Progressivism and the WWI Home Front I. Early Protest II. Theodore Roosevelt III. Roosevelt, Taft and Wilson IV.World War One Home Front V.Civil Liberties.

Progressivism and the WWI Home Front

I. Early ProtestII. Theodore Roosevelt III. Roosevelt, Taft and WilsonIV.World War One Home FrontV. Civil Liberties

I. Early Protest

76,000,000

106,000,000

0

20,000,000

40,000,000

60,000,000

80,000,000

100,000,000

120,000,000

Population

1900

1920

450

567

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

Per Capita Annual Income

19001920

Percentage of Wealth Owned by Richest 2% of the Population

Richest 2%Rest of Population

J. P. Morgan’s 1600 ton steam yacht

Average Work Week for Laborer:

52 Hours

Child Working in the Coal Mines

American Children in

1910• Only 1/3 enrolled in

primary schools completed their courses.

• Less than 1/10 finished high school

Eugene V. Debs “Too long have the workers of the world waited for some Moses to lead them out of bondage. I would not lead you out if I could; for if you could be led out, you could be led back again. I would have you make up your minds there is nothing that you cannot do for yourselves.”

1912

Theodore Dreiser

“Our civilization is still in a middle stage, scarcely beast, in that it is no longer wholly guided by instinct; scarcely human, in that it is not yet wholly guided by reason.”

Henry Demarest Lloyd, Author of Wealth Against Commonwealth (1896)

Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle

“Other men . . . worked in tank-rooms full of steam, . . . in which there were open vats upon the level of the floor, their particular trouble was that they fell into the vats . . . . Sometimes they would be overlooked for days, til all but the bones of them had gone out to the world as Anderson’s Pure Beef Lard!”

Jane Addams

II. Theodore Roosevelt

Theodore Roosevelt

“The absolute vital question, was whether the government had power to control” the trusts.

Popular Pressure to continue Trust Busting, 1905

Hepburn Act, 1906

Origins of Food and Drug Administration

Theodore Roosevelt expanded the National Park System by 125 million acres.

1902 Cartoon

No harm came from the concentration of power in one man’s hands,

“provided the holder does not keep it for more than a certain, definite time, and then returns it to the people from which it sprang.”

- Theodore Roosevelt

Roosevelt Engineered Taft’s Nomination in 1908

III. Roosevelt, Taft & Wilson

Split in the Republican Party, 1910

The New Nationalism

• Women’s suffrage

• Popular election of United States Senators

• Conservation of natural resources

• Restriction of child labor

• Worker’s compensation

• A Federal income tax

• An inheritance tax

Woodrow Wilson

The New Freedom

“Free men need no Guardians”

Election of 1912

Trusts Using the Mallet of the Tariff to Drive Up Profits at the Expense of the Consumer

Anti-Trust Cartoon

This Sentiment led to the Creation of the Federal Trade Commission

IV. World War One Home Front

Woodrow Wilson on War

“It is not an army that we must shape and train for war, it is a nation.”

Training Doughboys for World War One

One of the Commission on Training Camp Activities “Sin Free” Zones

Rise in Federal Budget

02,000,000,0004,000,000,0006,000,000,0008,000,000,000

10,000,000,00012,000,000,00014,000,000,00016,000,000,00018,000,000,00020,000,000,000

Federal Budget

1914

1919

2/3 of the money came from bonds

Revenue Act of 1916• Raised taxes on high incomes and

corporate profits.

• Estate tax.

War Revenue Act of 1917

• Provided a steeply graduated personal income tax.

• Created a corporate income tax.

• Placed excise taxes on alcohol, tobacco, and luxury goods .

War Industries Board (1917)

V. Civil Liberties

Early Poster Printed by the Committee on Public Information during World War One

Movie Titles from the Committee on Public Information

• The Kaiser

• The Beast of Berlin

• To Hell with the Kaiser

Another Poster from the Committee on Public Information. Propaganda helped to sell war bonds, combat absenteeism in factories, and reconcile some doubters of the war effort, but only at a price.

For Instance---

The Loyalty of German-Americans was Suspected• Americans stopped speaking German.

• Sixteen states banned the teaching of German.

• American Germans Anglicized their last names.

Symphonies refused to play Bach or Beethoven

In Cincinnati pretzels were removed from lunch counters.

Sauerkraut became “liberty cabbage.”

Dachshunds became “liberty pups.”

Espionage Act of 1917

• Made it illegal to help the enemy, obstruct recruiting, or incite rebellion within the armed services.

• Allowed the Postmaster to deny use of the mail to any publication that in his opinion advocated forcible resistance to the laws

• Penalties were up to 20 years in jail and $10,000 fine.

The Sabotage and Sedition Acts

Empowered the Federal government to punish any expression of opinion that, regardless of whether or not it led to action, was “disloyal, profane, scurrilous or abusive” of the American form of government, flag, or uniform.

Over 1500 People were Arrested

Many others

were persecuted in different ways

The Women's Peace Party was denied the use of the mails

The government put Jane Addams under observation

“The Spirit of ’76”

The government sued the producer of a film about the American Revolution titled “The Spirit of '76,” because it questioned “the good faith of our ally, Great Britain.”

The official name of the case was

“The United States v. ‘The Spirit of ‘76.‘”

The producer

received a ten year prison sentence.