November 20, 2007 How did the U.S. promote war and attack civil liberties? What social changes were made? – Quiz on Section 2 – War Organizations and.

November 20, 2007How did the U.S. promote war

and attack civil liberties? What social changes were made?–Quiz on Section 2–War Organizations and Selling the War

Homework: “In Another Country” & “Returning Soldiers”

Congress Gives Power to WilsonCongress Gives Power to Wilson

Winning war was not a job for American soldiers alone

Secretary of War: Newton Baker

The entire country had to refocus on the war effort.

Shift from consumer goods to producing war supplies too complicated private industry to handle–so business and government

collaborated in the effort.

Government power greatly expandedCongress gave Wilson direct control

over the economy– the power to fix prices – to regulate (even to nationalize)

certain war-related industries

War Industries Board (WIB)War Industries Board (WIB)

Established 1917 and reorganized 1918 under Bernard M. Baruch (prosperous businessman)

What Baruch and WIB did:

Encouraged mass-production techniques to increase efficiency

Urged elimination of waste by standardizing products – by making only 5 colors of

typewriter ribbons instead of 150

The WIB – industrial production in the U.S. increased by about 20%

WIB applied price controls only at the wholesale level

Retail prices soared– in 1918 they were almost double

what they had been before the warCorporate profits soared

–especially in such industries as chemicals, meatpacking, oil, and steel

Other Federal AgenciesOther Federal Agencies

The Railroad Administration controlled the railroads

The Fuel Administration monitored coal supplies and rationed gasoline and heating oil

“Gasless Sundays” and “Lightless nights” to conserve fuel

March 1918 - the Fuel Administration introduced another conservation measure: daylight saving time–first proposed by Ben Franklin

in 1770’s as way to take advantage of longer days

Do We Need Daylight Savings Today?

War EconomyWar Economy

wages in most industries rose during the war years

hourly wages for blue-collar workers (those in the metal trades, shipbuilding, and meatpacking) rose by 20%

Household’s income undercut by rising food prices and housing costs

Large corporations saw huge profits

DuPont Company saw its stock multiply in value 1,600 percent between 1914 and 1918

The company was earning a $68 million yearly profit

Uneven pay between labor and management caused: – increasing work hours –child labor–dangerously “sped-up”

conditions

Unions BoomedUnions Boomed

Union membership climbed from about 2.5 million in 1916 to ore than 4 million in 1919

More than 6,000 strikes broke out during the war months.

To deal with disputes between management & labor, President Wilson established the National War Labor Board

Workers who refused to obey board decisions could lose their draft exemptions

“Work or Fight”

Food AdministrationFood Administration

Wilson set up the Food Administration under Herbert Hoover

Instead of rationing food, he called on people to follow the “gospel of the clean plate”

Declared one day a week “meatless,” another “sweetless,” two days “wheatless,” and two other days “porkless”

Restaurants removed sugar bowls from the table and served bread only after the first course

Homeowners planted “victory gardens” in their yards

Schoolchildren spent their after-school hours growing tomatoes and cucumbers in public parks

As a result, American food shipments to the Allies tripled

Hoover also set up high government price on wheat and other staples

Farmers responded by putting an additional 40 million acres into production

They increased their income by almost 30%

Selling the WarSelling the WarWar Financing and the Committee on

Public Information

War FinancingWar Financing$35.5 billion on the war effortRaised 1/3 of amount through taxes

–progressive income tax (tax high incomes higher rates than low incomes)

–war-profits tax–higher excise taxes on tobacco,

liquor, and luxury goods

Raised the rest through tens of thousands of volunteers– Movie stars spoke at rallies in factories,

in schools, and on street corners– Treasury Secretary William G. McAdoo:

“a friend of Germany” would refuse to buy war bonds

Committee on Public InformationCommittee on Public Information

Popularized the war by setting up the first propaganda agency: the Committee on Public Information (CPI)– Propaganda - biased form of

communication designed to influence people’s thoughts and actions

Head of the CPI was a former muckraking journalist named George Creel

Creel persuaded nation’s artists & advertising agencies to create paintings, posters, cartoons, & sculptures promoting the war

–recruited 75,000 men to serve as “four-minute men” who spoke about everything relating to the war: • the draft• rationing• bond drives• victory gardens • “why we are fighting” or “the meaning of America”

–ordered a printing of almost 25 million copies of “how the war came to America”

–distributed some 75 million pamphlets, booklets, and leaflets, many with the enthusiastic help of the Boy Scouts

His propaganda campaign promoted patriotism; it also inflamed hatred and violations of the civil liberties of certain ethnic groups and opponents of the war.

