s time, that the military
establishment possessed in the person of General Crowder, one who had
made a special study of selective drafts and other forms of compulsory
service, not alone in this country, but throughout the nations of the
world and back to the beginning of recorded history. He had become as
familiar with all phases of it as though it had been a personal hobby
and lifetime pursuit.

The law was extremely plain and permitted of no guessing or legal
quibbling over its terms. It boldly recited the military obligations of
citizenship. It vested the president with the most complete power of
prescribing regulations calculated to strike a balance between the
industrial, agricultural and economic needs of the nation on the one
hand and the military need on the other.

Within 18 days between May 18, when the law was approved, and June 5,
the day the president had fixed as registration day, a great,
administrative machine was built. Practically the entire male
citizenship of the United States within the age limits fixed by law,
twenty-one to thirty years inclusive, presented itself at the 4,000
enrollment booths with a registered result of nearly 10,000,000 names.
The project had been so systematized that within 48 hours almost
complete registration returns had been assembled by telegraph in
Washington.

The order in which the ten-million registrants were to be called was
accomplished on July 20 by a great central lottery in Washington.

The boards proceeded promptly to call, to examine physically and to
consider claims for exemption of over one and one half million men, a
sufficient number to fill the first national quota of 687,000. Thus in
less than three and one-half months the nation had accepted and
vigorously executed a compulsory service law.

On June 5, 1918, 753,834 men were added to the rolls. On August 24,
1918, that number was increased by 159,161; finally on September 12,
1918, under the provision of the act of August 31, 1918, 13,228,762 were
added to the lists of those available for military service, which,
including interim and other accessions, amounted to a grand total of
24,234,021 enrolled and subject to the terms of the Selective Service
law. This tremendous exhibition of man power struck terror to the heart
of the Hun and hastened him to, if possible, deliver a telling blow
against the Allies before the wonderful strength and resources of the
American nation could be brought to bear agai