USA > Wisconsin > The Wisconsin blue book 1919 > Part 32
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The General Commanding the 38th Army Corps. I. de MONDESIR,"
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WISCONSIN'S WAR ACTIVITIES
ORDER GENERAL NO. 318
Officers, Noncommissioned Officers and Soldiers of the 32nd United States Army Corps,
Shoulder to shoulder with your French comrades you were thrown into the counter-offensive battle which commenced on the 18th of July. You rushed into the fight as though to a fete.
Your magnificent courage completely routed a surprised enemy and your indomitable tenacity checked the counter-attacks of his fresh Divisions.
You have shown yourselves worthy Sons of your Great Country and you were admired by your brothers in arms.
91 guns, 7,200 prisoners, immense booty, 10 kilometers of country reconquered: this is your portion of the spoil of this victory.
Furthermore, you have really felt your superiority over the barbarous enemy of the whole human race, against whom the children of liberty are striving. 1
To attack him is to vanquish him.
American Comrades! I am grateful to you for the blood so gener- ously spilled on the soil of my Country.
I am proud to have commanded you during such days and to have fought with you for the deliverance of the world.
(Signed)
MANGIN.
The Adjutant General has made a compilation of the losses suffered by the troops from Wisconsin during the actions in France, using as a basis the reports of killed in action, died of wounds and of disease, and severely wounded as listed in the publication of the official bulletin, showing the following casualties:
Killed in action.
882
Died of wounds received in action.
363
Died of disease.
566
Severely wounded
2,632
Wounded, degree undetermined
790
Missing in action. 431
Died of accident. 51
Lost on Tuscania.
20
5,735
These figures can make no claims of correctness, and are submitted only to show in a degree the severity of actions in which all the Wis- consin troops, especially the 32nd Division, were engaged.
On the signing of the Armistice the 32nd Division less the Field Ar- tillery Brigade moved through Luxemburg into Germany-taking station east of the Rhine River near Coblenz. While in camp and billets here on April 31st, 1919, General Mangin, commanding the 10th French Army, under whose orders the division acted during the days of July, August and September, during a review of the division, decorated all the flags of the Infantry of the division with the Croix de Guerre with palm. This included the flags of the 127th and 128th Infantry and the 119th and 121st Machine Gun Battalions, all organized originally from the regi- ments of infantry of the Wisconsin National Guard. At this writing (April 23d) the Division is on the way from Germany to the Harbor at Brest from where the return to this country will be made so that the 'Wisconsin National Guard may be looked for to be at home some time late in May or early in June 1919 resuming their old time peace occupa- tions. It is understood that the War Department will present the flags of typical state organizations to the state .interested for safekeeping where they will be preserved with the flags of the regiments of the
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WISCONSIN BLUE BOOK
Civil War and the War with Spain, and add testimony to the sentiment that Wisconsin Troops at all times can be depended on to do their full duty wherever placed.
RAISING THE NATIONAL ARMY IN WISCONSIN
By MAJOR E. A. FITZPATRICK, Draft Administrator
THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE SELECTIVE SERVICE LAW
"It remains the ultimate test and proof of the intrinsic political idea upon which American institutions of democracy and local self-govern- ment are based."-CROWDER
The story of the draft of 1917-18 in Wisconsin is simple. It is merely the story of instructions and orders carried out efficiently, promptly, and in accord with the fundamental purposes of the Selective Draft. If it was the selection of men, Wisconsin was at attention on the appointed day to report the men had been selected in accordance with instructions. If it was a call for, one hundred or ten thousand men qualified for gen- eral or limited service or for fifty brick layers for immediate service in France, Wisconsin was at attention on the appointed day to report that the men were inducted into service and ready for entrainment. From four o'clock on the morning of June 6, 1917, when Wisconsin reported its complete registration figures before any other state in the country until the day the armistice was signed in November, 1918, Wisconsin realized the paramount military needs of the nation and performed every service with expedition, with devotion and, we trust, effectively.
General Crowder, than whom there is no more competent authority. speaks of the "wonderful administration of the law which I have so often noted in Wisconsin." In another connection he says, "We have had consistent occasion to place Wisconsin at or near the head of our lists in nearly every step that has been taken in the execution of the Selective Service Law." After the armistice was signed, General Crowder wrote: "I take this opportunity to convey my congratulations upon the vigorous and systematic manner in which the whole Administration of the Selective Service System has been conducted in the State of Wisconsin."
This is praise for the whole administration machinery of the state- the Legal Advisory Boards, Medical Advisory Boards, examining physi- cians, Government Appeal Agents, District Boards, volunteer workers, particularly women, and, above all, for the Local Boards. They have borne the heat and burden of the day. To them belongs the first place. The one hundred and four Local Boards, widely distributed as they are throughout the state, in immediate touch with the registrants, felt, in personal relationships and, unfortunately, sometimes in business, the enmity of some people because of decisions not to their liking or their personal interest.
