physical examination and elimination. The War Department, through the
Provost Marshal General's Office, had already determined and given
notice of the number of men to be furnished by each State, and at the
date of the drawing practically every State had ascertained and notified
its local boards of the number required to complete their respective
quotas for the first draft. The calculations of the War Department and
of the States for the quotas were based upon section 2 of the act of May
18.
Immediately upon the completion of the order of call lists, the local
boards began to summon for physical examination, beginning with the man
who was No. 1 on the list, and continuing in numerical sequence, a
sufficient number of registrants to fill their quotas. The average
number summoned for the first examination was about twice the number
required--i. e., if a board's quota was 105, the first 210 registrants
of that jurisdiction were called for physical examination.
[Sidenote: Certain officials and classes exempted.]
The Selective Service Law required certain persons to be exempted from
military service, including Federal and State legislative, executive,
and judicial officers, ministers of religion, students of divinity,
persons in the military or naval service of the United States, and
certain aliens. The law further authorized the discharge from draft,
under such regulations as the President might prescribe, of county and
municipal officers, customhouse clerks and other persons employed by the
United States in certain classes of work, pilots and mariners, and,
within prescribed limitations, registrants in a status with respect to
persons dependent upon them for support, and persons found physically or
morally unfit. Exemption from combatant service only was authorized in
the case of persons found to be members of any well-recognized religious
sect or organization whose existing creed or principles forbid its
members to participate in war in any form, and whose religious
convictions are against war or participation therein.
[Sidenote: Rules governing discharges.]
On June 30, 1917, the President promulgated rules and regulations as
authorized by the law prescribing the reasons for and manner of granting
discharges, and the procedure of local and district boards.
The selective service system required the 4,557 local boards to conduct
the physical examination of registrants within their jurisdictions, and
to determine and dispose of claims of exemption and discharge in the
first instance, excepting industrial and agricultural claims.
[Sidenote: The power of the district boards.]
The 156 district boards which were established as above stated, proved
to be the fulcrum of balance between the local boards and the
registrants. In practically every instance their members have been
chosen from among the most able and conspicuous representatives of the
legal and medical professions, and from the fields of industry,
commerce, and labor.
[Sidenote: Appeal agents appointed.]
By regulation the case of every person discharged from the operation of
the selective service law by a local board on the ground of dependency
was automatically taken to the district board for review, the appeal
being noted by Government appeal agents appointed by the Provost Marshal
General.
[Sidenote: Dependency cases the most difficult.]
Registrants whose claims were disallowed by local boards appealed in
large numbers to district boards. Thus was obtained a high degree of
uniformity of decisions in dependency cases, which were by far the most
difficult of determination and disposition, as well as the most
numerous, of the classes of cases throughout the first draft.
Cases involving claims for discharge on agricultural and industrial
grounds, of which district boards have original jurisdiction, are
appealable to the President, and to date approximately 20,000 of these
have been received and indexed, of which about 80 per cent are claims
for discharge based on agricultural grounds and 20 per cent on
industrial grounds. Of cases already disposed of on appeal from the
district boards less than 7 per cent have been reversed. The pending of
an appeal to the President does not operate as a stay of induction into
military service except where the district board has expressly so
directed, and the number of such stays is negligible.
[Sidenote: The total cost of the draft.]
The total cost of the draft can not be estimated accurately at this
time, but, based upon the data at hand, the total registration and
selection of the first 687,000 men has amounted to an approximate
expenditure of $5,600,000, or about $8.11 unit cost.
[Sidenote: Universal willingness to serve.]
[Sidenote: High quality of men obtained.]
The unprecedented character of this undertaking is a matter of common
knowledge. Congress, in the consideration of the act which authorized
it, entertained grave doubts as to whether a plan could be devised which
would apply so new a principle of selection for national service without
much misunderstanding and unhappiness. But the results have been of a
most inspiring kind and have demonstrated the universal willingness of
our people to serve in the defense of our liberties and to commit the
selection of the Nation's defenders to the Nation itself. The men
selected have reported to the camps and are in course of training. They
constitute as fine a body of raw material as were ever trained in
military science. They are already acquiring the smartness and soldierly
bearing characteristic of American troops, and those who once thought
that the volunteer spirit was necessary to insure contentment and zeal
in soldiers now freely admit that the men selected under this act have
these qualities in high degree and that it proceeds out of a patriotic
willingness on the part of the men to bear their part of the national
burden and to do their duty at the Nation's call.
[Sidenote: Ability of Provost Marshal General.]
