conditions for vol-

untary enlistment as herein provided shall be the same as

those prescribed by existing law for enlistments in the

Regular Army, except that recruits must be between the

ages of eighteen and forty years, both inclusive, at the time

of their enlistment; and such enlistments shall be for the

period of the emergency unless sooner discharged. All

enlistments, including those in the Regular Army Reserve,

which are in force on the date of the approval of this Act

and which would terminate during the emergency shall

continue in force during the emergency unless sooner dis-

charged; but nothing herein contained shall be construed

to shorten the period of any existing enlistment: Provided,

That all persons enlisted or drafted under any of the pro-

visions of this Act shall as far as practicable be grouped

into units by States and the political subdivisions of the

same: Provided further, That all persons who have enlisted

since April first, nineteen hundred and seventeen, either

in the Regular Army or in the National Guard, and all per-

sons who have enlisted in the National Guard since June

third, nineteen hundred and sixteen, upon their applica-

tion, shall be discharged upon the termination of the exist-

ing emergency.

The President may provide for the discharge of any of

all enlisted men whose status with respect to dependents

renders such discharge advisable; and he may also autho-

rize the employment on any active duty of retired enlisted

men of the Regular Army, either with their rank on the

retired list or in higher enlisted grades, and such retired

enlisted men shall receive the full pay and allowances of

the grades in which they are actively employed.

Sec. 8. That the President, by and with the advice and

consent of the Senate is authorized to appoint for the

period of the existing emergency such general officers of

appropriate grades as may be necessary for duty with

brigades, divisions, and higher units in which the forces

provided for herein may be organized by the President,

and general officers of appropriate grade for the several

Coast Artillery districts. In so far as such appointments

may be made from any of the forces herein provided for,

the appointees may be selected irrespective of the grades

held by them in such forces. Vacancies in all grades in Reg-

ular Army resulting from the appointment of officers

thereof to higher grades in the forces other than the Reg-

ular Army herein provided for shall be filled by temporary

promotions and appointments in the manner prescribed

for filling temporary vacancies by section one hundred and

fourteen of the national defense Act approved June third,

nineteen hundred and sixteen; and officers appointed

under the provisions of this Act to higher grades in the

forces other than the Regular Army herein provided for

shall not vacate their permanent commissions nor be prej-

udiced in their relative or lineal standing in the Regular

Army.

Sec. 9. That the appointments authorized and made

as provided by the second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and

seventh paragraphs of section one and by section eight of

this Act, and the temporary appointments in the Regular

Army authorized by the first paragraph of section one of

this Act, shall be for the period of the emergency, unless

sooner terminated by discharge or otherwise. The Presi-

dent is hereby authorized to discharge any officer from

the office held by him under such appointment for any

Causes and Consequences of World War I 1269

cause which, in the judgment of the President, would

promote the public service; and the general commanding

any division and higher tactical organization or territorial

department is authorized to appoint from time to time

military boards of not less than three nor more than five

officers of the forces herein provided for to examine into

and report upon the capacity, qualification, conduct, and

efficiency of any commissioned officer within his com-

mand other than officers of the Regular Army holding

permanent or provisional commissions therein. Each

member of such board shall be superior in rank to the

officer whose qualifications are to be inquired into, and

if the report of such board be adverse to the continuance

of any such officer and be approved by the President,

such officer shall be discharged from the service at the

discretion of the President with one month’s pay and

allowances.

Sec. 10. That all officers and enlisted men of the

forces herein provided for other than the Regular Army

shall be in all respects on the same footing as to pay,

allowances, and pensions as officers and enlisted men of

corresponding grades and length of service in the Regular

Army; and commencing June one, nineteen hundred and

seventeen, and continuing until the termination of the

emergency, all enlisted men of the Army of the United

States in active service whose base pay does not exceed

$21 per month shall receive an increase of $15 per month;

those whose base pay is $24, an increase of $12 per month;

those whose base pay is $30, $36, or $40, an increase of $8

per month; and those whose base pay is $45 or more, an

increase of $6 per month: Provided, That the increases of

pay herein authorized shall not enter into the computation

of continuous-service pay.

