vided for the increasing of the regular army to 287,000 men and the national guard to 625,000 men. It further adopted for the United States the theory and system of compulsory military service, providing a system of selective drafts of men between the ages mentioned. The President was authorized to take half a million men at once and another half million later, in addition to the regular army and national guard increases. In all, the legislation provided an army of approximately 2,000,000 to be raised in the first year following the passage of the law. The vote in the Senate was 81 to 8, and the vote in the House of Representatives was 397 to 24.

President Wilson signed the bill the day it was passed, and at once issued the proclamation calling the young men of the country to the colors. June 5th was fixed as the day for registration. The day was to be made the occasion of a great patriotic demonstration throughout the country. In his proclamation, the President said:

"The power against which we are arrayed has sought to impose its will upon the world by force. To this end it has increased armament until it has changed the face of war. In the sense in which we have been wont to think of armies, there are no armies in this struggle, there are entire nations armed. Thus, the men who remain to till the soil and man the factories are no less a part of the army that is in France than the men beneath the battle flags. It must be so with us. It is not an army that we must shape and train for war; it is a nation.

"To this end, our people must draw close in one compact front against a common foe. But this cannot be if each man pursues a private purpose. The nation needs all men; but it needs each man not in the field that will most pleasure him, but in that endeavor that will best serve the common good. Thus, though a sharpshooter pleases to operate a trip-hammer for the forging of great guns and an expert machinist desires to march with the flag, the nation is being served only when the sharpshooter marches and the machinist remains at his levers.

"The whole nation must be a team, in which each man shall play the part for which he is best fitted.

"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 line."

According to the provisions of the Selective Service Act as passed, the Vice-President of the United States, the officers, legislative, executive and judicial, of the United States, and of the several states, territories and District of Columbia; regular or duly ordained ministers of religion; students in recognized schools of divinity and theology; all persons in the military or naval service of the United States; members of sects whose creeds forbade them to engage in war; county and municipal officials; custom house clerks, those engaged in the transmission of the mails; artisans and workmen in armories, arsenals, navy yards; pilots and mariners actually in sea service; those employed in industries and in agriculture necessary to the operations of the armed forces; those physically or mentally deficient, and those upon whom someone depended for support, all these were or might be exempt.

REGISTRATION DAY

June 5th drew near. As the day approached on which all America's young manhood was expected to register itself as ready for the summons to action, anti-draft and anti-war demonstrations were made by socialists and other malcontents, who marched about the streets of the larger cities distributing pamphlets and bearing banners inscribed with various legends protesting the draft and the war. These were dealt with summarily by groups of soldiers and sailors, who quickly tore down the red banner of one socialistic mob in Boston, and forced their band to play the "Star Spangled Banner.'

The day came. The census bureau in an estimate gave

ten million as the probable number of registrants. Never, in all the history of the country, did the young men of America show such patriotism, such love of country, such zeal and such true American spirit as on that day, the day which will stand out in letters of gold in the history of America's part in the fight for the freedom of the world, as the day on which America sprang to arms. Young men, from every walk of life, accompanied by grandfathers wearing the uniform of the Grand Army of the Republic, streamed into registration places in all parts of the country, and filled out the registration blank. The men who registered for service, offering their all, if they should be needed, showed their noble spirit in many ways. Thousands left the question "Do you claim exemption from draft?" unanswered, preferring to leave it for the government to decide the matter of exemption. Diplomatic and consular representatives of foreign governments made requests during the day for additional registration cards to be used for the registration of American citizens of the required ages abroad.

The polling booths and other places employed for election purposes were utilized as the places of registration. The registration blank contained twelve questions covering among others, name, age, address, nationality, birthplace, occupation and concluded with the question: "Do you claim exemption from draft (specify grounds)?" The day passed quietly. Although some trouble was expected from anti-conscriptionists, there was practically no disorder. A few arrests were reported, but the method employed by the young men who were opposed to conscription was in nearly every case, simply to neglect to register.

A statement officially issued by the Committee on Public Information on the evening of July 5th, said in part:

Nearly 10,000,000 Americans of military age registered today for service in the army against Germany. The registration was accomplished in a fashion measuring up to the highest standards of Americanism. The young men came to the registration places enthusiastic; there was no hint of a slacking spirit anywhere except in a few cases where misguided persons had been prevailed upon to attempt to avoid their national obligation.

From every state reports were received showing that the sporadic

conspiracies to thwart the first step toward the mobilization of as large an army as the country may need to bring the war to a victorious conclusion had failed utterly. The Department of Justice had a tremendous machinery ready to cope with these conspiracies, but it proved to be unnecessary. Arrangements had been made by the Department of Justice and the War Department to secure immediate telegraphic reports upon any outbreaks or troublesome occurrences.

The spirit of the young men from whom the fighting forces are to be selected was evidenced in their attitude toward question twelve on the registration blanks, which asked if exemption was claimed. In thousands of cases young men availed themselves of the right to ignore this question and to leave it entirely for the government to decide whether they should be selected. This spirit was evidenced again in the receipt during the day of numerous requests from diplomatic and consular officials of the United States for additional registration cards to be used by citizens who are now in other countries; this fact was impressive because registration is voluntary on the part of Americans resident abroad.

On the first registration day for selective service this country had ever known, 9,659,382 young men between the ages of twenty-one and thirty inclusive, reported. Of these, 7,347,794 were white citizens, 953,899 were colored citizens, 1,239,865 were unnaturalized foreigners from countries other than Germany, 111,823 were unnaturalized Germans, including "declarants," persons having declared their intention to become citizens but not having received their final citizenship papers, and 6,001 were Indians.

The total registration results showed a discrepancy of 4.1 of the estimate of 10,079,000 made by the census bureau. The apparent shortage, about 413,000 was considerably less than the number of men of the draft age who were estimated by the War Department to have been in the various branches of the military and naval services of the United States on June 5th, and for that reason exempt from the requirement of registration. This number is 600,000. On the face of these figures, the number of men in the United States between the ages of twenty-one and thirty, inclusive, was slightly in excess of the census bureau estimates.

REGISTRATION BY STATES

The registration by states, showing the total registration, the percentage of the census bureau estimate for the various