It is essential that the day be approached in thoughtful apprehension
of its significance and that we accord to it the honor and the
meaning that it deserves. Our industrial need prescribes that it be
not made a technical holiday, but the stern sacrifice that is before
us urges that it be carried in all our hearts as a great day of
patriotic devotion and obligation, when the duty shall lie upon every
man, whether he is himself to be registered or not, to see to it that
the name of every male person of the designated ages is written on
these lists of honor.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal
of the United States to be affixed.
Done at the city of Washington this 18th day of May, in the year of
our Lord, 1917, and of the independence of the United States of
America the one hundred and forty-first.
By the President:
ROBERT LANSING, Secretary of State.