American Selective Service: A Brief Account of its Historical Background and its Probable Future Form

Basis of American Selective Service. After raising its wartime armies by wasteful and unsatisfactory expedients for many generations, the United States upon entering the World War in 1917 adopted a system which proved sound and economical to the Government and acceptable to the people. Under it an adequate number of men was procured for the duration of the war by a National selective draft administered through the machinery of local self-government. Service of the selected individuals was compulsory and without the exercise of any option on their part. Exclusive control of officer procurement and of the organization, training, and employment of the forces thus raised was exercised by the Federal Government. Applied initially only to the Army, this system eventually was extended to include the Navy and the Marine Corps. The conception rested upon three propositions. One of these, as old as mankind, is that every citizen is obligated to join in the common defense. The second, not readily agreed upon in the early days of the Republic, is that in a National emergency the authority of the National Government over its armed forces is paramount and exclusive. The third proposition is that local self-government is the fundamental basis of American democracy. The process of recruitment employed under this conception was called the Selective Service. Selective Service, its historical background and its future use, is the subject of this study.