1/31/2014:
In May of 1917, as the First World War rolled on across the seas, Congress established the Selective Service Act, and consequently, the selective service system, in order to administer a selective draft for all male citizens between the ages of 21 to 30. In 1918 the age range was expanded to 18 to 45.
Men of age across the entire country were called to register, and so they did, in droves – 24 million World War I Draft Registration cards are currently located at the National Archives in Atlanta. They include the famous and the infamous alongside the Average Joe. There are cards for men such as Louis Armstrong, who registered in New Orleans; Edgar Rice Burroughs, who registered in Cook County, Illinois; Al Capone, Will Rogers, Sinclair Lewis, Fred Astaire, Harry Houdini, and James Cagney, all who registered in different sections of New York City; Robert Frost, who registered in New Hampshire; and Babe Ruth, who registered in Boston.
There were only a few categories of people eligible for an exemption from the draft. On this date in 1918, the Cavalier County Republican published a special notice related stating that "all claims for exemption based on dependencies resulting from marriages” should be disregarded if the marriage took place subsequent to May 28, 1917, the date the draft was established.
It seems that a number of claims of this type were filed in Cavalier County by young men who had been married after that particular date, who thought that this act proved their exemption. The Cavalier County Republican reported that "although the board regards these marriages as having been contracted in good faith and not to evade the draft, they cannot consider the dependencies resulting there from as valid claims for exemption under the government ruling."
Dakota Datebook written by Sarah Walker
Sources:
http://www.archives.gov/research/guide-fed-records/groups/163.html
http://www.archives.gov/atlanta/wwi-draft/index.html
Cavalier County Republican, January 31, 1918