Sec. 11. That all existing restrictions upon the detail,

detachment, and employment of officers and enlisted men

of the Regular Army are hereby suspended for the period

of the present emergency.

Sec. 12. That the President of the United States, as

Commander in Chief of the Army, is authorized to make

such regulations governing the prohibition of alcoholic

liquors in or near military camps and to the officers and

enlisted men of the Army as he may from time to time

deem necessary or advisable: Provided, That no person,

corporation, partnership, or association shall sell, supply,

or have in his or its possession any intoxicating or spiritu-

ous liquors at any military station, cantonment, camp,

fort, post, officers’ or enlisted men’s club, which is being

used at the time for military purposes under this Act, but

the Secretary of War may make regulations permitting

the sale and use of intoxicating liquors for medicinal pur-

poses. It shall be unlawful to sell any intoxicating liquor,

including beer, ale, or wine, to any officer or member of

the military forces while in uniform, except herein pro-

vided. Any person, corporation, partnership, or associa-

tion violating the provisions of this section of the

regulations made thereunder shall, unless otherwise pun-

ishable under the Articles of War, be deemed guilty of a

misdemeanor and be punished by a fine of not more than

$1,000 or imprisonment for not more than twelve

months, or both.

Sec. 13. That the Secretary of War is hereby autho-

rized, empowered, and directed during the present war to

do everything by him deemed necessary to suppress and

prevent the keeping or setting up of houses of ill fame,

brothels, or bawdy houses within such distance as he may

deem needful of any military camp, station, fort, post, can-

tonment, training, or mobilization place, and any person,

corporation, partnership, or association receiving or per-

mitting to be received for immoral purposes any person

into any place, structure, or building used for the purpose

of lewdness, assignation, or prostitution within such dis-

tance of said places as may be designated, or shall permit

any such person to remain for immoral purposes in any

such place, structure, or building as aforesaid, or who shall

violate any order, rule, or regulation issued to carry out the

object and purpose of this section shall, unless otherwise

punishable under the Articles of War, be deemed guilty of

a misdemeanor and be punished by a fine of not more than

$1,000, or imprisonment for not more than twelve months,

or both.

Sec. 14. That all laws and parts of laws in conflict with

the provisions of this Act are hereby suspended during the

period of this emergency.

Source:

Statutes at Large, Vol. 39, pp. 76–83.

Espionage Act, 1917

Federal legislation enacted on June 15, 1917, aimed at suppres-

sing treasonable and disloyal activities after Americans en-

tered World War I. It provided that individuals could be fined

up to $10,000 and imprisoned for 20 years for such offenses

as aiding the enemy, obstructing recruitment, and causing in-

subordination, disloyalty, or refusal of duty in the military. The

U.S. postmaster general was given the power to exclude from

the mails newspapers, magazines, and other items deemed

treasonable or seditious. The act was extended by the Espi-

onage (or Sedition) Act of 1918. The constitutionality of the

Espionage Act and the Sedition Act was upheld by the U.S.

Supreme Court in

Schenck v. United States

and

Abrams v.

United States

(1919). Many of the Espionage Act provisions

required a state of war to be in effect.

1270 ERA 7: The Emergence of Modern America

________________________

_______________________

An Act

To punish acts of interference with the foreign relations,

the neutrality, and the foreign commerce of the United

States, to punish espionage, and better to enforce the

criminal laws of the United States, and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Represen-

tatives of the United States of America in Congress assem-

bled:

Title I

Espionage.

