Nine-year-old Madge Evans was the star of this clever little World release. Essentially playing herself, Evans is cast as a child movie actress who bids farewell to her studio chums when her father accepts a commission in the Army, and her mother does likewise in the Red Cross. Inspired by her parents' example, little Madge decides to become the world's greatest "recruiter," and to that end seeks out every slacker and malingerer within the sound of her voice. She even succeeds in signing up the son of a Quaker farmer, whose inbred pacifism is shown to pose a threat against the War effort! As in so many other cases during WWI, the notions of self-determination and personal choice were put on the back burner in The Volunteer.