Selective Service Act of 1948

On June 19, 1948, the committee of conference chaired by House Armed Services Committee Chairman Walter Andrews issued this conference report, H. Rep. No. 80-2438. The Elston bill (H.R. 2575), which was to revise the provisions dealing with courts-martial in the Articles of War and which had been delayed in the Senate from January to June 1948, was incorporated as Title II of the Selective Service Act, the measure that established the first postwar draft in American history. When President Harry Truman signed the Selective Service Act of 1948 on June 24, the amendments to the Articles of War became law (the Elston Act, Pub. L. No. 80-759, 62 Stat. 604, 627-44 (1948)). W.G. Andrews, W. Sterling Cole, George J. Bates, Carl Vinson, Paul J. Kilday and Carl T. Durham signed on the part of the House. Chan Gurney, Leverett Saltonstall, Wayne Morse, Millard E. Tydings, and Harry F. Byrd signed on the part of the Senate.