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The Draft

On July 21, 1917, at just before 10 a.m., Secretary of War Newton D. Baker stood blindfolded in a room in the Senate office building in Washington, reached his hand into a large glass jar containing 10,500 numbered gray capsules and said, “I have drawn the first number.” Indeed. It was No. 258. This was the official beginning of the draft that would build the United States’ army for the Great War. More than 16 hours later, all the numbers had been chosen and order in which men would be called to service had been established.

The Americans were proud of the speed with which they had picked their army. The Allied forces that had been suffering huge losses in the fight against Germany, however, were not quite as impressed. When the U.S. declared war on April 6, 1917, the feeling among the French and British was that if America could rush its manpower to Europe, the tide of the war could be quickly turned. But that wasn’t to be.The Draft Sec. of War Newton D. Baker draws the first number in the July 21, 1917 draft. Congress did not approve of a Selective Service Act until May 18, 1917. Now, two months later, the U.S. was only just establishing its draft order, picking the first group of 687,000 draftees. America had the beginnings of an army.

The rules of draft eligibility would remain fluid throughout the war. Men of draft age—21-31—were automatically put into the first class eligible to be called to war, Class 1, but could seek a deferment by their draft board if they were married and had dependents. Unmarried men with no dependents were considered Class 1A, the first in line to be called. Classes 2-5 were known as the deferred classes, and initially it was not expected that those classes would be called.

But as the nation’s preparations for war moved on, so did its definition of deferments. The original process—all men in Class 1, needing to appeal to their draft boards for deferments—was cumbersome, put too much pressure on the undertrained boards and lacked consistency. The rules were changed so that all eligible men had to fill out a detailed questionnaire, and from the questionnaire the draft board could fix his status. This simplified the process and made local boards little more than rubber-stamp operations. It also allowed for reclassification of those men who had been granted deferments, and throughout 1918, a large number of men who thought they were comfortable in Class 2 or 4 would be bumped to Class 1.

In response to the German offensives in the Spring of 1918, the War Department began calling American troops faster. Another second draft registration was held in August to cover men who had turned 21 since the first draft. The administration sought—and won—the right to draft an unlimited army. To achieve that goal, new draft age limits, 18-45, were established and on September 12, 1918, men of the new draft ages registered with their selective service boards. In all, nearly 14 million men became eligible to be drafted.

Sean Deveney

Sean Deveney currently reports for The Sporting News. He covers Major League Baseball and professional basketball for the Sporting News. The Original Curse is Sean's first published book. Sean grew up outside Boston, MA and currently lives in Chicago, IL.

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