Chapter 11, Section 3The War at Home

Objectives:1.Explain how business and government cooperated during the war.2.Show how the government promoted the war.3.Describe the attacks on civil liberties that occurred.4.Summarize the social changes that affected African Americans and women.

How did the power of the government expand?

• Convert economy…• Business and government collaborated• Congress gave Wilson direct control over

much of the economy–Fix prices–Regulate war related industries

Over Here

• Organizing the Economy– War industries Board (WIB)– Bernard M. Baruch (Wall Street speculator)

• Conversion of industrial plants to wartime needs• Manufacture of war materials• Purchase of supplies for the

US and the Allies

What was the function of the War Industries Board?

• Increase production….• Reduce waste….• Set production

quotas….• Allocate raw

materials…..• Bernard Baruch

What was the function of the Fuel Administration?

• Monitored coal supplies• Rationed gasoline and heating oil

–Gasless Sundays–Lightless nights–Daylight savings time

The Business of War

• Corporate profits nearly triple• Larger businesses do even better• Du Pont quadrupled profits• Farm production increases 20-30%• Economic legacy of corporate and government

cooperation– Entire industries and economic sectors are

organized, regulated, and subsidized

Labor and the War• Labor shortage causes government to recognize

labor unions• Higher wages and a better standard of living

resulted• Unions become a junior partner in mobilizing the

economy• President of the AFL Samuel Gompers

– Skilled white males– Building trades, railroads, and miners

Samuel Gompers and “business unionism”

• President of the AFL• Skilled, white males• Collective bargaining…• Concrete gains – bread

and butter issues• Served on the National

War Labor Board

How did the National War Labor Board prevent labor discord?

• Wm. Howard Taft and Frank Walsh• 1917 – wages had not kept up with inflation –

thousands of strikes• Worked to prevent work interruption• Interventions..

– Higher wages – Shorter hours– Overtime– 8 hr day

Labor and the War

• Gompers and the AFL’s patriotic support of the war• National War Labor Board (NWLB)

– Arbitrated labor disputes to avoid work stoppages– Right of workers to unionize– Resulted in improved wages and the 8-hour work day

Labor and the War

• Union membership rises• NWLB establishes the practice of government

intervening on behalf of labor• Labor shortages in the SW ease immigration

restrictions on Mexican workers– Early example of the growing importance of cheap

Mexican labor to the region’s economy

What was the function of the Food Administration?

• Encourage greater food production

• Reduce consumption• Voluntary

– Meatless days– Wheatless days– Porkless days– Sweetless days

• Herbert Hoover

How did the government finance the war?

• US spent $33 billion• 1/3 taxes

– Progressive income tax– War profits tax– Excise tax

• Liberty Bonds – $23 billion• Reserve banks expanded $ supply• Debt $1 billion $20 billion

Over Here• Food Administration (FA)

– Herbert Hoover• Imposed price controls• Raised prices on grain to

increase production• No rationing of food

– Persuasion– High prices– Voluntary controls

• “Hooverizing” – food conservation – “meatless Tuesdays”– “Food will win the war”

“Hooverizing”

How were the hearts and minds of the American people mobilized?

• Committee on Public Information• George Creel• Goal: promote the war• 100 million pieces of literature explaining the

causes and meaning of the war• Posters, slides, newspaper advertising, films• 75,000 “Four Minute Men”

Selling the War

• Creel’s 3 themes:– America is morally unified– Crusade for peace & freedom– Hatred of all things German

• Consequences:– Abandonment of Old World ties and become

“unhyphenated Americans”– Attacks on German Americans, radicals, and peace

activists

Financing the War• Cost $33 billion• Three ways:

– Income taxes • replace excise and customs levies• Increase the number of Americans paying income tax

