Selective Service Act of 1917

Common card · No. 316929

The Selective Service Act of 1917 or Selective Draft Act (Pub. L. 65–12, 40 Stat. 76, enacted May 18, 1917) authorized the United States federal government to raise a national army for service in World War I through conscription. 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 when it declared war on Germany. The Act was canceled with the end of the war on November 11, 1918. The United States Supreme Court upheld the Act as constitutional in 1918.

Read on Wikipedia · Image U.S. Government, Public domain