From the Page News and Courier (Luray, Va.), June 1, 1917:
No Lunacy in Page County
The people of Page County are a law abiding people, and are remarkable for their thrift and common sense.
For these reasons we believe the young man of Page county prefer registering to being registered. They will register because they are good citizens and patriotic.
The prize fool at this time is the young man engaged in farming or otherwise likely to be exempted who has a notion to monkey with the registration law not register. The very fact that he does not register will convince the authorities that he is a counterfeit farmer or a rank fraud and is not entitled to exemption.
Only one man out of every twenty who registered will be drafted. State your grounds of exemption, if you claim exemption.
One thing certain if you are going to wait to register in jail your claims of exemption will be worth very little.
It is not wise to listen to the gentlemen who advise you not to register. These gentlemen are not as big and wise as the United States, and will also have the opportunity to revise their views in jail.
Every patriotic citizen is asked to report slackers and shirkers. It is the duty of federal employees to report all such and it will be done.
The slacker will not escape. Parents do not want to send noble sons in the army to fight for slackers, shirkers and cowards. Page county has sixty-two men to send to the new army and we are going to have a square deal if the power of the United States and of the State of Virginia can accomplish it.
Now, this was an editorial from the newspaper editor who actually became chair of the war bonds committee for the county, but… hmmm, this got me thinking… I wonder if this is the same approach to shaming those who hesitated to volunteer for the Confederate army back during the Civil War. The exemptions thing really gets me going, as I know how it was said that the Confederate conscription department should have been called the Confederate exemption department…. plus, I have some great info about how, at the beginning of the CW, government job opportunities opened-up wide (especially with the slaves employed at major industries in the area were being recalled by their masters in the eastern part of the state). These government jobs (iron ore furnaces, forges, tanneries, etc.) were especially appealing, as they gave men an exemption from military service. Yet, the number of those seeking these jobs far outweighed the number of jobs available.
Cenantua's Blog 
Sean Trainor
August 26, 2010
Hi Robert — I’ve enjoyed your recent thoughts on the similarities and differences between the Civil War and WWI. Studies of the two wars tend to be compartmentalized, when we might gain a lot by some more comparative analysis.
Also, I wanted to let you know that my colleagues and I at Penn State University’s Richards Civil War Era Center recently launched a new Civil War-era blog entitled A People’s Contest. Hope you get a chance to stop by and check it out sometime. Here’s the URL: http://www.psu.edu/dept/richardscenter/. Thanks!
Robert Moore
August 26, 2010
Thanks for your thoughts on the recent posts, Sean! Yes, it is interesting to look at the two wars in a comparative analysis, and look at how the story of the South in the First World War sets a benchmark for understanding in Civil War memory. It’s a “learn as I go project” that I think will add a different set of perspectives in the study of historical memory, most especially how that unrealized/imagined memory was developing at the time, and how much we, today, have veered even from that original path.
I’ve made a link to your blog from my blog roll. Hope you continue to drop in and make comments, and I’ll be looking forward to seeing posts over at the Richards Civil War Era Center’s Civil War-era blog.
Craig Swain
August 26, 2010
I think that last line says a lot:
“Page county has sixty-two men to send to the new army and we are going to have a square deal if the power of the United States and of the State of Virginia can accomplish it.”
But it also leaves a lot for interpretation. A “New Army.” As opposed to which “old army”?
“we are going to have a square deal”? Sounds as if support for the war will secure a re-arrangement of the status quo.
And the last phrase indicates participation with, as opposed to resentment of, the Federal government.
Interesting to say the least.
Robert Moore
August 26, 2010
I think the “new army” remark may have come about as a result of knowing how the local soldiers, formerly of the 2nd Va., were reorganized in the new 29th Division. Incidentally, I believe those who waited to be conscripted ended up in the new 70th Division., also known as the “Blue Ridge Division”.
Robert Moore
August 26, 2010
I meant 80th Division., not 70th.
Craig Swain
August 27, 2010
Well, all the Army divisions were “new” at that time. But I don’t recall the New Yorkers referring to the 27th Division, or the Pennsylvanians to the 29th Division as the “new Army.” How about the 30th and 31st Division which were formed in the deep South? I know in those later two divisions several regiments traced their lineage back to the Revolutionary War as militia units.
Sean Trainor
August 26, 2010
Hi Robert — thanks for the free publicity. I look forward to following the progress of your comparative project. Good luck!
John Stoudt
August 31, 2010
Robert:
I have added a link below which may provide more context for topic of the South during World War I. It might — or might not — provide any specific help for you, but I thought that I would send it anyway.
Jeanette Keith (Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania) wrote this piece as part of a roundtable discussion of “Federal Power and Southern Resistance During World War I” in the March, 2001, issue of _The Journal of American History_.
Keith asks, “How widespread was public support for Mr. Wilson’s War?” With examples of evasion, desertion, and draft resistance (as illustrated by Tom Watson of Georgia and others), not much support could be raised through parts of the rural South.
I realize that this link cuts off the vast majority of the article. I own a hard copy of the original, and I could send it to you. I hope that this is helpful.
http://www.historycooperative.org/cgi-bin/justtop.cgi?act=justtop&url=http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/jah/87.4/keith.html
Robert Moore
September 4, 2010
Thanks, John! By the way, I just realized that your first two comments were directed to my spam file. I don’t know why they were directed there, but I caught them before they were deleted.
John Stoudt
September 4, 2010
Robert:
I am not certain if this article refers directly to the draft, but it does focus on Southern draft resistance during 1917-18: http://www.historycooperative.org/cgi-bin/justtop.cgi?act=justtop&url=http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/jah/87.4/keith.html
Jeanette Keith, who teaches at Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania, includes resistance by whites and blacks in her study, as well as a section on the federal suppression of Tom Watson’s paper.
This is an interesting look at resistance to “Mr. Wilson’s War.” I hope that this is helpful.