– Liberty Bonds• Raises $23 billion

– Federal Reserve• Expanded money supply with easy borrowing

• National debt grows from $1 billion to $20 billion

Support for Liberty Bonds

• Sec. of the Treasury William McAdoo

• Liberty Bond Booths were set up by the Boy/Girl Scouts

WW I Liberty Bond

Liberty Bonds

• There were four issues of Liberty Bonds:– Apr 24, 1917 Emergency Loan Act authorizes issue of $5 billion in

bonds at 3.5 percent. – Oct 1, 1917 Second Liberty Loan offers $3 billion in bonds at 4 percent. – Apr 5, 1918 Third Liberty Loan offers $3 billion in bonds at 4.5 percent. – Sep 28, 1918 Fourth Liberty Loan offers $6 billion in bonds at 4.25

percent.

• Interest on up to $30,000 in the bonds was tax exempt.

Four Minute Men

Douglas Fairbanks, movie star, speaking to a large crowd in front of the Sub-Treasury building, New York City, to aid the third Liberty Loan, in April 1918

What is a consequence of propaganda?

• Anti-German hysteria• German music and literature banned• German language not taught• Harassment of German Americans• Name changes: Sauerkraut – liberty cabbage,

German measles – liberty measles, Dachshund – liberty puppy, hamburger – liberty sandwich, frankfurter – hot dog

Labor Strife• 1919 more than 4 million workers conduct 3,600

strikes• Causes:

– Modest wage increases wiped away by inflation and high prices for food, fuel, and housing

– End of government control on industry, allowed many employers to withdraw their recognition of unions

– Continuation of 12-hour day– Demobilized servicemen

Labor Strife

• Seattle shipyard strike ends with federal troops occupying the city.

• Boston police strike ends when Gov. Calvin Coolidge calls in the Nat’l Guard and fires the entire force.

• Midwestern steelworker strike fails when Elbert Gary uses black strikebreakers, armed guards, and propaganda.

Eugene Debs

• Gave speech defending anti-war protesters

• Sentenced to 10 years• Ran for Pres. From jail• Served 32 months• Pardoned by Harding in

1921

Labor and the War

• Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) or Wobblies– Organized unskilled labor– Denounced capitalism– Opposed entry into the war

• Espionage Act crackdown on radical labor movement marks the beginning of political repression

Industrial Workers of the World• Radical union• Organized unskilled labor – all inclusive• Denounced capitalism• Opposed US entry into war as a “capitalist war”• Became a target of business and gov’t• Espionage Act

– 300 arrested– Files confiscated– End of radical labor movement– Beginning of repression

How did the Espionage Act control dissent?

• Key tool for suppression of anti-war sentiment• Outlawed: aiding the enemy, obstructing

recruitment, causing insubordination in the armed forces

• Penalties…• Exclude treasonous material from the mails• Bureau of Investigation….

The Espionage Act

• Espionage Act of 1917 attacks antiwar sentiments– 20 yrs in prison & $10,000 fine– Aid to the enemy, obstruction of recruitment, or

causing insubordination– Postal service stops treasonous newspapers &

magazines• Enforcement leads to the creation of the FBI

The Sedition Act

• Amendment to Espionage Act added in 1918 outlaws:– “any disloyal, profane (contempt), scurrilous

(vulgar), or abusive language intended to cause contempt, scorn, contumely (rudeness), or disrepute” to the government, Constitution, or flag.

• 21,000 cases combined aimed at socialists, radical labor, & pacifists

• Eugene Debs 10yrs (serves 32 mo.)

How did the Sedition Act control dissent?

• Outlawed any “disloyal, profane, scurrilous or abusive language intended to cause contempt, scorn, contumely, or disrepute” to the government, Constitution, or flag

• More than 2,000 cases• Controlled socialists, pacifists, radical labor

Suppression of Dissent

• Schenck v. United States– Justice Holmes, restriction of speech is

Constitutional when it “creates a clear and present danger.”