Attacks on Civil Liberties Attacks on Civil Liberties IncreaseIncrease

Wilson expressed fears about war hysteria

As soon as war was declared, conformity indeed became the order of the day

Attacks on civil liberties, both official and unofficial, erupted

Anti-Immigrant HysteriaAnti-Immigrant Hysteria

Main targets of this Americans who had emigrated from other nations

Most bitter attacks were against those born in Germany, but those who were of German descent also suffered

Many with German names lost their jobs

Orchestras refused to play music of Mozart, Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms

Some towns renamed themselves (if they had German names)

Schools stopped teaching the German language

Librarians removed books by German authors from the shelves

People even resorted to violence (flogging, smearing with tar, and feathers)

A German was lynched while wrapped in his flag and the mob was cleared by a jury

German measles to “liberty measles”Hamburger named after the German

city Hamburg became “Salisbury steak” or “liberty sandwich”

Sauerkraut was renamed “liberty cabbage”

Dachshunds named “liberty pups

Espionage and Sedition ActsEspionage and Sedition Acts

June 1917 – passed the Espionage Act May 1918 – passed the Sedition Act A person could be fined up to $10,000 and

sentenced to 20 years in jail for interfering with the war effort or for saying anything disloyal, profane, or abusive about the government or the war effort

Laws violated the 1st AmendmentLed to over 2,000 persecutions for

loosely defined antiwar activities (over half resulted in convictions)

Newspapers & magazines that opposed the war or criticized any of the Allies lost their mailing privileges

House of Representatives refused to seat Victor Berger (socialist congressman from Wisconsin) b/c of his antiwar views

The Acts targeted socialist and labor leaders

Eugene V. Debs was handed a 10-year prison sentence for speaking out against the war and the draft

Eugene V. Debs

Anarchist Emma Goldman received 2-year prison sentence & $10,000 fine for organizing the No Conscription League

When she left jail, the authorities deported her to Russian

Emma Goldman

“Big Bill” Haywood & other leaders of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) accused of sabotaging war effort b/c they urged workers to strike for better conditions & higher pay

He was sentenced prison term, later skipped bail, and fled to Russia

under federal pressure, the IWW faded away

The War Encourages Social The War Encourages Social ChangeChange

African Americans and the WarThe Great MigrationWomen in the WarThe Flu Epidemic

African Americans and the WarAfrican Americans and the War

Black public opinion of war was divided

WEB DuBois – should support war effort b/c it would strengthen calls for racial justice

William Trotter – victims of racism shouldn’t support racist government

Favored protest & condemned accommodation approach

Despite the grievances over racial inequality, most African Americans backed the war.

The Great MigrationThe Great Migration

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 the cities in the North

Began before the war when African Americans trickled northward to escape the Jim Crow South – but after the turn of the century, the trickle became a tidal wave.

Several factors contributed to the increase of black migration– Escape racial discrimination in the South – Boll weevil infestation, floods and

droughts ruined much of the South’s cotton fields

– More job opportunities (Henry opened his assembly line to black workers)

– WWI & drop in European immigration led to more jobs in steel mills, munitions plants, & stockyards

– Recruiting agents sent to distribute free railroad passes

– Black owned newspaper bombarded Southern blacks with articles contrasting Dixieland lynchings with the prosperity of African Americans in the North

Same Old Problems

Racial prejudice existed in the North The press of new migrants to Northern

cities caused overcrowding and intensified racial tensions

Between 1910 and 1930, hundreds or thousands of African Americans migrated to such cities as NY, Chicago, and Philadelphia

Women in the WarWomen in the War

Women moved into jobs that had been held exclusively by men

Railroad workers, cooks, dockworkers, and bricklayers

Mined coal and took part in shipbuilding

Filled traditional jobs

Worked as volunteers

Encouraged sale of bonds and the planting of victory gardens

Active in the peace movement– Jane Addams who founded the

Women’s Peace Party in 1915 (she remained a pacifist even after the U.S. entered the war)

Wilson acknowledge the services of women during the war but did not find that they were owed equal pay to man

War helped bolster support for women’s suffrage

In 1919, Congress finally passed the 19th amendment

The Flu EpidemicThe Flu Epidemic

Fall of 1918, the U.S. suffered a home front crisis when an international flu epidemic affected about one-quarter of the population

The effect of the epidemic on the economy was devastating

– Mines shut down– telephone service was cut in half – factories and offices staggered

working hours to avoid contagion– Cities ran short of coffins– the corpses of poor lay unburied for

as long as a week

Hit the healthy & death could come in a matter of days

Doctors didn’t know what to do– cleanliness and

quarantine

More than a quarter of the troops caught the disease

In some AEF units, one-third diedGermans fell victim in even larger

numbers

Possibly spread around the world by soldiers, the epidemic killed about 500,000 Americans before it disappeared in 1919

Historians believed that the virus killed as many as 30 million people worldwide

Epidemic like the war ended suddenly