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Who Should Serve: Pre-World War II Planning for Selective Service
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 February 2011
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ONE of the more perplexing problems facing the United States in the twentieth century has been that of selecting fairly which citizens shall serve in the armed forces. Today controversy surrounds the application of the Selective Service System to them raising of troops for the Vietnam War. Thus far, however, the hostilities in Vietnam have not posed one difficulty for the Selective Service System that existed during World War II, namely, the necessity of granting substantial numbers of industrial and occupational deferments, except insofar as educational deferments are a form of industrial ones. Such deferments have grown more important during the world wars of the twentieth century as nations engaged in full-scale hostilities have been forced to rely heavily on them in order to maintain the industrial and economic strength of the nation.
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References
The senior author would like to thank Kenneth McGill of the Selective Service System and the Social Science Research Council's National Security Program for their assistance.
1 For a brief account of the failure of both the Union and Confederate governments to provide appropriately for industrial deferments during the Civil War in the United States, see Selective Service System, Industrial Deferment, Monograph No. 6 (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1948), I, 4–5Google Scholar [hereafter cited as SSS, Industrial Deferment]. The Union attempted to handle this problem by permitting those essential to industry and agriculture to purchase substitutes, but this system proved to be a farce. Murdock, E. C., Patriotism Limited, 1862–1865: The Civil War Draft and the Bounty System (Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press, 1967), pp. 9–10, 14Google Scholar.
2 Lieutenant Colonel C. B. Ross, “Labor Cooperation and Control in War,” unpublished mimeographed pamphlet prepared in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of War, August 1930, pp. 16–17, 21–22; Troyer S. Anderson, History of the Office of the Under Secretary of War (1914–1941), Office of the Chief of Military History, Department of the Army, 1951, ch. 2, p. 4.
3 Second Report of the Provost Marshall General to the Secretary of War on the Operation of the Selective Service System to December 20,1918 (Washington, 1919), p. 51Google Scholar.
4 See Blum, Albert A., “Birth and Death of the M-Day Plan,” in Stein, Harold, ed., American Civil-Military Decisions: A Book of Case Studies (Birmingham: University of Alabama Press, 1963), pp. 63–64Google Scholar.
5 Fairchild, Byron and Crossman, Jonathon, The Army and Industrial Manpower, United States Army in World War II (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1959), p. 4Google Scholar.
6 Robert D. Ward, “Equal Service for All and Special Profits for None, The American Legion and the Universal Draft, 1920–1931” (unpublished manuscript), pp. 1–23, passim.
7 Committee on Military Affairs, U.S. Senate, Hearings on Senate 2561, April 10, 1924, 68 Cong. 1st Sess., p. 3 [hereafter cited as Senate Hearings].
8 Quoted in War Policies Commission Report, 72 Cong. 1st Sess., 1931, p. 8.
9 Cited in Ward, “Equal Service,” p. 16.
10 See, for example, the testimony of AFL legislative representative Edward F. McGrady, Committee on Military Affairs, U.S. House of Representatives, Hearings on H.R. 4841, 68 Cong. 1st Sess., 1924, p. 78.
11 Lectures delivered by Frey at the Army Industrial College and the Army War College in 1924 and 1934, cited in Morris, James O., Conflict Within the AFL: A Study of Craft Versus Industrial Unionism, 1901–1938 (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1958), p. 75Google Scholar; AFL Convention Proceedings, 1928, p. 133.
12 Morris, Conflict, pp. 74–78.
13 C. H. Martin, Brigadier General, Assistant Chief of Staff, G-l, “Memo for the Chief of Staff,” 29 December 1922, in U.S. General Staff, Organization—Plans: Administration of Selective Service, 1922–1931, Selective Service Library.
14 Ibid.
15 Letter, Hugh S. Johnson to Honorable Dwight F. Davis, Secretary of War, 26 January 1926, and reply, 1 February 1926, ibid.
16 Minutes, Meeting Planning Branch, Office of Assistant Secretary of War, Orientation Conference No. 9, 30 October 1934, Office of Under Secretary of War, Reserve and Production Division, Labor 1934, p. 2. All citations from the files of the Office of the Under Secretary may be found in the Adjutant General's Departmental Records Branch, Alexandria, Virginia.
