There has been a lot of talk lately about the importance of one vote, but for some reason the bill that passed Congress by one vote in 1940 hasn't been mentioned ... possibly because we tend to have a habit nowadays of ignoring the lessons of history. In that year we tended to look at Germany as a weak, second-level nation that had only 20 years earlier been devastated by World War I. Not only that, it was being run by a nutty dictator. But, the German army was suddenly rolling through Europe ... and nobody was even slowing them down ... and it was looking like America would have to get involved if Hitler was to be stopped. Here in America, there were a lot of close elections in that period for the House and the Senate, and one of the hot issues was whether or not to institute a peacetime Selective Service Act (the draft). America had never drafted servicemen during peacetime. Men had been conscripted during the Civil War and World War I, but not until hostilities were underway. From Lexington and Concord forward, America had always depended on the citizen-soldier.
But in 1940 the U. S. Congress passed a one year Selective Service Act. The idea was to have men trained as soldiers, just in case. And then Congress faced another vote to continue the peacetime draft, and even extend it to two-and-a-half years. The debate in Congress was intense, even bitter, but in the end the so-called hawks won and the peacetime military draft was extended ... BY ONE VOTE. So, when the Japanese struck Pearl Harbor in 1941 America had more than one-million men trained and at least partially ready for the war that came. All because of one vote.
This is Gordon Sawyer, from a window on historic Green Street.
Monday
August 4th, 2025
5:17PM
