WWI Propaganda

Committee of public information

War at Home

• War Industries Board

• Committee of Public Information (CPI)

* war propaganda

* intolerance of anti-war opinion

* Help the U.S. mobilize for WWI

Audio Questions

• What is the message of the song/speech?

• Who is it targeting?

“Don’t Take My Darling Boy Away”• A mother was kneeling to pray

For loved ones at war far awayAnd there by her side, her one joy and pride,knelt down with her that day

• Then came a knock on the doorYour boy is commanded to war"No Captain please, here on my knees,I plead for one I adore"

• Don't take my darling boy away from me,Don't send him off to warYou took his father and brothers three,Now you've come back for more

• Who are the heroes that fight your warMothers who have no sayBut my duty's done so for god's sake leave one!And don't take my darling boy away.

• Tenting tonight, Tenting tonightTenting on the old campground

• You took his father and brothers three,Now you've come back for more

• Tenting tonight, Tenting tonightTenting on the old campground

• But my duty's done so for god's sake leave one!And don't take my darling boy away.

• A hero is now laid to rest, A hero and one of the bestHe fought with each son, The battles he'd won,And the battles that proved a test

• Though she never went to the war,She was a hero by far, they gave a gunBut who gave a son,M. O. T. H. E. R.

• Don't take my darling boy away from me,Don't send him off to warYou took his father and brothers three,Now you've come back for more

• Who are the heroes that fight your warMothers who have no sayBut my duty's done so for god's sake leave one!And don't take my darling boy away.

Tenting tonight, Tenting tonightTenting on the old campground

• You took his father and brothers three,Now you've come back for more

• Tenting tonight, Tenting tonightTenting on the old campground

• But my duty's done so for god's sake leave one!And don't take my darling boy away.

“Over There”• Johnnie, get your gun,

Get your gun, get your gun,Take it on the run,On the run, on the run.Hear them calling, you and me,Every son of liberty.Hurry right away,No delay, go today,Make your daddy gladTo have had such a lad.Tell your sweetheart not to pine,To be proud her boy's in line. (chorus sung twice)

Johnnie, get your gun,Get your gun, get your gun,Johnnie show the HunWho's a son of a gun.Hoist the flag and let her fly,Yankee Doodle do or die.Pack your little kit,Show your grit, do your bit.

Yankee to the ranks,From the towns and the tanks.Make your mother proud of you,And the old Red, White and Blue. (chorus sung twice)

• ChorusOver there, over there,Send the word, send the word over there -That the Yanks are coming,The Yanks are coming,The drums rum-tummingEv'rywhere.So prepare, say a pray'r,Send the word, send the word to beware.We'll be over, we're coming over,And we won't come back till it's overOver there.

U.S. Ambassador to Germany James W. Gerard in 1917 entitled Loyalty and German-Americans.

I know that it is hard for Americans to realize the magnitude of the war in which we are involved.  We have problems in this war no other nations have.  Fortunately, the great majority of American citizens of German descent have, in this great crisis of our history, shown themselves splendidly loyal to our flag.

Everyone had a right to sympathize with any warring nation.  But now that we are in the war there are only two sides, and the time has come when every citizen must declare himself American - or traitor!

We must disappoint the Germans who have always believed that the

German-Americans here would risk their property, their children's future, and their own neck, and take up arms for the Kaiser.  The Foreign Minister of Germany once said to me "your country does not dare do anything against Germany, because we have in your country 500,000 German reservists who will rise in arms against your government if you dare to make a move against Germany."

Well, I told him that that might be so, but that we had 500,001 lamp posts in this country, and that that was where the reservists would be hanging the day after they tried to rise.  And if there are any German-Americans here who are so ungrateful for all the benefits they have received that they are still for the Kaiser, there is only one thing to do with them.  And that is to hog-tie them, give them back the wooden shoes and the rags they landed in, and ship them back to the Fatherland.

I have travelled this year over all the United States.  Through the Alleghenies, the White Mountains, and the Catskills, the Rockies and the Bitterroot Mountains, the Cascades, the Coast Range, and the Sierras.  And in all these mountains, there is no animal that bites and kicks and squeals and scratches, that would bite and squeal and scratch equal to a fat German-American, if you commenced to tie him up and told him that he was on his way back to the Kaiser.

Propaganda Posters

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* recruitment

* conservation of food

* conservation of supplies

* buying bonds

* anti- central powers

WWI Propaganda Posters