On the Home Front Angela Brown

Chapter 10 Section 4

1

Learning Targets:• Explain how the government

financed the war and managed the wartime economy.

• Describe how efforts to enforce loyalty led to hostility and repression.

• Describe how the lives of Americans on the home front changed during the war.

2

Financing the War • Liberty bonds – special bonds sold

to support the Allied cause

• Could be redeemed for the original value of the bonds plus interest = $20 billion

• Allowed U.S. to loan more than $10 billion to the allies.

3

• Boy and Girl scouts set up booths on street corners to sell bonds.

• Popular commercial artists drew colorful posters/recruited famous screen actors to host bond rallies/ speeches before movies, plays, school/ union meetings.

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4

Managing the Economy • Government called on industry to

convert to the production of war goods.

• Business leaders flocked to Washington to take up posts in thousands of new agencies.

• “dollar-a-year” men and women because they gave their service for a token salary.

5

New Agencies• War Industries Board – oversaw war-

related production – told manufacturers what and how much to produce, and even fixed prices

• War Trade Board – licensed foreign trade and punished firms suspected of dealing with the enemy

6

• National War Labor Board – worked to settle labor disputes that might hinder the war effort

• War Labor Policies Board – set standard and wages , hours, and working conditions in war industries

• Labor unions won limited rights to organize and bargain collectively.

7

Regulating Food and Fuel Consumption

• 1917 Lever Food and Fuel Control Act – gave the president the power to manage the production and distribution of food and fuels vital to the war effort.

• Lead by Herbert Hoover – increased agricultural output and reduce waste.

• Had power to impose price controls – a system of pricing determined by the government on food.

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• Could have begun system of rationing – distributing goods to consumers in a fixed amount

• Hoover preferred voluntary restraint

• Appealed to women to stop throwing away food, no second helpings, no eating between meals, one meatless-one wheatless day a week and no butter.

9

• Fuel Administration – sponsored gasless days to save fuel

• Daylight Savings Time- began practice of turning clocks ahead one hour for the summer.

• (increased # of daylight hours for activity)

• Lessened need for artificial light -= lowered fuel consumption.

10

A Progressive Victory• Government now regulated American

economic life to an extent progressives never dreamed possible.

• Regulations had not lessened the power of the corporate world – dismayed progressives

• Influence of business leaders grew, the government relaxed its pursuit of anti-trust suits, and corporate profits tripled.

11

Enforcing Loyalty • Government imposed censorship on

the press and banned some publications from the mail.

• Committee on Public Information – George Creel – 1917 – Job to rally support for the war – produced short films, pamphlets explaining aims and posters selling recruitment and liberty bonds.

12

Fear of Foreigners• Fear of espionage – spying

• German staff member – left briefcase on U.S. train – plans for weakening pro-allied sentiment and disrupting U.S. economy.

• Government feared secret agents might destroy transportation or communications networks.

13

• Generated calls for restriction on immigration.

• National Security League – preached “100% Americanism”

• Got Congress to override Presidential veto for literacy test for immigrants.

• Excluded those who could not read English or some other language – few immigrants failed.

14

“Hate the Hun!”• Hostility toward Germans – Huns –

referencing Asiatic people who brutality invaded Europe in the 4th and 5th century

• German composers/musicians banned from symphony concerts

• German Measles = Liberty Measles

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• Hamburger = Liberty Sandwiche

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• Lynched Robert Prager 1918 near St. Louis

• German born; had tried to enlist in the Navy.

• One of numerous attacks on Germans in U.S.

17

Repression of Civil Liberties • 1917 Congress passed – Espionage

Act – made it illegal to interfere with draft

• Sedition – is speech or acting that encourages rebellion

• Amended 1918 the Sedition Act – illegal to obstruct the sale of liberty bonds or discuss anything “disloyal, profane, scurrilous or abusive” about the U.S. form of government – Constitution, Army or Navy

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• Pursued 1500 prosecutions = 1000 convictions

• Eugene Debs, socialist – ten year jail sentence for criticizing government/business and urging “resist militarism”

19

Controlling Political Radicals • Socialist argued war a quarrel among

imperialist capitalist• (IWW) Organization Industrial

Workers of the World – gained supporters – goal overthrowing capitalism

• Police hounded IWW – Raids in 1917 – let to 200 convictions

• Vigilantes – citizens who take the law into their own hands – lynched and horsewhipped others

20

Social Mobility for Minorities and Women

• Americans turned away from military styles and activities after the war

• War cut off immigrants from Europe and took young men out of workplace – businesses needed workers

21

• Couldn’t discriminate – used who they could get

• Great Migration – 500,000 African Americans flooded North to industries.

• 400,000 women joined the industrial workforce.

22

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Prohibition Finally Passes• 1917 - 18th Amendment – illegal to

manufacture, sell, or transport alcoholic beverages in U.S.

• Backed 18 Amendments to show patriotism during the war – conserve grain for bread

• 1919 states ratified 18th Amendment.

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