1943.08.17 “Afraid It Would Bite Him”
by Lucius Curtis “Lute” Pease, Jr. (1869 -1963)
14 x 22 in., crayon and ink on board
Coppola Collection
Pease was a cartoonist for the Newark Evening News from 1914 to 1954 and received the 1949 Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning. He was a miner in Alaska for 5 years before beginning a career in art. He was an illustrator for the Oregonian and famously interviewed Mark Twain. From his retirement in 1954 until his death in 1963, he devoted himself to fostering his skills as a painter of portraits and landscapes.
After the Pearl Harbor attack, the Selective Service Act was amended (December 19, 1941), extending the term of service to the duration of the war plus six months and requiring the registration of all men 18 to 64 years of age. On November 13, 1942, 18- and 19-year-olds were made liable for induction. And on December 5, 1942, presidential Executive Order 9279 closed voluntary enlistment for all men from the ages of 18 to 37 for the duration of the war, as voluntary enlistment meant selection of which service one joined. EO 9279 created a pure conscription, with the assignment and deployment up to the needs of the government.
Parents, educators, and community leaders lobbied heavily to protect teenagers completing high school, with a surge in calls for deferment for students. Politicians were under pressure to adjust the implementation to avoid political fallout.
On August 16–17, 1943, the House of Representatives was actively considering proposals to defer or ban drafting teenagers, particularly high school students. A temporary suspension of teenage induction was being floated as a compromise measure while the military, draft boards, and educators worked out how deferments would be implemented.
New York Times, August 17, 1943: “Teen-Age Draft Ban Voted By House Committee”
