73,000 volunteers enlisted out of the initial 1 million target in the first six weeks of the war. One ascribed motivation was to head off the former president, Theodore Roosevelt, who proposed to raise a volunteer division, which would upstage Wilson; however, there is no evidence that Roosevelt had the support to carry out that plan, and also, since Wilson had just started his second term in office the former President's prospects for substantial political gain would seem dubious. The Selective Service Act of 1917 was carefully drawn to remedy the defects in the Civil War system and—by allowing exemptions for dependency, essential occupations, and religious scruples—to place each man in his proper niche in a national war effort. The act established a "liability for military service of all male citizens"; authorized a selective draft of all those between 21 and 31 years of age (later from 18 to 45); and prohibited all forms of bounties, substitutions, or purchase of exemptions. Administration was entrusted to local boards composed of leading civilians in each community. These boards issued draft calls in order of numbers drawn in a national lottery and determined exemptions. In 1917, 10 million men were registered. This was deemed to be inadequate, so age ranges were increased and exemptions reduced, and so by the end of 1918 this increased to 24 million men that were registered with nearly 3 million inducted into the military services, with little of the resistance that characterized the Civil War, thanks to a well-received campaign by the government to increase support for the war, and shut down newspapers and magazines that published articles against the war. The draft was universal and included Blacks on the same terms as whites, although they served in different units. In all 367,710 Black Americans were drafted (13.0% of the total), compared to 2,442,586 White (86.9%). Along with a general opposition to American involvement in a foreign conflict, Southern farmers objected to perceived unfair conscription practices that exempted members of the upper class and industrial workers. Draft boards were localized and based their decisions on social class: the poorest were the most often conscripted because they were considered the least likely to be the skilled labor needed for the war effort. Poor men were also less likely to convince local boards that they were primary breadwinners who could be deferred to support dependents. . Forms of resistance ranged