Domestic World War I(Over There: famous song)

(Hun: Germans; propaganda poster)

Joining the War Effort

Americans were urged to join the war before they were drafted (by the Selective Service Act)

Many recruiting posters were seen in public places

Most famous was James M. Flagg’s “I Want You for U.S. Army” poster

Mass Production of War Materials

U.S. factories cranked out ships and weapons

Huge increase in government involvement in the economy

Economy had to be re-focused on the war effort

Shift from producing consumer goods to war supplies was complicated, so business & the govt. collaborated (consumer goods still produced, but not as many)

In the process, the power of govt. greatly expanded

Congress gave President Wilson direct control over much of the economy, including the power to fix prices and to regulate (even nationalize) certain war-related industries

Numerous govt. war agencies created

War Industries Board (WIB)

Main regulatory body

Headed by Bernard Baruch

Directed production and controlled the economy

Allocated (distributed) raw materials

Allocated war production to existing factories and built new ones

Also regulated production of non-war goods

Encouraged companies to use mass-production techniques to increase efficiency

Industrial production increased by about 20%

War Industries Board Picture: Bernard Baruch, head of the WIB

War Inflation

WIB applied price controls only at the wholesale level; as a result, retail prices soared

In 1918 retail prices were almost double what they had been before the war

Wages and Labor during WWI

Wages in most industries rose during WWI

A household’s income, however, was weakened by rising food prices and housing costs

Stockholders in large corporations made huge profits

Unions boomed / membership increased

Thousands of strikes broke out

National War Labor Board: established by President Wilson to deal with disputes between management & labor; also established policies affecting wages, hours, and working conditions

Women and WWI

The need for wartime workers brought over a million more women into the work force

Fuel Administration Monitored coal supplies and rationed gasoline and

heating oil

“Gasless Sundays” and “lightless nights” adopted by many Americans to conserve fuel

Daylight-Saving Time: another conservation measure started in March 1918 (to save fuel and electricity)

Food Administration

Headed by Herbert Hoover

Saw to it that food production was increased and less food was wasted

Food wasn’t rationed, but Hoover asked people to voluntarily conserve food

Special days of the week: “wheatless,” “meatless,” “sweetless,” “porkless”

Food Administration

Victory Gardens

Food Administration encouraged these

Homeowners planted vegetables in their yards so commercially-grown food could be sent to the soldiers

American food shipments to the Allies tripled

Farmers put millions more acres into production

Farmers’ income increased

WWI Food Conservation and Prohibition (of alcohol)

Support for prohibition grew during the war

Not producing alcohol saved grain for the war effort

Many beer producers were German, and there was prejudice toward anything German

18th Amendment passed shortly after the war

Financing WWI: Taxes & Bonds

U.S. spent about $35 billion

Govt. raised about 1/3 of this through taxes

About 2/3 of the money was raised through public borrowing by selling government bonds

War bonds called “Liberty Loans” & then “Victory Loans”

Propaganda Agency: Committee on Public Information

Headed by journalist George Creel

Purpose: to publicize the American cause and stimulate patriotism

Produced many propaganda posters, etc.

75,000 “Four-Minute Men” spoke at various functions about the draft, voluntary rationing, bond drives, victory gardens, and topics such as “Why We Are Fighting”

Committee on Public Information

Negative Effect of Propaganda: Attacks on Civil Liberties

Conformity became expected after war was declared

Anti-immigrant hysteria (especially against people from Germany or Austria-Hungary)

Some Americans with German names lost their jobs

German music stopped being played and learned

German language stopped being taught in schools

Some German-Americans were physically attacked

German measles became “liberty measles,” sauerkraut became “liberty cabbage,” and dachshunds became “liberty pups”

Anti-German comic, 1917

Espionage and Sedition Acts

Passed in 1917 and 1918

Americans could be fined up to $10,000 and sentenced to 20 years in jail for interfering with the war effort or criticizing the war effort

Criticized by many for violating the First Amendment

Socialists and other left-wingers like radical labor union leaders, along with newspaper editors, targeted & jailed

Socialist Party leader Eugene Debs was jailed in 1919 for violating the acts

WWI’s Impact on Woman’s Suffrage

NAWSA (National American Woman Suffrage Association) pushed hard for the right to vote

Radical Alice Paul formed the National Woman’s Party

Patriotic American women headed committees, knitted socks for soldiers, sold liberty bonds, worked in factories, etc., during WWI and now claimed their overdue reward for supporting the war effort

President Wilson and other politicians now supported the right to vote for women

Congress passed the 19th Amendment in 1919, and it was ratified in 1920

WWI and Woman’s Suffrage Picture: Alice Paul

WWI and Blacks: Great Migration

Black public opinion about the war was divided

W. E. B. DuBois & others said blacks should support it

Other black leaders said that victims of racism should not support a racist government

The greatest effect of WWI on African Americans’ lives was that it accelerated the Great Migration, the large-scale movement of hundreds of thousands of Southern blacks to cities in the North

Factors: blacks sought to escape the Jim Crow South; more job opportunities in the North, esp. due to the war (for example, Henry Ford opened his auto assembly line to black workers in 1914)

WWI and Blacks: Great Migration

Northern manufacturers sent recruiting agents to distribute free railroad passes throughout the South

The publisher of the black-owned newspaper Chicago Defender bombarded Southern blacks with articles contrasting life in the South with life in the North

Blacks migrated to such cities as Chicago, NY, & Philly