[Sidenote: This mode of selection made necessary by conditions of modern
war.]
[Sidenote: The democratic fairness of the plan.]
The success of this great undertaking is, of course, primarily due to
the painstaking forethought and the statesmanlike breadth of view with
which the Provost Marshal General and his associates organized the
machinery for its execution. But other elements have contributed to its
success, and first among these was the determination to rely upon the
cooperation of the governors of States and State agencies in the
assembling of the registration and exemption boards. By reason of this
association of State and local agencies with the National Government the
law came as no outside mandate enforced by soldiers, but as a working
of the home institutions in the hands of neighbors and acquaintances
pursuing a clear process of selection, and resulting in a gift by the
States to the Nation of a body of men to be trained. The press of the
country cooperated in a most helpful way, drawing the obvious
distinctions between this mode of selection and those punitive drafts
which have sometimes been resorted to after the failure of volunteering,
and pointing out the young men of the country that the changed
conditions of warfare made necessary a mode of selection which would
preserve the industrial life of the Nation as a foundation for
successful military operations. Indeed, the country seemed generally to
have caught enough of the lessons of the European war to have realized
the necessity of this procedure, and from the very beginning criticism
was silenced and doubt answered by the obvious wisdom of the law.
Moreover, the unquestioned fairness of the arrangements, the absence of
all power of substitution, the fact that the processes of the law were
worked out publicly, all cooperated to surround the draft with
assurances of fairness and equality, so that throughout the whole
country the attitude of the people toward the law was one of approval
and confidence, and I feel very sure that those who at the beginning had
any doubts would now with one accord agree that the selective service
act provides not only a necessary mode of selecting the great armies
needed under modern conditions, but that it provides a better and more
democratic and a fairer method of distributing the burden of national
defense than any other system as yet suggested.
[Sidenote: Fundamental questions settled.]
[Sidenote: Unity of spirit of American people.]
This does not mean, of course, that the law is perfect either in its
language or in its execution, nor does it mean that improvements may not
be made as our experience grows and as the need for more intense
national efforts increases; but such amendments as may hereafter be
required will proceed with the fundamental questions settled and we have
now only to consider changes which may be required to a better ordering
of our military strength and a more efficient maintenance of our
industrial and agricultural life during the stress of war. The passage
and execution of this law may be regarded as a milestone in our progress
toward self-consciousness and national strength. Its acceptance shows
the unity of spirit of our people, and its operation shows that a
democracy has in its institutions the concentrated energy necessary to
great national activities however much they may be scattered and
dispersed, in the interest of the preservation of individual liberty, in
time of peace.
[Sidenote: The Officer's Reserve Corps.]
[Sidenote: Physicians commissioned in the Medical Department.]
[Sidenote: Men from the Plattsburg training camps.]
The problem presented involved not merely the selection of forces to be
trained into armies but officers to do the training. By the provisions
of the national defense act of June 3, 1916, Officers' Reserve Corps had
been authorized. Rules and regulations for their organization were
promulgated in July, 1916, and amended in March, 1917. Immediately upon
the passage of the act, the building up of lists of reserve officers in
the various sections of the Military Establishment was undertaken, with
the result that at the end of the fiscal year some of the branches of
the service had substantial lists of men available for duty in the event
of call. The largest number of commissions were issued in the technical
services, for which professional nonmilitary training was the principal
requisite. The largest reserve corps was that in the Medical Department,
in which more than 12,000 physicians were commissioned. The expansion of
these technical services proceeded easily upon the basis of the reserve
corps beginning, but the number of applicants for commissions in the
strictly military or combatant branches of the service was relatively
small. They consisted of men who had had military experience either in
the Regular Army or the National Guard, and men who were graduates of
schools and colleges affording military training, and of the training
camps which for several years had been maintained at Plattsburg and
throughout the country. Their number, however, was wholly inadequate,
and their experience, while it had afforded the elements of military
discipline, had not been such as was plainly required to train men for
participation in the European war with its changed methods and
conditions. The virtue of the law authorizing the Officers' Reserve
Corps, however, became instantly apparent upon the declaration of war,
as it enabled the department to establish officers' training camps for
the rapid production of officers.
[Sidenote: A series of officers training camps.]
[Sidenote: Officers commissioned.]
