Selective Service Act of 1917

Selective Service Act of 1917

Other short titles	Conscription Act of 1916 Enrollment Act of 1916
Long title	An Act to authorize the President to increase temporarily the military establishment of the United States.
Nicknames	Selective Draft Act of 1916
Enacted by	the 65th United States Congress
Effective	May 18, 1917
Citations
Public law	69-96
Statutes at Large	40 Stat. 76, Chapter 15
Codification
Titles amended	50 U.S.C.: War and National Defense
U.S.C. sections created	50 U.S.C. Appendix §§ 201–211, 213, 214
Legislative history
Introduced in the House as H.R. 3545 by Julius Kahn (R–CA) on April 27, 1916 Passed the House on April 28, 1917 (398–24) Passed the Senate on April 28, 1917 (81–8, in lieu of S. 1871) Reported by the joint conference committee on May 16, 1917; agreed to by the House on May 16, 1917 (198–179) and by the Senate on May 17, 1917 (65–8) Signed into law by President Woodrow Wilson on May 18, 1917

The Selective Service Act or Selective Draft Act (Pub.L. 65–12, 40 Stat. 76, enacted May 18, 1917) authorized the federal government to raise a national army for the American entry into World War I through the compulsory enlistment of people. It was envisioned in December 1916 and brought to President Woodrow Wilson's attention shortly after the break in relations with Germany in February 1917. The Act itself was drafted by then-Captain (later Brigadier General) Hugh S. Johnson after the United States entered World War I by declaring war on Germany. The Act was canceled with the end of the war on November, 1918. The Act was upheld by the United States Supreme Court in the Selective Draft Law Cases in 1918, a decision based partially on Vattel's The Law of Nations of 1758.

At the time of World War I, the U.S. Army was small compared with the mobilized armies of the European powers. As late as 1914, the federal army was under 100,000, while the National Guard (the organized militias of the states) numbered around 115,000. The National Defense Act of 1916 authorized the growth of the army to 165,000 and the National Guard to 450,000 by 1921, but by 1917 the federal army had only expanded to around 121,000, with the National Guard numbering 181,000.

By 1916, it had become clear that any participation by the United States in the conflict in Europe would require a far larger army. While President Wilson at first wished to use only volunteers to supply the troops needed to fight, it soon became clear that this would be impossible. When war was declared, Wilson asked for the army to increase to a force of one million. Indeed, six weeks after war was declared, only 73,000 had volunteered for service. Wilson accepted the recommendation by Secretary of War Newton D. Baker for a draft.

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