The War at Home

Concern Over Patriotism

• Americans trying to eliminate internal enemies

• Resulted in attacks on immigrants

Economy Changed People’s Lives

• People moved to find jobs

• Women took “men’s” jobs

• The President now had control of the economy

War Industries Board

• Encouraged mass production to increase efficiency

• Eliminate waste• Set product quotas• Allocated raw

materials• Increased U.S.

production by 20%

War Industries board

• Led by Bernard M. Baruch

• Changed women’s clothing-Took steel from women’s corsets(80,000 tons)

• No more leather shoes

• Shorter skirts

War Industries Board

• Encouraged conservation

• Gasless Sundays• Lightless nights• Daylight-savings time

War Economy

• Some wages increased

May have risen by as much as 20%

• Some wages decreased

May have lost 35% of earning power

Union membership increased

War Economy

• 6,000 strikes broke out to protest high prices and low wages

• Wilson creates National War Labor Board to deal with labor disputes

War Economy

• “Work or Fight”• NWLB pushed for 8

hour days • safety inspections• Pushed to observe

ban on child labor

War Economy

• Food Administration-conserve Food

• Led by Herbert Hoover

• “meatless” and “sweetless” days

War Economy

• People planted “Victory Gardens”

• American food shipments to Allies tripled

Selling the War

• U.S. spent $33 billion on war

• Raised 1/3 of this amount through taxes

• Government sold bonds

Committee on Public Information

• Government’s 1st propaganda agency

• Was to popularize war

• Led by George Creel-a muckraking journalist

Drive for Conformity

• Targeted immigrants• Americans w/

German sounding names lost job

• Towns w/ German names changed names

Espionage and Sedition Acts

• Fined $10,000 and imprisoned for 20 yrs for interfering with draft

• Obstructing sale of liberty bonds

• Saying anything disloyal about war effort

Espionage and Sedition Acts

• Clear violation of 1st Amendment

• Led to 6,000 arrests• 1,500 convictions

African American Support

• W.E.B. Dubois• Cooperation would

cause leadership to listen to calls for racial justice

African American Opposition

• William Monroe Trotter- victims of racism should not support a racist government

The Great Migration

• Thousands of southern blacks moved to cities in the north

Why the Migration?

• 1. Escape racial discrimination in the South

• 2. Drought in the South ruined many cotton fields

• 3. Increased job opportunities

• 4. Rumors of prosperous northern African Americans

Women in the War

• Filled roles formerly held by men

• Driving cabs• Delivery trucks• Railroad workers• Cooks• Dockworkers• Bricklayers• Coal miners• Ship building

Female Opposition

Jane Adams founded Women’s Peace Party

Flu Epidemic

• Fall of 1918• 25% of Americans

became ill

Flu Epidemic

• Corpses lay unburied for days

• 500,000 Americans killed

• 40 million world wide• Flu disappeared in

1919