Accepting the Plattsburg experiment as the basis and using funds
appropriated by Congress for an enlargement of the Plattsburg system of
training, the department established a series of training camps, sixteen
in number, which were opened on the 15th of May, 1917. The camps were
scattered throughout the United States so as to afford the opportunity
of entrance and training with the least inconvenience and expense of
travel to prepare throughout the entire country. Officers previously
commissioned in the reserve corps were required to attend the camps,
and, in addition, approximately 30,000 selected candidates were accepted
from among the much greater number who applied for admission. These
camps were organized and conducted under the supervision of department
commanders; applicants were required to state their qualifications and a
rough apportionment was attempted among the candidates to the several
States. At the conclusion of the camp, 27,341 officers were
commissioned and directed to report at the places selected for the
training of the new army. By this process, we supplied not only the
officers needed for the National Army but filled the roster of the
Regular Army, to which substantial additions were necessary by reason of
the addition of the full number of increments provided by the National
Defense Act of 1916.
[Sidenote: The second series of officers' training camps.]
[Sidenote: Officers needed also for staff duties.]
[Sidenote: Constant experimentation necessary.]
[Sidenote: Victory rests on science as much as on soldiers.]
The results of the first series of camps were most satisfactory and,
anticipating the calling of further increments of the National Army, a
second series of camps was authorized, to begin August 27, 1917, under
rules for the selection of candidates and their apportionment throughout
the country which were much more searching and embodied those
improvements which are always possible in the light of experience.
Approximately 20,000 candidates are now attending this second series of
camps, and those found qualified will shortly be commissioned and
absorbed into the Army for the performance of the expanding volume of
duties which the progress of preparation daily brings about. It is to be
remembered that the need for officers exists not only in connection with
the actual training of troops in camp and the leadership of troops in
the field, but a vast number of officers must constantly be employed in
staff duties, and great numbers must as constantly be engaged in
military research and in specialized forms of training associated with
the use of newly developed arms and appliances. In other words, we must
maintain not merely the special-service schools which are required to
perfect the training of officers in the special arms of the service, but
we must constantly experiment with new devices and reduce to practical
use the discoveries of science and the new applications of mechanical
and scientific arts, both for offensive and defensive purposes. It
would be out of place here to enumerate or describe in any detail the
service of science in this war, but when the history of the struggle
comes to be written it will be found that the masters of the chemical
and physical sciences have thrown their talents and their ingenuity into
the service, that their researches have been at the very basis of
military progress, and that the victory rests as much upon a nation's
supremacy in the researches and adaptations of science as it does upon
the number and valor of its soldiers. Indeed, this is but one of the
many evidences of the fact that modern war engages all of the resources
of nations and that that nation will emerge victorious which has most
completely used and coordinated all the intellectual, moral, and
physical forces of its people.
[Sidenote: Fundamentals of military discipline do not change.]
[Sidenote: Professional soldiers still needed.]
It would be a national loss for me to fail to record in this place a
just estimate of the value to the Nation of these training camps for
officers. They disclosed an unsuspected source of military strength.
Nobody will suppose that, with the growing intricacy of military science
and the industrial arts related to it, a country can dispense with
trained professional soldiers. The fundamentals of military discipline
remain substantially unchanged and, in order that we may assemble
rapidly and effectively adequate military forces, there must always be
in the country a body of men to whom the life of a soldier is a career
and who have acquired from their youth those qualities which have, from
the beginning, distinguished the graduates of the Military Academy at
West Point: the disciplined honor, the unfaltering courage, the
comprehension of sacrifice, and that knowing obedience which proceeds
from constant demonstrations of the fact that effective cooperation in
war requires instant compliance with the command of authority, the sort
of obedience which knows that a battle field is no place for a
parliament. Added to these mental and moral qualities, the body of
professional soldiers must devote themselves unremittingly to the
development of the arts of war, and when the emergency arises must be
familiar with the uses of science and the applications of industry in
military enterprise. But these training camps have taught us that, given
this relatively small body of professional soldiers, the Nation has at
hand an apparently inexhaustible body of splendid material which can be
rapidly made to supplement the professional soldier.
[Sidenote: Athletes from the colleges.]
[Sidenote: Adaptability of American youth.]
[Sidenote: Atmosphere of industrial and commercial democracy.]
[Sidenote: Many officers assigned to training of troops from their
homes.]