• Debs v. United States– Affirmed guilt

• Abrams v. United States– Convicts 4 Russian immigrants denouncing US

intervention in the Russian Revolution

Were these acts constitutional?

• Schenck v. U.S. 1919• Congress could restrict free speech if the

words “are used in such circumstances and are of such nature as to create a clear and present danger. “ Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes

• Upheld Schenck’s conviction for obstructing the draft

How did the Great Migration increase racial tensions?

• 300,000 to 500,000 African Americans moved to northern cities

• Labor shortages in the North• Better economic opportunity• Less racial violence

Economic Opportunity

• Between 1914-1920 some 300,000 to 500,000 leave rural South for the North

• Labor shortages • Few receive high-paying skilled positions• Most are construction laborers, teamsters,

janitors, or porters

Racial Violence– Chicago 1919

• Lake Michigan beach• Lasted 2 weeks• 23 African Americans were killed• 15 whites died• +500 injured

• Faithful support of the war beforehand• Disillusionment and a new militant spirit grows

quickly• NAACP leads fight against bigotry and injustice

Racial Violence

• Lynching in the South• Not limited to the South• Two of the worst race riots in US history occur

in the North:– East St. Louis, Illinois 1917– Unions refuse to accept blacks– Owners using black labor against Union demands– 200 African Americans killed

Black disillusionment

• Heightened sense of race consciousness and activism

• NAACP – national conference on lynching – sought federal legislation against

Race Riots

• East St. Louis – 1917 – Whites attacked blacks– 200 blacks killed– Black labor had been recruited to keep union

demands down• Chicago – 1919

– White gangs hunted African Americans– 2 weeks– 23 African Americans killed – 15 whites

Women at Work

• Opportunity for higher-paying industrial jobs• Women in Industry Service (WIS) is created

– Est. general standards for treatment– Improving working conditions– Pay continues to suffer and is ½ of men’s in the same industries

• Lose industry jobs after the war• 1920, working more white-collar occupations than

manufacturing or domestic service

What new opportunities did the war offer women?

• Women moved into jobs previously held by men…

• Continued traditional jobs ….• Red cross volunteers• Bolstered support for women’s suffrage

amendment• 19th Amendment - 1920

Reality of women’s work?

• Accepted goals – not enforced• Received roughly ½ the pay as men for the

same work• Lost jobs at the end of the war• Accelerated women’s work in traditional fields• Led Congress to est. Woman’s Bureau in the

Dept. of Labor

How did the war affect women?

• Women in Industry Service – Mary Van Kleeck• Formulated standard for treatment of females

– 8 hr. day– Equal pay for equal work– Rest periods and meal breaks– Restrooms– No night work– Minimum wage

Woman Suffrage

• New wage workers• Highly visible volunteer work

– Selling bonds– Saving food, organizing benefits

• National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA)– Carrie Chapman Catt– Patriotic support of the war

Woman Suffrage• National Woman’s Party

– More radical and militant than NAWSA– Alice Paul

• Catt urges“war measure”

• Passage of the 19th Amendment

Women’s Suffrage…

• Battle for the vote prior to WWI…• National American Women’s Suffrage

Association – Carrie Chapman Catt…• Alice Paul – National Women’s Party…• “The fight for democracy must begin at

home.”• 1917 Wilson – suffrage amendment “vital to

the winning of the war.”

Prohibition…

• Moral reform…• Reaction to the war…• 18th Amendment –

illegal to buy, sell, manufacture, or transport alcoholic beverages – Jan. 1919

Prohibition• Drinking seen as a source of working class problems

– Family violence– Unemployment– Poverty

• Anti-German feelings• Conserve grain• 18th Amendment = worthy moral reform• Stimulates growth of organized crime

Influenza

• Worldwide pandemic killing 20 million• Sept 1918 sweeps military bases and eastern

cities• 350,000 Americans die in 10 months• Congress appropriates $ to suppress the

spread• Aid from Red Cross and local volunteers