Fort Leavenworth Prison strike for better prison conditions and reduced sentences, 1919
On 6 April 1917 the United States of America entered World War I. The American army was about the sixth the size of Britain’s, and President Woodrow Wilson sought to increase the army’s numbers to one million through volunteer conscription. After only 73,000 volunteered, he enacted a mandatory draft. On 18 May 1917, the United States Congress passed the Selective Service Act, forcing men ages twenty-one to thirty years to join the military, increasing the army to 1,500,000 soldiers by 1918.