When the first camp was opened, the colleges, military schools, and high
schools of the country poured out a stream of young men whose minds had
been trained in the classroom and whose bodies had been made supple and
virile on the athletic field. They came with intelligence, energy, and
enthusiasm and, under a course of intensive training, rapidly took on
the added discipline and capacities necessary to equip them for the
duties of officers. They have taken their places in the training camps
and are daily demonstrating the value of their education and the
adaptability of the spirit of American youth. A more salutary result
would be impossible to imagine. The trained professional soldiers of the
Army received this great body of youthful enthusiasm and capacity with
hospitality and quickly impressed upon it a soldierly character. The
young men brought to their training habits which they had formed for
success as civilians, but which their patriotic enthusiasm rendered
easily available in new lines of endeavor for the service of the
country. They brought, too, another element of great value. They were
assembled from all parts of the country; they were accustomed to the
democracy of the college and high school; they recognized themselves as
new and temporary adventurers in a military life; and they, therefore,
reflected into our military preparation the fresh and invigorating
atmosphere of our industrial and commercial democracy. This has
undoubtedly contributed to the establishment of a happy spirit which
prevails throughout the Army and has made it easy for the young men
chosen under the selective service act to fall in with the training and
mode of life which the military training camp requires. An effort was
made by the department as far as possible to assign these young officers
to the training of troops assembled from their own homes. By this means,
a preexisting sympathy was used, and admiration and respect between
officer and man was transferred from the home to the camp.
[Sidenote: The three divisions of the Army.]
[Sidenote: Enlistments may be for the period of the war.]
[Sidenote: Men anxious to get to France soon.]
[Sidenote: Traditions of military organizations preserved.]
The three divisions of the Army, namely, the Regular Army, the National
Guard, and the National Army, were very different organizations as we
contemplated them at the time of the passage of the act for the
temporary increase of the Military Establishment. The Regular Army was a
veteran establishment of professional soldiers; the National Guard a
volunteer organization of local origin maintained primarily for the
preservation of domestic order in the several States, with an emergency
duty toward the national defense; the National Army an unknown quantity,
made up of men to be selected arbitrarily by tests and rules as yet to
be formulated, unorganized, untrained, existing only in theory and,
therefore, problematical as to its spirit and the length of time
necessary to fit it for use. Congress, however, most wisely provided as
far as possible for an elimination of these differences. Enlistments in
the Regular Army and National Guard were authorized to be made for the
period of the war rather than for fixed terms; the maximum and minimum
ages of enlistment in the Regular Army and National Guard were
assimilated; the rights and privileges of members of the three forces
were made largely identical. Indeed, the act created but one army,
selected by three processes. The wisdom of Congress in this course
became instantly apparent. Spirited young men throughout the country
began at once to enlist in the Regular Army and National Guard who might
have been deterred from such enlistment had their obligation been for a
fixed period rather than for the duration of the war. Many men asked
themselves but one question: "By which avenue of service will I earliest
get to France?" The men in the National Army soon caught this spirit
and, while the department is endeavoring to preserve as far as possible
in the National Guard and the National Army those intimacies which
belong to men who come from the same city or town, and to preserve the
honorable traditions of military organizations which have histories of
service to the country in other wars, the fact still remains that the
army is rapidly becoming the army of the United States, with the sense
of origin from a particular State, or association with a particular
neighborhood, more and more submerged by the rising sense of national
service and national identity.
[Sidenote: Sites selected for cantonments.]
[Sidenote: Sixteen divisional cantonments.]
[Sidenote: Emergency construction division established.]
I have described above the process of the execution of the selective
service law. The preparation of places for the training of the recruits
thus brought into the service was a task of unparalleled magnitude. On
the 7th of May, 1917, the commanding generals of the several departments
were directed to select sites for the construction of cantonments for
the training of the mobilized National Guard and the National Army. The
original intention was the construction of 32 cantonments. The
appropriations made by Congress for this purpose were soon seen to be
insufficient, and further study of the problem seemed to show that it
would be unwise so seriously to engage the resources of the country,
particularly in view of the fact that the National Guard was ready to be
mobilized, that its training by reason of service on the Mexican border
was substantial, and that its early use abroad in conjunction with the
Regular Army would render permanent camps less important. The number
was, therefore, cut to 16 divisional cantonments, and the National Guard
was mobilized in camps for the most part under canvas, with only certain
divisional storehouses and quarters for special uses constructed of
wood. Because of the open weather during the winter months, the National
Guard camps were located in the southern States. The National Army
cantonments were located within the lines of the military division. A
special division of the Quartermaster General's Department was
established, known as the emergency construction division, and to it was
given the task of erecting the cantonment buildings and such buildings
as should be necessary for the National Guard.
On May 17, 1917, Col. I. W. Littell, of the Regular Army, was detailed
to assemble and direct an organization to be known as the cantonment
division of the Quartermaster Corps, whose duties were to consist of
providing quarters and camps for the training and housing of the New
National Army, which was to be selected by conscription as provided in
the act of Congress dated May 18, 1917.