17 Ward, “Equal Service,” pp. 19–20.
18 Quoted by Representative La Guardia of New York in the House of Representatives, Congressional Record, 71 Cong. 2d Sess., 1931, p. 6318.
19 Ibid., pp. 6318–26.
20 Letter, President Herbert Hoover to Secretary of War, 27 April 1929, and reply, Secretary of War to President, 1 May 1929, both in Office of Under Secretary of War, Reserve and Production Division, 175 Labor 1935–1939.
21 Letter, Ross to Frey, 29 December 1930 and “Memo for John P. Frey,” written by Ross in 1930, cited in Morris, Conflict, p. 80.
22 Smith, R. Elberton, The Army and Economic Mobilization, United States Army in World War 11 (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1959), p. 121Google Scholar.
23 Anderson, History, ch. 3, p. 1.
24 Smith, The Army and Economic Mobilization, p. 121.
25 ibid., p. 53.
26 Memo, A. J. Bowley, Assistant Chief of Staff, G-l, for Chief of Staff, 22 January 1931, Subject: Plan for Industrial Mobilization, 1930, in Army Service Forces, Planning Branch, 381–116.4 [hereafter cited as ASF, Plan. Br. 381–116.4]. All citations in this paper taken from the files of the Army Service Forces will be found in the Adjutant General's Departmental Records Branch, Alexandria, Virginia.
27 Memo, Lieutenant Colonel C. B. Ross for Director, Planning Branch, 25 September 1930, in ASF, Plan. Br. 381–116.4.
28 See fn. 26.
29 Ibid.
30 Ibid.
31 Memo (Comments of Lieutenant Colonel C. B. Ross), Colonel John P. Hasson, Director, Planning Br. for Colonel Carr, 5 February 1931, Subject: IMP-1930, p. 2, in ASF, Plan. Br. 381–116.4.
32 “Comments of the Joint Army and Navy Selective Service Committee on the Plan of the Assistant Secretary of War for Industrial Mobilization, 1930,” 19 March 1931, in U.S. Joint Army-Navy Selective Service Committee, Proceedings, 10 November 1930–1 July 1931, Book 3, Selective Service Library.
33 Ibid.
34 Memo, Office of Assistant Secretary of War, 30 April 1931, Subject: Joint Army-Navy Selective Service Committee Comments, pp. 2–5, in ASF, Plan. Br. 381–116.4.
35 Lt. Col. F. A. Price, “Organized Labor and the Selective Service Administration,” Selective Service Conference, 14 December 1934, pp. 8–16, in Selective Service Files, Selective Service Library.
36 Minutes, Meeting Plan. Branch, Office of Assistant Secretary of War, Orientation Conference No. 9, 30 October 1934, in Office of Under Secretary of War, Reserve and Production Division, Labor 1934, p. 3.
37 Memo, the Labor Administration Plan of Lt. Col. C. B. Ross compared with the revision of 1933, in Office of Under Secretary of War, Reserve and Production Division, 175 Labor 1935–1939.
38 Memo, H. C. Kramer, Chairman, Joint Army-Navy Selective Service Committee, for Assistant Chief of Staff, G-l, 19 January 1932, Minutes, Meeting, 18 January 1932, both in U.S. Joint Army-Navy Selective Service Committee, Proceedings: 19 October 1931–14 November 1932, Book 4, Selective Service Library.
39 Minutes, Meeting, 18 January 1932, ibid.
40 Letter, William Green to C. B. Ross, 11 February 1932, in Office of Under Secretary of War, Reserve and Production Division, 175 Labor 1935–1939.
41 Minutes, Meeting, 26 January 1932 and 2 February 1932, in U.S. Joint Army-Navy Selective Service Committee, Proceedings.
42 Memo, Lt. Col. McFarland to the Assistant Chief of Staff, G-l, 18 April 1932, in Office of Under Secretary of War, Reserve and Production Division, 175 Labor 1935–1939.
43 Memo, Assistant Chief of Staff, G-l, to Assistant Secretary of War, 24 June 1932, Subject: IMP-1930-Labor Section; Memo, Lt. Col. W. S. Fulton to Assistant Chief of Staff, G-l, 20 June 1932, Subject: IMP-Labor, pp. 1, 7, 22. Both in Office of Under Secretary of War, Reserve and Production Division 116.6, Plan for Industrial Mobilization (Labor Administration and Labor Section).
