Friday, June 1, 1917
With draft registration less than one week away, The Saratogian reports that the federal government is cracking down on “slackers” who don’t intend to register or anyone who advises against registering.
Registration day is June 5, 1917. The first military draft for the U.S. war against Germany is tentatively scheduled to take place beginning September 5. The U.S. declared war on April 6.
All men between the ages of 21 and 30 are obliged to register on June 5. On today’s front page, the local paper reminds readers that “Failure to register next Tuesday carries with it a penalty of one year’s imprisonment, after which the offender is liable to military service.”
In a proclamation issued today, President Woodrow Wilson warns that any American who leaves the country to avoid registration will face the same penalty whenever he returns home. Wire service reports today indicate that hundreds of Americans, at least, have fled across the Canadian and Mexican borders since Congress authorized the draft last month.
“A round-up of several hundred Americans of military age who are thought to have entered Canada through the Windsor gateway during the past month to escape conscription was underway” with the cooperation of the Canadian government, according to one report.
On the other side of the country, border agents are no longer allowing Americans of draft age to cross into Mexico. At least two men are arrested in Laredo TX for “seeking to leave the United States to avoid military registration.”
Worse penalties await anyone conducting “anti-registration or anti-conscription propaganda.” Prosecutors may treat anti-draft propaganda as sedition, with a maximum penalty of five years in prison or a $5,000 fine, or treason, a capital offense.
“Plans for wholesale indictment of anti-conscriptionists who refuse to obey the law on registration day, or who influence others to become ‘slackers,’ was made today by United States government officials” in New York City. Assistant U.S. district attorney Harold A. Content warns of “many arrests and possible rioting” in the metropolis on June 5.
In Washington D.C., “Search for leaders of the nation-wide anti-registration propaganda centered here today, in the shadow of the Capitol’s dome.”
Most anti-draft agitators are anarchists and socialists, but while “actual headquarters of the ultra Socialists and the Anarchists are in New York city, the devious propaganda trail led to Washington.”
Apart from radical groups, “Part of Congress is aiding the anti-registration plots,” according to United Press correspondent Carl D. Grant. Circulation of anti-draft speeches by congressmen using their franking privileges suggests that “the anti-registration conspiracy is taking on broader aspects than even the most pessimistic had feared.”