| Summary: | In the first letter, written April 23, 1917, May asks Bankhead to support the proposed selective service legislation rather than relying on volunteers to fill the ranks: "If...it is left up to the people of this country to volunteer to win this fight, the very best people will join and leave the low grade of white and black people here to keep living while possibly a million of our best young men lose their lives for their protection. For the sake of the good people of our country, stand by President Wilson and force this non-productive element to the front and if they will not fight, they can be used and should be used for breastworks; the country would be better off without them." In the second letter, written April 27, Bankhead agrees with May, though he did not originally support the draft: "Conscription lays its hand equally upon all alike" and is the only way to "raise an effective army." The Selective Service Act, which required men from ages twenty-one to thirty to register for military service, was passed in May 1917. At the time these letters were written, Bankhead was representing Alabama in the United States Senate.
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