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Vote Yes pin for Australian conscription, October 28, 1916, with the flags of Australia and Great Britain. A tin badge or tie-back pin in support of the Australian referendum on conscription, October 28, 1916. Australia voted no on this occasion and again, by a wider margin, in December, 1917.
Text:
Oct 28, 1916
Vote Yes

Vote Yes pin for Australian conscription, October 28, 1916, with the flags of Australia and Great Britain. A tin badge or tie-back pin in support of the Australian referendum on conscription, October 28, 1916. Australia voted no on this occasion and again, by a wider margin, in December, 1917.

Image text

Oct 28, 1916

Vote Yes

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Tuesday, June 5, 1917

"[Secretary of War Newton D.] Baker and other military and civilian authorities had initially feared widespread resistance to the draft. . . .

The actual response of the American people on June 5, a Tuesday, exceeded the most optimistic hopes of Baker and his military advisers. Amid hastily organized local festivities, parades, pageants and processions, some ten million men between the ages of twenty-one and thirty came forward to register before more than 135,000 local board officials. From across the land, reports of enthusiastic and patriotic compliance flooded in. Ocala, Florida was typical. Civic officials organized a parade of almost one thousand citizens. To the strains of 'The Star Spangled Banner' and 'Dixie,' members of fraternal orders, women's clubs, and service organizations marched down Fort King Avenue, the black contingents following the whites."

Quotation Context

The Selective Service Act was passed by both houses of the United States Congress on May 16, 1917 and signed into law by Woodrow Wilson on the 18th. Registration was required between the hours of 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. on June 5th for all those then subject to registration. In his April 2, 1917 address to the joint session of Congress requesting a declaration of war on Germany, the President had stated that 500,000 men should be immediately added to the military with 'subsequent additional increments of equal force' depending on need and the resources to train the men. The United States army was segregated, and would remain so until 1948.

Source

America's Great War: World War I and the American Experience by Robert H. Zieger, page 60, copyright © 2000 by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., publication date: 2001

Tags

1917-06-05, 1917, June, conscription, United States, segregation