On this date in 1918, the last quota of the selective service draft initiated in June the preceding year was being processed. Thirteen hundred men from North Dakota were set to board trains headed for Fort Lewis, Washington. But for those who were not drafted, there would be no leisure time.
Under a drastic amendment to the Selective Service Act, every man of draft age must find a productive job. It was “Go to work or go to war.” Gamblers and fortune tellers headed the list of unproductive professions, which also included theater ushers, waiters, bartenders, store clerks, domestic servants and even professional baseball players, much to the horror of sports lovers.
While this new federal law was to take effect on July 1st, North Dakota had already enacted its own slacker regulations. No able bodied man between the ages of eighteen and fifty could remain in the state without working a minimum of fifty-four hours in legitimate and productive labor. The measure had a two-part effect. It would get the loafers off the street corners and out of the pool halls to supply the necessary, and scarce, farm labor. At the same time, it effectively removed hobos and the roving bands of Industrial Workers of the World from the countryside. The IWW was opposed to the war, and its members had developed a reputation as agitators.
The fifty-four hour-work week requirement had to be completed in six days, because Sunday closing laws would be heavily enforced. However, some professions, such as railroad workers, automobile garage attendants, and telephone and telegraph personnel, were considered necessary on the Sabbath. Interestingly, so were the operators of popcorn or shoeshine stands!
To ensure that all productive land was being used, the Defense Council issued an order that all land laying idle and owned by a non-resident, could be put to crop. Any local farmer in the vicinity could request use of the idle land if the absentee owner did not put it to use. For this productivity, the farmer could earn from seventy-five to ninety percent of the profits depending upon the scale of work it required.
With these new regulations involving land and labor, the Defense Council ensured that every acre of land would be put to use for food production and every possible man hour could be put to good effect for the war effort. As part of “America’s Breadbasket,” North Dakota was being called upon to help feed the world.
Dakota Datebook by Jim Davis
Sources:
Bismarck Tribune, May 23, 1918
Grand Forks Herald, May 22, 1918
Ibid: May 23, 1918
Jamestown Weekly Alert, May 30, 1918
