Peacetime draft

Front:
FIRST DRAFT NUMBER IS 158; PRESIDENT LEADS CEREMONY STARTING BIG CITIZEN ARMY 29 TRENGT PHO SEP America's first peacetime draft, 1940 1991 85026 Chislable

Back:
PEACETIME DRAFT First Day of Issue: September 3, 1991 First Issue Location: Phoenix, Arizona One of the most controversial bits of legislation to ever enter the hallowed halls of Congress was the Selective Training and Service Act of 1940. Only after weeks of intense and heated debate did it pass. The new law required men between the ages of twenty-one and thirty- five to register at local draft boards across the country on October 16 — over sixteen million men registered. Two weeks later, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt watched as Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson — blind- folded with a swatch of cloth from a chair used by the signers of the Declaration of Independence — plucked the first number in the draft from a bowl filled with capsules numbered 1 to 8,994. The number was one hundred fifty-eight; 6,175 men across the nation held that honor. In all, some sixteen million Americans served their country during the war. Some were volunteers, but the vast majority were drafted under the terms of that contro- versial act of 1940. No. 91-60 ©1991 The Maximum Card Collection A division of Unicover Corporation • Cheyenne, WY 82008-0007 ® Original painting for the Maximum Card by Chris Calle