The members of these boards were told that they were as effectively drafted for this service as the men whom they had selected for military service. The compensation at the beginning was inadequate and, in some cases, resulted in serious hardship, but to the business in hand they were faithful to the end. Some members undoubtedly took advan- tage of the more generous provisions toward the end of the draft for compensation, but that was incident in the fact of real service and real sacrifice by most of the members. Some few occasionally needed prod-
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ding and severe criticism-and received it-but all these minor things were forgotten in the splendid result.
Perhaps the finest example of devotion to any cause is that of a member of a Local Board in Marathon County expressing his feelings as a member of the Local Board. Many members of Local Boards were animated by the same spirit, but not the same degree. In a letter to the Governor this member says:
"Yours of January 4 received. In reply would say you can rely on me to make this sacrifice, willingly and unreservedly, and I assure you it is a sacrifice for myself and family as I am just a poor farmer with a wife and seven small children, and our office at Wausau is 57 miles by rail and train service such that I must travel nearly all night to make the trip. But I am pleased to say I have never missed an hour when the board was in session, and God knows no one can make these sacri- fices more willingly. We have 2,557 to classify, and over 1,500 in what we believe to be their right class.
"Yours to win the war and get the knockers."
More important than mere administrative efficiency in the execution of a law such as the Selective Service Law is the attitude of the public. Public resistance, even of the most covert kind among any large por- tion of the population would have created almost insurmountable diffi- culties. In explaining public acquiescence in so unusual and so sacri- ficial a statute, the considerate and humane attitude of Local Board mem- bers toward registrants, and the patient willingness of these members to inform the ignorant and those who misunderstood the purposes of the law and the war, was no inconsiderable factor. Nor must it be forgotten that the process of selection as worked out by General E. H. Crowder and his staff, particularly General Hugh S. Johnson, in place of the poorly conceived and unworkable scheme of the general staff, made for public confidence and administrative efficiency.
But the burden and the sacrifice of the national army fell upon the women of the state. Here potentially was the greatest disintegrating force among the people. Boys who were the very lifeblood of their mothers, brothers who were everything in the world to sisters, relatives who had been for years the anchor of faith and a protecting influence, were called to the colors because the selective service boards determined that the duty of these men in the hour of need, was to the country and to the cause it was fighting for, the sanctity of womanhood and for the very existence of those ideals of honor, service, and sacrifice-of civiliza- tion itself-which is essential to the full fruition of womanhood. They responded. There were, to be sure, passionate tears of farewell, there were secret midnight vigils and long hours of waiting and suspense. There was pictured in the imagination of these women the direst calami- ties of loved ones-even to crucifixion. Insanity threatened them. It seemed at times their hearts would break-but they did not yield.
A people without fortitude, without courage, without a sense of sacri- fice, could never have borne such a burden at any time, and particularly during the summer of 1917 when our troops were sent to France in what seemed the darkest hours of the war.
There was a greater soberness, a greater sense of responsibility, a greater tenseness, but weakness there was not. These women bore their burdens as well as their loved ones did in France. They hardly murmured even when the list of casualties were received. Their strug- gles were not physical, but mental and spiritual. They won their spir- itual Chateau Thierry and St. Mihiel. Potentially the most dangerous, they were the most helpful in maintaining the morale of the state and public confidence in the Selective Service Law.
It should be recorded also that as volunteer workers in clerical and other work, they helped materially in the efficient and expeditious ad- ministration of the law, particularly in sections of the state (not a few)
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where any kind of assistance at any price was difficult to get. This service was rendered for protracted periods in the greatest spirit of service in the country.
This preliminary section cannot better be brought to a close than by quoting the words of General Crowder under whose administrative di- rection the great task was accomplished:
"By all Administrative token, the accomplishment of their task was magic, but the magic lay solely in this:
"At the President's call, all ranks of the Nation, reluctantly entering war, nevertheless instantly responded to the first call of the Nation with a vigorous and unselfish cooperation that submerged all individual in- terest in a single endeavor toward the consummation of the national task. I take it that no great national project was ever attempted with so complete a reliance on the voluntary cooperation of citizens for its execution. Certainly no such burdensome and sacrificial statute had ever been executed without a great hierarchy of officials. This law has been administered by civilians whose official relation lies only in the neces- sary powers with which they are vested by the President's designation of them to perform the duties that are laid upon them. They have ac- complished the task. They have made some mistakes. The system of- fers room for improvement. But the great thing they were called upon to do they have done. The vaunted efficiency of absolutism, of which the German Empire stands as the avatar, can offer nothing to compare with it. It remains the ultimate test and proof of the intrinsic political idea upon which American institutions of democracy and local self- government are based.
