To this end Congress has provided that the Nation shall be organized
for war by selection, that each man shall be classified for service
in the place to which it shall best serve the general good to call
him.
The significance of this cannot be overstated. It is a new thing in
our history and a landmark in our progress. It is a new manner of
accepting and vitalizing our duty to give ourselves with thoughtful
devotion to the common purpose of us all. It is in no sense a
conscription of the unwilling. It is, rather, selection from a Nation
which has volunteered in mass.
It is no more a choosing of those who shall march with the colors
than it is a selection of those who shall serve an equally necessary
and devoted purpose in the industries that lie behind the
battle-lines.
The day here named is the time upon which all shall present
themselves for assignment to their tasks. It is for that reason
destined to be remembered as one of the most conspicuous moments in
our history. It is nothing less than the day upon which the manhood
of the country shall step forward in one solid rank in defense of the
ideals to which this Nation is consecrated. It is important to those
ideals, no less than to the pride of this generation in manifesting
its devotion to them, that there be no gaps in the ranks.