Wartime Case

Wartime

Uncle Sam Wants You is dealing with America during wartime. It is explaining American sense of obligation to the wartime government. It is discussing the experience of the citizens. How were the people treated because of the war? How were their mental state during the war such as violence, volunteering and recruiting for the war? The selective service in America during World War I was unbelievable. It started with a poster that James Montgomery Flagg made. It was his image of Uncle Sam. He made a recruiting poster to help Americans make sense of the wartime state and to put a face on political power. There was over a million copies made of Flagg's iconic image. The man on the poster was badly dressed. The formal attire resented the solemnity of wars time and his furrowed brow and stare. It showed how serious he was. Also his silly hat and ill-fitting suit portraits that Uncle Sam does not always look like this. The poster helped American understand his obligations to the government. For example when news travel about a poster had been vandalized, a group of New York women pushed congress to make defacement of posters a crime.

This Selective Service Act established the draft and led to all males between the ages of 18 to 45, registering for the war. There was 24 million men and family that felt the effects of the federal government in their lives by enlisting, to be exempted, to obtain security for their families and to enforce the law for draft slackers. The government had to make American feel obligated to register and fight for their country. If the people didn't register to fight, they were considered lazy and unworthy to be American. The government did not have enough power to enforce the law to make people register. American Protective League started going to towns and finding the draft dodgers or slackers. The Selective Service Act was signed into law on May 18, 1917. It required all male citizens of draft age as well as aliens, who had taken out first papers of citizenship, to register with the local draft boards to call up by the army. It made registration universal but serving was selective. Some citizens used their religion to not service. Now people was upset and felt like it was just an excuse not to service or fight for our country. However New York litigator Harry Weinberger and Tom Watson were spokesmen for the draft resistance. Watson argued "that selective service legislation violated the Thirteenth Amendment's prohibition against involuntary servitude and the constitution did not authorize the raising of armies by such methods." Weinberger stated that clergymen and divinity students should be exempted from the draft. The selective service act had violated the First Amendments establishment clause separating church and state. Their arguments did not help because the United States Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of conscription. Americans hated slackers and thought they were inadequate men. But the antiwar radicals said, "Don't be a soldier, be a Man!" This was the minority viewpoint and the majority wanted to tar and feathered the slackers.

Also, there was issues when it came to immigrants and black to serving their country. For example, Louis S. Epes expressed his concerns about African Americans joining into the military. He said "if this is a white man's country then this war is a white's man burden and not the Negroes. From a point of view of justice to the Negro we have no right to demand his service in the firing line. Drafting black soldiers, he claimed, would alter the terms of their obligation." However, African American wanted to serve their country and wanted equal rights. They wanted to defend the nation and be obligated to fight for the United States. Only the army would accept the colors, they could not serve in the navy and marines. American people was to except all males to register for the draft even clergymen, family men and people in school.

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