44 Memo, Fulton to Assistant Chief of Staff, ibid., pp. 37–38. Memo, General Moses, Assistant Chief of Staff, G-l, to Assistant Secretary of War, 24 June 1932, Subject: IMP, in Office of Under Secretary of War, Reserve and Production Division 116.6.
45 Memo, Assistant Secretary of War for Director Planning Branch, 8 July 1932, Subject: IMP, in Office of Under Secretary of War, Reserve and Production Division 116.6.
46 Minutes, Meeting, 7 November 1932, in U.S. Joint Army-Navy Selective Service Committee, Proceedings.
47 Minutes, Meeting, 7 November 1932, in U.S. Joint Army-Navy Selective Service Office, 1933).
48 Minutes, Meeting, 7 November 1932, in U.S. Joint Army-Navy Selective Service Committee, Proceedings.
49 Minutes, Meeting Planning Branch, Office of Assistant Secretary of War, Orientation Conference No. 9, 30 October 1934, Office of Under Secretary of War, Reserve and Production Division, Labor 1934, p. 11.
50 ibid., p. 4.
51 Ibid., p. 6.
52 Major R. F. Cox, “Status of Selective Service Planning,” 21 May 1934, pp. 14–15, in Selective Service Files, 100.4–2, Selective Service Library.
53 Lt. Col. E. A. Fitzpatrick, Specialist Reserve, “N.R.A. (Lessons of the N.R.A. Applied to Selective Service),” Selective Service Conference, 6 December 1934, in Selective Service Files, Selective Service Library.
54 Lt. Col. F. A. Price, “Organized Labor and the Selective Service Administration,” Selective Service Conference, 14 December 1934, in Selective Service Library, pp. 6, 8, 11–13, 20–22, 26–27.
55 War Policies Commission, Hearings, 13 May 1931, p. 375.
56 Munitions Report, 944, 74 Cong. 2d Sess., 1 June 1936, Part 4, p. 5.
57 Ibid., p. 4.
58 See Blum, Albert A., Drafted or Deferred: Practices Past and Present (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan, 1967), pp. 198–205Google Scholar.
59 Anderson, History, ch. iii, p. 45; Smith, The Army and Economic Mobilization, p. 53.
60 Quoted in Maj. Edward A. Fitzpatrick, “Manpower, Selective Service and Industrial Mobilization,” in Selective Service Files, Selective Service Library.
61 Smith, The Army and Economic Mobilization, p. 37.
62 Second Report of the Provost Marshall General to the Secretary of War, p. 51.
63 SSS, Industrial Deferment, pp. 12–13, 15, 28.
64 The irony of the situation in 1943 was that, with the exception of the West Coast, the decentralized Selective Service System had been permitting too many occupational deferments, which was the opposite situation to that feared by the Planning Branch. Blum, Drafted or Deferred, pp. 111–20.
65 Ibid., pp. 125–37.
66 Smith, The Army and Economic Mobilization, pp. 53–54; Anderson, History, ch. iii, pp. 30–31.
67 Labor Annex to Industrial Mobilization Plan, 1939, pp. 10, 33, 49, 50, 58.
68 Interview, Frey with Albert A. Blum, 7 September 1954.
69 Letter, W. C. Hushing, National Legislative Representative AFL, to Senator Morris Sheppard, 25 March 1937, in Senate Committee on Military Affairs, 75 Cong. 1st Sess., Hearings on Senate 25, Part 2, pp. 193–95; New York Times, October 8, 1937. See also the New York Times, October 3,1939 and December 10, 1939.
70 See Blum, Drafted or Deferred, pp. 1–15. For other political reasons for President Roosevelt's rejection of the IMP, see Blum, “Birth and Death of the M-Day Plan,” pp. 79–89.
71 See, for example, Minutes, Meeting, 13 January 1933, U.S. Joint Army-Navy Selective Service Committee, Proceedings, December 5, 1932 through June 8, 1933 and March 5, 1934 through April 2, 1934, Books 5 and 6, Selective Service Library.
72 Blum, Drafted or Deferred, pp. 21–26, 115–20, 205; Selective Service System, Organization and Administration of the System, Monograph No. 3 (Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1951), I, 117–19Google Scholar, 159–64, 191–92, 219–23.