Before Pearl Harbor: The First Peacetime Draft and the Arsenal of Democracy

"America's Answer! Production." Poster, Office for Emergency Management, 1941. National Archives (NAID 513808)

War broke out in Europe on September 1, 1939, when Germany invaded Poland. By then New Deal programs had brought income and electricity to homes across the country, and many families now had a radio — so for the first time they heard war news as it happened. Until Pearl Harbor, America stayed officially neutral — while it prepared for war.

Neutral — on paper

For years Franklin D. Roosevelt had quietly prepared for the possibility of war while publicly keeping the country neutral. In his fireside chat of September 3, 1939, he told Americans:

Let no man or woman thoughtlessly or falsely talk of America sending its armies to European fields… This nation will remain a neutral nation.

The World War II draft card of Huddie Ledbetter — the African American folk and blues singer, musician and songwriter better known as "Lead Belly." War Department (VIRIN 430407-O-ZZ999-001)

The first peacetime draft

The Selective Training and Service Act became law in September 1940 — the first peacetime draft in American history. Every man who had turned 21 but was not yet 36 had to register. Before it, the Army and Navy together numbered about 265,000. Within a month, more than 16 million men were registered and almost a million had been drafted.

The first lottery, in Washington on October 29, 1940: slips numbered 1 to 7,836 were sealed in small capsules and poured into a large glass bowl — the same one used for the World War I draft. The capsules were stirred with a wooden spoon carved from a piece of Independence Hall. A blindfolded Secretary of War Henry Stimson drew one, and President Roosevelt read out the number: 158. In thousands of local draft districts across the country, the men holding that number had to report.

Who served

• Draftees served at least one year, plus up to 10 years in the reserves.
• The law was not supposed to discriminate by race, but the military stayed segregated. White men who qualified were drafted at once; especially at first, draft boards sent most Black men home, and those taken went to a handful of segregated units.
• Men who failed the medical standards were classed 4-F and sent home — many of them malnourished.
• Men with dependents were exempt, which set off a spike in marriages; workers in essential industries and farming, and college students, could be deferred.
• The rules changed as the military needed more people; in practice, those called up were aged 18 to 44.

Conscientious objectors

The first Civilian Public Service site was Patapsco Camp in Elkridge, Maryland. Some who worked in mental institutions were horrified by what they saw, and documented it; Life magazine's "Bedlam 1946" shocked the country.

The Act also made military orders a priority for business. Refusing one was a felony, and the Army or Navy could seize the company.

Not everyone was ready

Unemployment fell as men went into training and new jobs. But there was confusion and resistance. Draftees were unsure of their role in a country still technically neutral. Manufacturers, enjoying good profits from consumers as the Depression ended, were reluctant to convert to military work. And unions, emboldened by the demand for workers, pushed for more: in the months before the United States entered the war, more than 2.3 million union members walked out in over 4,200 strikes — the highest level of strike activity in U.S. history.

The arsenal of democracy

Roosevelt limited trade with Japan, and tension in the Pacific rose. In Europe, the Blitz was under way, with London bombed day and night; Americans listened as CBS reporter Edward Murrow broadcast from the city against the sound of guns, planes and bombs.

At the end of 1940, Roosevelt spoke to the country again. He warned of enemy spies and profiteers, accused those who wanted to stay out of the war of helping the enemy, and, still insisting no American troops would go to Europe or Asia, admitted that peace with the Axis was impossible. To stay out of the war, America had to support Britain and its allies and become the "great arsenal of democracy." Just over a week later he told Congress that America was helping defend four essential human freedoms: freedom of speech, freedom to worship in one's own way, freedom from want and freedom from fear.

In March 1941, after months of negotiation, Congress passed Lend-Lease, letting the United States give, lend or lease military supplies to any country "vital to the defense of the United States." Nothing was sold, so the cash-and-carry rules did not apply.

Hundreds of thousands of servicemen were called up and sent to training camps.

"Double Victory"

The new jobs did not go to everyone. Many employers refused to hire Black workers rather than integrate their workforce. In June 1941, labor leader A. Philip Randolph called for 100,000 African Americans to march on Washington against discrimination in the military and defense industry. To head off the confrontation on the eve of war, Roosevelt signed Executive Order 8802, forbidding racial discrimination in government hiring and training, and the march was called off. Drawn by that promise and by good wages, thousands of Black men and women left the South for industrial jobs in the North and West.

Discrimination went on — often the dirtiest and most dangerous jobs. Black Americans saw the irony of fighting for democracy abroad while treated as second-class citizens at home. Some, remembering how they were treated after World War I, urged others to stay out; one collar clip read, "Don't Join Jim Crow Army." A letter in the Pittsburgh Courier inspired the nationwide "Double V" campaign: victory for democracy abroad, and victory over racism at home.

The last step

On July 26, 1941 — partly to keep Japan from attacking Russia, a British ally — Roosevelt froze all Japanese assets in the United States, in effect cutting Japan off from American oil. After years of back-and-forth over trade, it was a provocation too far. Diplomacy failed, and on December 7, 1941, Japanese forces attacked.

Sources

Based on "The American Home Front and the Buildup to World War II: The Selective Service Act and the Arsenal of Democracy," by Megan E. Springate, Assistant Research Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of Maryland, for the NPS Cultural Resources Office of Interpretation and Education, part of the series The American Home Front and World War II, National Park Service; a work of the United States government in the public domain. The original's newspaper front page (Buffalo Courier Express, September 2, 1939) and newsreel still (Universal Newsreel, October 30, 1940) are left out.