The Pittsburgh Press (September 15, 1940)
CONSCRIPTION MEASURE SENT TO ROOSEVELT BY CONGRESS
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President Expected to Sign Draft Bill Early This Week; Registration Date to be Set Soon
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By Ronald G. Van Tine, United Press Staff Writer
Washington, Sept. 14 –
Congress today passed the first peacetime conscription bill in American history and sent it to President Roosevelt for signature – possibly on Monday.
The historic measure had scarcely cleared the Senate and House when the President called upon Congress for $1,940,896,976, a large part of which will be used to finance the draft.
The measure reached the White House as 125 members of the Peace Mobilization League formed a picket line outside the fence of the mansion. They carried placards calling for the bill’s veto.
But Mr. Roosevelt already had left for a weekend cruise down the Potomac. After parading quietly for 30 minutes, the pickets dispersed.
Congressional action came on a compromise bill which also compels industry to cooperate in the vast rearmament drive. The Senate adopted the bill 47–25, without debate. The House then approved 232–124, after a brief flurry of discussion.
Register in October
In the Senate, 40 Democrats and 7 Republicans voted for the measure, while 13 Democrats, 10 Republicans, one Progressive and one Independent were aligned against it.
46 Republicans and 186 Democrats approved it in the House, while 32 Democrats, 88 Republicans, one Farmer-Laborite, two Progressives and one American-Laborite were opposed.
Peacetime conscription will become law as soon as Mr. Roosevelt signs the measure, Monday at the earliest. He will then proclaim a registration day, expected to be sometime in mid-October.
All Must Register
The law will reach into virtually every American home, requiring all men from 21 to 36 to register for a year’s compulsory military service on a selective basis. Citizen and alien alike will be affected by the law, which draws no distinction as to race and color.
Registration will give the government a list of 16,500,000 from which to choose the first contingent of 400,000 who will be called to the colors late this fall. For five years thereafter the government may call up to 900,000 men annually.
In his $1,940,896,976 deficiency request, Mr. Roosevelt asked for $1,733,886,976 in cash and $207,000,000 in contractual authority for the Army and Navy. He requested that $24,825,108 be segregated to pay for the administrative costs of putting the draft into effect.
Senate Forces Change
Although the allocation of the remainder of the funds was not explained immediately, it was indicated that the money would be used to carry the program through. It was estimated that $1,200,000,000 would be required for the conscript army, including wages, which are set at $21 for the first four months and $30 for the rest of the time.
Senate-House approval of a revised conference report on the conscription bill came in rapid-fire order after conferees last night yielded to Senate insistence that industrial provisions be tightened. Senate dispute over that phase of the measure had delayed final Congressional action until today.
The industrial compliance clause provided the only dispute in the Senate’s consideration of the original conference report yesterday. Senators contended that conferees had removed “the teeth” from the provision when they eliminated penalty clause. They sent the measure back to conference last night with instructions that the House’s industrial provision – an amendment by Representative J. J. Smith (D-CT) – be put back into the bill.
Conferees compiled within 10 minutes.
Approve Rental Draft
The Smith provision gives the President power to commandeer immediately on a “just rental” basis any plant whose owner refuses to accept “at a reasonable price as determined by the Secretary of War or the Secretary of the Navy” any national defense contract.
Failure to comply with this provision is punishable by a maximum fine of $50,000 and three years’ imprisonment.
Once this provision was restored, the Senate started its final vote without further discussion and promptly sent the conference report to the House, which heard a brief outburst or oratory before balloting.
Most of the speech-making was provided by Representative Hamilton Fish (R-NY), who assailed the conference report because it eliminated his amendment to delay the draft 60 days pending trial of a voluntary system of enlistment.
Telegram Ends Debate
Chairman Andrew J. May of the House Military Affairs Committee ended debate on conscription by reading a telegram he said came from G. Wilhelm Kunze of New York, national leader of the German-American Bund.
The message demanded a hearing “in opposition of conscription bill as I have been informed it specifically excludes Bund members from employment in United States industries.” It said:
…the proposed legislation is damnable, vicious and a Congressional declaration of civil war upon every German-American.
The telegram apparently referred to a provision in the bill prohibiting an employer from replacing a draftee with a Bund or Communist Party member.
Protection Asked
So speedy was the Congressional action on the measure today that many members were taken unaware. Galleries, which had been packed during weeks of debate, were only partly filled. Demonstrators against the measure were absent as the final vote was taken.