Section 1. That (a) whoever, for the purpose of obtain-

ing information respecting the national defense with intent

or reason to believe that the information to be obtained is

to be used to the injury of the United States, or to the

advantage of any foreign nation, goes upon, enters, flies

over, or otherwise obtains information concerning any ves-

sel, aircraft, work of defense, navy yard, naval station, sub-

marine base, coaling station, fort, battery, torpedo station,

dockyard, canal, railroad, arsenal, camp, factory, mine,

telegraph, telephone, wireless, or signal station, building,

office, or other place connected with the national defense,

owned or constructed, or in progress of construction by

the United States or under the control of the United

States, or of any of its officers or agents, or within the

exclusive jurisdiction of the United States, or any place in

which any vessel, aircraft, arms, munitions, or other mate-

rials or instruments for use in time of war are being made,

prepared, repaired or stored under any contract or agree-

ment with the United States, or with any person on behalf

of the United States, or otherwise on behalf of the United

States, or any prohibited place . . . or (b) whoever for the

purpose aforesaid, and with like intent or reason to

believe, copies, takes, makes, or obtains, or attempts, or

induces or aids another to copy, take, make, or obtain, any

sketch, photograph, photographic negative, blue print,

plan, map, model, instrument, appliance, document, writ-

ing, or note of anything connected with the national

defense; or (c) whoever, for the purpose aforesaid, receives

or obtains or agrees or attempts or induces or aids another

to receive or obtain from any person, or from any source

whatever, any document, writing, code book, signal book,

sketch, photograph, photographic negative, blue print,

plan, map, model, instrument, appliance, or note, of any-

thing connected with the national defense, knowing or

having reason to believe, at the time he receives or obtains,

or agrees or attempts or induces or aids another to receive

or obtain it, that it has been or will be obtained, taken,

made or disposed of by any person contrary to the provi-

sions of this title; or (d) whoever, lawfully or unlawfully

having possession of, access to, control over, or being

intrusted with any [of the above listed items] relating to

the national defense, willfully communicates or transmits

or attempts to communicate or transmit the same to any

person not entitled to receive it, or willfully retains the

same and fails to deliver it on demand to the officer or

employee of the United States entitled to receive it; or (e)

whoever, being intrusted with or having lawful possession

or control of any document, writing, code book, signal

book, sketch, photograph, photographic negative, blue

print, plan, map, model, note, or information, relating to

the national defense, through gross negligence permits the

same to be removed from its proper place of custody or

delivered to anyone in violation of his trust, or to be lost,

stolen, abstracted, or destroyed, shall be punished by a fine

of not more than $10,000, or by imprisonment for not

more than two years, or both.

Sec. 2. (a) Whoever, with the intent or reason to

believe that it is to be used to the injury of the United

States or the advantage of a foreign nation, communicates,

delivers, or transmits, or attempts to, or aids or induces

another to, communicate, deliver, or transmit, to any for-

eign government, or to any faction or party or military or

naval force within a foreign country, whether recognized

or unrecognized by the United States, or to any represen-

tative, officer, agent, employee, subject to citizen thereof,

either directly or indirectly [of the above listed items]

relating to the national defense, shall be punished by

imprisonment for not more than twenty years: Provided,

That whoever shall violate the provisions of subsection (a)

of this section in time of war shall be punished by death or

by imprisonment for not more than thirty years; and (b)

whoever, in time of war, with intent that the same shall be

communicated to the enemy, shall collect, record, publish,

or communicate, or attempt to elicit any information with

respect to the movement, numbers, description, condition,

or disposition of any of the armed forces, ships, aircraft, or

war materials of the United States, or with respect to the

plans or conduct, or supposed plans or conduct of any

naval or military operations, or with respect to any works

or measures undertaken for or connected with, or

intended for the fortification or defense of any place, or

any other information relating to the public defense, which

might be useful to the enemy, shall be punished by death

or by imprisonment for not more than thirty years.

Sec. 3. Whoever, when the United States is at war,

shall willfully make or convey false reports or false state-

ments with intent to interfere with the operation or suc-

cess of the military or naval forces of the United States or

to promote the success of its enemies and whoever when

the United States is at war, shall willfully cause or attempt

to cause insubordination, disloyalty, mutiny, or refusal of

Causes and Consequences of World War I 1271