This film created by the Army shows: In Reel 1, President Wilson, Vice President Marshall, Senator Saulsbury, Representative Champ Clark, and Secretary of the Navy Daniels draw draft numbers in Washington, D.C., which are then posted on bulletin boards in Herald Square, New York City. General Enoch H. Crowder works on a questionnaire for prospective draftees, and a typical candidate fills his out. Theodore Roosevelt views a parade in New York City, and draftees arrive at a receiving station, are fed, and receive bedding. Military police round up draft evaders.
In Reel 2, recruits shower and take aptitude test. The Dutch steamer boat
Amsterdam is boarded and seized in the New York City harbor. Then, Secretary of War Baker, Senator George E. Chamberlain, Senator Francis E. Warren, and Generals March and Crowder draw draft numbers in July 1918, and German and Hungarian citizens parade in New York City in support of the draft. Draftees board trains, arrive at a receiving station, and are drilled. Shows German prisoners of war digging ditches, eating, and playing with puppies in prison camps at Fort McPherson and Fort Oglethorpe, Ga.
In Reel 3 Germans, interned during the war, board the liner
Martha Washington at Charleston, S. C. to be deported.
You can also watch this video
in our main National Archives online catalog. This primary source comes from the Records of the Office of the Chief Signal Officer, 1860 - 1985.
National Archives Identifier:
24614Full Citation: Motion Picture 111-H-1107; Draft and Mobilization Activities; 1917-1918; Historical Films, ca. 1914 - ca. 1936; Records of the Office of the Chief Signal Officer, 1860 - 1985, Record Group 111; National Archives at College Park, College Park, MD. [Online Version, https://www.docsteach.org/documents/document/draft-mobilization-activities, March 28, 2024]