Before the vote started, Mr. Roosevelt asked Congress to protect the status of Guardsmen and conscripts under the Social Security Act so they will remain eligible for benefits when they return to civil life after service in the Army.
Final approval of conscription came on the 86th day after the original Burke-Wadsworth bill was introduced.
The Senate chamber was nearly empty when grey-haired Senator Key Pittman (D-NV), President pro tempore, called up the conference report for a vote 17 minutes after members had convened. There was no opposition to the swift procedure.
Passage brought to an end one of the most momentous struggles in Congressional history.
During the three weeks the Senate had debated its own version of conscription, one of its members – Senator Claude Pepper (D-FL) – was hanged in effigy by a group of middle-aged women draft opponents on the Capitol lawn.
Two members of the House of Representatives engaged in a fist fight on the House floor during the week that chamber argued the bill.
Throughout those days, another group of women opponents, attired in mourning, appeared in the lobbies and corridors of Congress and maintained what they called a “death watch” on the bill’s progress.
Post Mortem Attack
But there were no demonstrations today. Everything was run off so quickly that few spectators realized what had happened.
So swiftly did the upper chamber act, that some senators who had planned to speak on the conference report permitted the vote to be taken first. Then, they began a “post mortem” discussion.
Senator Burton K. Wheeler (D-MT), isolationist leader and a spearhead in the futile drive against conscription, led the assault. He quoted a newspaper editorial asserting that the draft should select “strong, fine, smart and brutal men exclusively.”
You mothers of America, I say to you they will take your sons and train them to be young brutes. They will teach them that the Sermon on the Mount is wrong. They will teach them that the Ten Commandments are wrong.
A Compromise Bill
The theme was taken up by Senators Rush Holt (D-WV) and Bennett C. Clark (D-MO), who for weeks had assailed conscription as a step toward dictatorship.
The approved conference report represented a compromise between Senate and House versions of the measure. One of the chief differences had been the age range. The Senate span was 21 to 31; the House, 21 to 45. They compromised on 21 to 36.
Both Houses agreed on the pay of conscripts. They also agreed that the drafted men could be used only in the Western Hemisphere, U.S. possessions and territories, including the Philippines.
Both Mr. Roosevelt and Republican presidential nominee Wendell Willkie came out in favor of conscription while the issue still was being debated in Congress.
Senate Roll Call On Conscription
Washington, Sept. 14 –
The final Senate roll call on adoption of the conference report on the conscription bill:
For the conference report (47)
| Democrats | Republicans | Progressive | Independent |
|---|---|---|---|
| Adams | Bridges | ||
| Andrews | Gibson | ||
| Barkley | Gurney | ||
| Bilbo | Hale | ||
| Burke | Lodge | ||
| Byrd | McNary | ||
| Byrnes | White | ||
| Carraway | |||
| Chandler | |||
| Connally | |||
| Ellender | |||
| George | |||
| Gerry | |||
| Harrison | |||
| Hatch | |||
| Hayden | |||
| Herring | |||
| Hill | |||
| Hughes | |||
| Kin g | |||
| Lee | |||
| Maloney | |||
| McKellar | |||
| Miller | |||
| Minton | |||
| Neely | |||
| O’Mahoney | |||
| Overton | |||
| Pepper | |||
| Pittman | |||
| Radcliffe | |||
| Reynolds | |||
| Russell | |||
| Schwartz | |||
| Sheppard | |||
| Thomas (OK) | |||
| Thomas (UT) | |||
| Truman | |||
| Tydings | |||
| Wagner |
Against the report (25)
| Democrats | Republicans | Progressive | Independent |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brown | Capper | LaFollette | Norris |
| Bulow | Danaher | ||
| Clark (ID) | Frazier | ||
| Clark (MO) | Johnson (CA) | ||
| Downey | Reed | ||
| Holt | Taft | ||
| Johnson (CO) | Thomas (ID) | ||
| McCarran | Townsend | ||
| Murray | Vandenberg | ||
| Schwellenbach | Wiley | ||
| Van Nuys | |||
| Walsh | |||
| Wheeler |
Long after the roll call had been completed the Senate clerk announced the following pairs on the report:
| For | Against |
|---|---|
| Barbour | Smith |
| Tobey | Nye |