"It is the relation of this novel but successful experiment in govern- ment to which the following pages are addressed."
These pages deal with all aspects of the administration of the Selective Service Law in this state except delinquency and desertion, and mobiliza- tion. These matters were handled through the Adjutant General's of- fice under the personal direction of General Holway. The splendid record of the state in these particulars is due entirely to the systematic plan- ning and indefatigable energy of General Holway.
I. THE FIRST DRAFT
"The Selective Service Law flung a fair challenge at the feet of the doubters, and the refutation of their assertion was nothing less than spectacular."-CROWDER ..
The Registration of June 5, 1917
Governor E. L. Philipp of Wisconsin received late in April, 1917, the first communication from the federal authorities regarding pending legislation in Congress providing for conscription or draft, or, as it was later called, selective service.
Congress had declared April 6, 1917, that the state of war existed with the Imperial German Government. The Selective Service bill had been introduced into Congress in April, 1917, and became a law on May 17, 1917. -
During the period of the consideration of the bill in Congress, General Crowder and his staff were planning for what was to be the registration of men within the age limits to be determined in the law. In fact, the whole scheme was practically outlined in a letter of the Secretary of War dated April 23, 1917-just a month before the passage of the law.
The Governor called to his assistance at this time Dr. Charles Mc- Carthy of the Legislative Reference Library. From the very beginning, I assisted Dr. McCarthy in the work which the Governor assigned to him. Dr. McCarthy remained in charge until a few days after the first
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WISCONSIN'S WAR ACTIVITIES
registration (about June 9) when he went to Washington to assist Mr. Hoover.
The Governor took an active personal interest in the work of the preparation for the registration and was in personal control of the whole situation. The instructions from the federal authorities were that the election district was to be used as the basic registration district. The letter of the Secretary of War of April 23 points out that the machinery for the selection of men available for military service within the draft was first to be created. In the Civil War draft, a period of two and one-half months for preparation was necessary before a single name could be written on the rolls of available men. "The prospect of such delay," says the Provost Marshal General, "is most disturbing."
The Election Scheme as Basis
The plan for the registration is then outlined as follows:
"It is proposed to execute so much of the law as I have here dis- cussed along the following lines. By proclamation, the President will call upon persons of the designated classes to present themselves on a certain day at the customary polling places in their domiciliary voting precincts. These precincts are now delineated with contained popula- tions of convenient size for the enumeration in one day. In nearly all of them there is a provision of method and material to that end. The voting precinct shall, therefore, be the primary registration area. For each the service of registrars must be secured; but, so well are their population proportioned to enumeration, that in most of them one registrar will be sufficient. It is felt that much voluntary service will be offered. It would be gratifying to think that in each precinct the position of registrar could be filled by competent and responsible citi- zens who would claim no compensation, but while I desire to encourage such offers, I shall not rely on them." 1
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Perfecting the Election Scheme-A Wisconsin Contribution
Within the time limit set, there would be naturally great difficulty in the designation of registrars. Under the plan, as proposed, it would be necessary to designate at least 2,320 registrars in the 2,320 election districts in the state if only one were to be designated in each dis- trict, but in some districts more registrars were absolutely necessary. Time was precious! The Governor felt that the registration should be handled exactly as an election is handled. The whole machinery for such a purpose existed and operated for a long time and had provided for the many unseeable things that are incident to an erection of an organization of such scope. The Governor, therefore, requested of the Secretary of War authority to use the election machinery-not merely the scheme of the election play, but the whole administrative machinery. The request was made in a telegram to the Secretary of War under date of April 30 as follows:
"Reference your telegram dated April 30 suggested that Governor of Wisconsin be given authority to direct use of election personnel in registration for Selective Draft as follows: All blanks, forms and cir -. culars pertaining to draft be sent by the War Department to Secretary of State for distribution through county clerks to election inspectors three in number at each poll, such inspectors to act as registrars thus following procedure and using officers in accustomed duties, at accus- tomed polling places.
"Amount of detailed information required from persons registering will fully task three registrars and their joint knowledge of voting precinct go far towards assuring completeness of registration. In mat- ter of appointment of city boards, attention of Secretary is invited to fact that the most populous Wisconsin city and some others have So-
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WISCONSIN BLUE BOOK
cialistic mayors whose politics are against war and the draft. Recom- mend Governor be authorized to disregard mayors of cities over thirty thousand population and appoint boards in sympathy with the draft measure. If I am permitted to follow the above program, we can carry through the registration without a hitch and give the result promptly."
The suggestion of the Governor was approved on May 1 by the fol- lowing telegram from the Secretary of War:
"Reference your telegram April 30 you have authority to use election inspectors at each poll as you propose. You also have authority to appoint registration boards in cities of over thirty thousand as you pro- pose. It will be necessary, however, to send the blanks out from here addressed to sheriffs of counties and mayors of cities. Require such sheriffs and mayors to turn over to the persons you name to supervise registration in counties or cities."
