Selective Service Act of 1917

The Selective Service Act of 1917 appears as a measure of how readily Harry S. Truman might have stayed out of the war. When the United States entered the conflict in 1917, he was already two years beyond the Act’s age limit; his choice to go was therefore presented as a personal decision rather than an expected consequence of his circumstances.

The Act in Truman’s Circumstances

Truman turned thirty-three in the spring of 1917. The account places him two years beyond the age limit established by the new Selective Service Act, one among several reasons he could have remained on his farm in Grandview, Missouri. He had also been out of the National Guard for nearly six years, his eyesight fell below armed-services standards, and he was the sole supporter of his mother and sister. The text does not detail the Act’s provisions beyond this age boundary.

A Boundary, Not the Whole Explanation

The age limit helps establish the distance between the wartime call and Truman’s decision to answer it. His farming responsibilities carried a patriotic argument of their own: Woodrow Wilson had said that farmers bore responsibility for the fate of the war and the nation. Yet, as the account emphasizes, Truman could have remained at home for several reasons. He chose to go soon after Wilson called on Congress to declare war in April 1917.

Consequences of the Choice

Truman left the farm and responsibility for his mother to his sister, Mary Jane Truman. Her later recollection that the family got through the separation underscores the cost borne at home: she assumed obligations that had weighed on Truman since their father’s death, and her own life changed as a result. The Act’s age boundary thus marks the circumstances surrounding his choice, while the account’s emphasis falls on the decision itself and the responsibilities it transferred to his family.