19.3 THE WAR AT HOME

OBJECTIVE: How was America changed by WWI?

CONTEXT• The US has been opposed to joining

the war• Very quickly, the US must change

gears, economically and psychologically

• US must supply itself AND THE ALLIES

• Everyone must pitch in• New Opportunities open for women

and minorities

HOW AMERICA CHANGED…• POLITICALLY

• Congress gives the President direct control over the economy.

• Government establishes a propaganda campaign

• Espionage and Sedition Act restricts Civil Liberties

• IWW (Wobblies) and Eugene V. Debs tried for sedition

• Women get the right to vote in 19th Amendment (1920)

Why do you think civil liberties were so easily violated by the people and government of the US during WWI?

Leslie's Illustrated News cover from September 29, 1917, "Be Patriotic sign your country's pledge to save the food" A patriotic wartime poster. (Picture Research Consultants & Archives)

Leslie's Illustrated News cover from September 29, 1917, "Be Patriotic sign your country's pledge to save the food"

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

WWI poster: "Sow the Seeds of Victory"In 1918, this poster by James Montgomery Flagg appealed to American women to contribute to victory by conserving food through raising and preserving food for their families. The woman is shown sowing seeds (in the way that grain was planted before the development of agricultural machinery for that task), garbed in a dress made from an American flag, and wearing a red Liberty cap, a symbol that originated in the French Revolution. (Ohio Historical Society)

WWI poster: "Sow the Seeds of Victory"

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

HOW AMERICA CHANGED…

• ECONOMICALLY• War Industries Board regulates the economy • Government intervenes in labor disputes• AF of L supports mobilization, few strikes • Economy gears up, largely voluntarily (except

for trains)• Herbert Hoover organizes food relief for Allies• Voluntary efforts=“victory gardens” & self-

denial• Eighteenth Amendment = Prohibition• Income tax

Schenk v. USEvidence held sufficient to connect the defendants with the

mailing of printed circulars in pursuance of a conspiracy to obstruct the recruiting and enlistment service, contrary to the Espionage Act of June 15, 1917.

Incriminating document seized under a search warrant directed against a Socialist headquarters, held admissible in evidence, consistently with the Fourth and Fifth Amendment, in a criminal prosecution against the general secretary of a Socialist party, who had charge of the office.

Words which, ordinarily and in many places, would be within the freedom of speech protected by the First Amendment may become subject to prohibition when of such a nature and used in such circumstances a to create a clear and present danger that they will bring about the substantive evils which Congress has a right to prevent. The character of every act depends upon the circumstances in which it is done. P. 51.

http://supct.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/historics/USSC_CR_0249_0047_ZS.html

YOUR EXPERIENCE:Are there any parallels between the US in 1918 and the US in 2008?

In our attitudes toward foreigners?

Immigrants?

Civil Liberties?

Dissent?

HOW AMERICA CHANGED…• SOCIALLY

• Women join labor force in large number• Great African-American Migration from

South to North• Race riots, esp. St. Louis, Chicago• Anti-German sentiment grows in public• Women begin voting• America gripped by Great Flu Epidemic

(500,000 Americans die)

SOCIAL CHANGE DURING WWIWEB Du Bois urges support of war effort

Great Black MigrationEFFECTS: • Change composition of Chicago, Detroit, St.

Louis, New York, Philly• Race Riots

CAUSES:• Escape from Jim Crow South• Poor cotton harvests of 1916• Ford Motor Comp. Hired African-Americans• Northern manufacturers’ “recruiters”

http://www.journaltimes.com/migration/images/fsa1.jpg

THE GREAT MIGRATION

African American family just arrived in Chicago, 1912Labor shortages and high wages drew African Americans from the south to the north. This family, including members of three generations, posed for a photographer upon their arrival in Chicago from the south, as part of the Great Migration during World War I. (Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York Public Library)

African American family just arrived in Chicago, 1912

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

http://eden.rutgers.edu/~keen/cartography/michiganslavery/michiganrevisited.gif

SOCIAL CHANGE DURING WWI• Women enter the workforce• Women enlist in armed forces • 19th Amendment (1920) –

WOMEN GET RIGHT TO VOTE

http://userpages.aug.com/captbarb/images/wmw1.gif

Poster: "Stenographers We Need You"Many government agencies used posters to appeal to the American people for help in winning the war. This one, from the U.S. Employment Service, encouraged women to enter the work force. (National Archives)

Poster: "Stenographers We Need You"

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Woman workers on the Union Pacific Railroad, May 29, 1918Labor shortages attracted new people into the labor market and opened up some jobs to women and members of racial minorities. In May of 1918, these women worked in the Union Pacific Railroad freight yard in Cheyenne, Wyoming. Most of them seem delighted to have their picture taken in their work clothes. (Wyoming State Museum)

Woman workers on the Union Pacific Railroad, May 29, 1918

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INFLUENZA PANDEMIC OF 1918• Also known as “Spanish Flu”• Global flu• 25% of population sick• 500,000 Americans killed• 40 million+ killed worldwide

Red Cross workers in Philadelphia, 1918Red Cross workers like these in Philadelphia and other public-health professionals mobilized to combat a deadly influenza epidemic that claimed over half a million American lives. ()

Red Cross workers in Philadelphia, 1918

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http://nmhm.washingtondc.museum/collections/archives/agalleries/1918flu/Reeve3141.jpg

http://nmhm.washingtondc.museum/collections/archives/agalleries/1918flu/1918flu.html