Instructions were rapidly prepared and sent to all the Boards of Reg- istration in the state, consisting of the sheriff, county clerk and county physician, that the forms as soon as they were received by the sheriff should be turned over to the county clerk and the distribution should be effected in the same way ballots are distributed.
To give full legal standing to this use of the election machinery, the Governor asked the Executive Counsel, George B. Hudnall, to draft a bill providing for the registry of those persons in the state of Wisconsin who were eligible for service in the United States. The bill was drafted by Mr. Hudnall and was introduced in the Assembly by Charles D. Rosa on May 3, 1917. The rules were suspended, an effort to lay the bill over to the next day was opposed, the bill was ordered engrossed and read a third time, by a vote of 59 to 7, the rules were again suspended and the bill was put on final passage and passed and transmitted to the Senate, all on the same day.
The Senate received the bill on May 4, was immediately read the first time, the rules were suspended by unanimous consent and was returned a second and third time and concurred in after an amendment by Senator Arnold had been defeated.
The bill was approved by the Governor on May 9-eight days before the passage of the Selective Service Law.
This became Chapter 196 of the Laws of 1917. It was published on May 12. It begins as follows:
"Whenever by federal law, it shall be necessary to make registry of those persons within this state who are available for service in the army of the United States, the Governor shall issue a proclamation directing the various boards of registry and inspectors of election to make such registration at such time and place as are fixed in such proclamation."
It recites then how the election machinery shall be used and continues:
"The expense of making such registration in any town, city, village, or county shall be paid in the same manner as the expenses of holding any general election are paid.
"All the provisions of the election laws of this state, so far as ap- plicable and necessary for the carrying out of the purpose of this act, and which are not contrary to the provisions of any federal law, shall apply to the holding of such registration."
The Registration- The Legal Basis
The Selective Service Law was enacted by Congress May 18, 1917 The registration provision is contained in Section 5 of the law and is as follows:
"That all male persons between the ages of twenty-one and thirty, both inclusive shall be subject to registration accordance with regula- tions to be prescribed by the President; and upon proclamation by the President or other public notice given by him or by his direction stating
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the time and place of such registration, it shall be the duty of all persons of the designated ages, except officers and enlisted men of the Regular Army, the Navy and the National Guard and Naval Militia while in the service of the United States, to present themselves for and submit to registration under the provisions of this Act; and every such person shall be deemed to have notice of the requirements of this act upon the publication of said proclamation or other notice as aforesaid given by the President or by his direction; and any person who shall wilfully fail or refuse to present himself for registration, or to submit thereto as herein provided shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and shall, upon conviction in the district court of the United States having juris- diction thereof, be punished by imprisonment for not more than one year, and shall thereupon, be duly registered: Provided, That in the call of the docket precedence shall be given, in courts trying the same, to the trial of criminal proceedings under this Act: Provided further, That persons shall be subject to registration as herein provided who shall have attained their twenty-first birthday and who shall not have attained their thirty-first birthday on or before the day set for the registration, and all persons so registered shall be and remain subject to draft into the forces hereby authorized, unless exempted or excused therefrom as in this Act provided: Provided further, That in the case of temporary absence from actual place of legal residence of any person liable to registration as provided herein, such registration may be made by mail under regulations to be prescribed by the President."
In accordance with the federal program there was promptly desig- nated in each county of the state a county registration board, consist- ing of the sheriff, the county clerk, and the county physician. Where there was no county physician, a capable physician from the county was selected. Where there were several county physicians, one was designated. In the city of Milwaukee there were designated twenty- five registration boards of three members each-one board for each ward in the city.
The principal duties of these boards were to attend to the distribution of forms to each of the election precincts and to be custodians of the records of the registrants. These boards worked diligently and long during the night of June 5 and were the responsible agencies in each jurisdiction for securing a prompt report. They were also responsible for the tabulation of the detailed results of the registration and for the preparation of the duplicate cards and the necessary lists that had to be made to protect the registration of men.
Anticipating Trouble Which Did Not Happen
"There were many who feared," says the Provost Marshal General, in a report on the first draft, "the total failure of the Selective Service Law which was enacted by Congress on May 17, 1917. The law was un- equivocal in its terms. It boldly recited the military obligations of citizenship. It vested the President with the most plenary power to prescribing regulations which should strike a balance between the in- dustrial, agricultural, and the economic need of the Nation on the one hand, the military need on the other, and should summon men for service in the place in which it should best suit the common good to call them. It was a measure of unguessed significance and power. It flung a fair challenge at the feet of the doubters, and the refutation of their assertion was nothing less than spectacular."
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