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U.S. History 1877-Present 6: The Selective Service Act 110 Views


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Description:

If you thought the Selective Service Act meant you could be selective about what services you provide, you'd be very  wrong. It meant you had to go to war. Or else. 

Language:
English Language

Transcript

00:04

America's pre-world War one army only had about a hundred [American soldiers appear]

00:07

thousand soldiers not quite enough to start a war with an already mobilized

00:11

German army even so President Woodrow Wilson hopes that he could build an [Woodrow Wilson sitting by office]

00:16

entirely volunteer army and avoid implementing the draft but Woody's dream

00:22

was doomed to fail he probably cried into his pillow at night in the end only [Woodrow crying into US pillow]

00:26

73,000 Americans volunteered to join to compare Germany alone had about 13

00:33

million soldiers well the German army could have taken out the American army

00:37

in like 15 minutes well more like a month or so if we're [Germany crushes cockroach]

00:40

being realistic but still out of other options Congress passed the Selective

00:44

Service Act in May 1917 the first military draft since the Civil War so [Judge bangs gavel]

00:51

originally men ages 21 to 30 were required to register as potential

00:55

draftees but that was quickly expanded to men ages 18 to 45 well 2.8 million [Army helmet placed on mans head]

01:02

ended up being drafted joining about 2 million additional volunteers this draft

01:08

also included black men which a lot of black activists like WB Dubois actually

01:13

saw as a good thing yeah the unit's were segregated but

01:17

optimistic activists hoped that if African Americans showed they were [African american fighting and explosion appears in background]

01:21

willing to give it their all for democracy white people would finally

01:25

start to pay attention to the civil rights violations happening all over [Man thrown into air]

01:28

America optimism is nice but well it does set you up for disappointment

01:33

failure after the war the same old abuses kept on keepin on w eb Du Bois

01:38

definitely cried into his pillow at night there was one cool difference [Dubois crying into pillow]

01:42

between dis raft and previous drafts in American history though rich people had

01:47

a lot tougher time weaseling out of the whole thing before rich folks could pay [Man with sack of money]

01:52

a poor person to fight for them but this go-around that practice was nixed so

01:58

yeah America was still trying to work out its racial issues but at least the

02:01

US was making a teensy bit of progress with a different set of inequalities so

02:05

great now everybody had the same chance to experience the joys of trench warfare [Soldiers standing in trench]

02:10

only everyone hadn't done had the same opportunity to free ice

02:14

cream but history is early that none [Poor man holding ice cream cone]

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