When progressive Democratic President Woodrow Wilson asked Congress for a declaration of war “to make the world safe for democracy” in April 1917, he set in motion a chain of events that would change America forever. The nation was now divided. If you weren’t 100 percent for the war, then you were the enemy. When a draft was needed to fill the ranks of the Army, anyone opposed fell into that category.
June 5, 1917 was set aside as national registration day, and one of the loudest critics was a 48-year-old Russian…
Subscribe to keep reading
This story is from our archive. Get your SandPaper Annual Pass for access to our digital archive, plus everything else a pass includes. Details below.
Annual Pass — $18 Details
365-day access to:
- The complete SandPaper digital archive (stories date back to 2012).
- Full photo galleries from our photographers.
- The entire catalog of SandPaper games, puzzles and quizzes.
How it works
- Enter your email below and click to pay the one-time $18. Card details are entered on Stripe’s secure page.
- You’re in straight away — no password to create, and nothing to set up or manage.
- You stay signed in. If you’re ever signed out, or you read on a new phone or computer, we’ll email you a code to get you back in.
- Never auto-renews. Your pass is good for one year. We will email you when it expires so you can renew if you’d like.
See our site policies for more information.
Already a subscriber? We’ll email a code to get you back in.
















