USS Recruit, ca. 1917 Shortly after the United States declared war on Germany in April 1917, the government instituted a military draft. But efforts to sign up volunteers continued. This photograph shows the USS Recruit, a wooden battleship constructed in Manhattan by the navy as a recruiting tool. When the war ended, 2.8 million men had been drafted and another 2 million men volunteered.
Library of Congress, LC- G- n-