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U.S. Joins the War!!!!Preparing to Fight
• Allies were short on soldiers, food & weapons• Britain & France were on the verge of collapse• Russia: soldiers were deserting to join the revolution
Raising an Army• U.S. needed to expand its army before they could fight• Selective Service Act: all men ages 21-30 are required to
register for the military draft• Draft: law requiring people of a certain age need to enlist
(or enroll) in the military
The Draft– 4,000,000 men & women joined
armed forces
– All ethnic groups enlisted + tons of immigrants
– African Americans served in “black only” units commanded
by white officers• At first unwelcomed, then
segregated within ranks• Relate to Buffalo soldiers?
Educating Troops• 25% were illiterate:
unable to read or write• Services: live healthy,
fight, eat right, read, write
• Helped to improve educational standards for students & teachers thereafter
Managing the war effort• U.S. reorganizes economy to produce food, arms &
goods needed to fight the war• Wilson set up gov’t agencies to oversee the effort• Bureaucracy: system of managing government
through departments run by appointed officials
Food Administration
• Nation had to feed its own troops + send food to the Allies• Used propaganda posters, papers, media• Encouraged by rising food prices, farmers grew more
crops• Citizens planted “victory gardens” to raise their own
vegetables• People went without wheat on “Wheatless Mondays”• People went without meat on “Meatless Tuesdays”• The resources they saved were shipped to the men in the
trenches
War caught the nation short of supplies
• Military had only 600,000 rifles, 2,000 machine guns & 1,000 pieces of artillery
• War Industries Board: told factories what they had to produce & provided for the sharing of limited resources/ decided which prices should be set
• 1918 Wilson creates the War Labor Board: settled disputes over working hours & wages/ tried to prevent strikes
Homefront • Liberty Bonds: bonds sold by the U.S. gov’t to raise money for WW1– U.S. citizens bought bonds
(lending money to gov’t to pay for war)
• “Four-Minute Men”: speakers who gave short public speeches in theaters, movies & public events to urge Americans to make sacrifices for the goals of freedom & democracy
Women Workers
• Men leave for war, women stepped into their jobs• Factories: assembled weapons & plane parts, delivered
mail, police, engineers, drivers– Though pay wasn’t the same, women changed the view that they
were fit for “women’s work”
• When men came back, thousands of women lost jobs
Anti-German Prejudice
• German Americans endure suspicion & intolerance during war• Newspapers questioned their loyalty• Mobs attacked them in the streets• Led some families to change their names• Schools stopped teaching the German language• Americans began to refer to German measles as “liberty measles” &
sauerkraut as “liberty cabbage”– How does this treatment compare to the age of immigration & the base of
Statue of Liberty?
Great Migrations• The war spurred in-migration• Cities/ factories were drained and in need of workers• ½ million African Americans & Mexican Americans traveled
from the South to cities in the North
Great Migrations
• Black populations grew in cities for jobs, yet racism, prejudice & violence also increased
• Competition for jobs & housing lead to riots (especially when soldiers returned from war)
• African American communities rallied with human rights activists– “Mr. President, Why Not Make AMERICA Safe for
Democracy?
Great MigrationsBy 1920, Mexicans were the leading foreign-born group in California• Wartime: cotton fields, copper mines, steel mills (important
jobs at this time)• When veterans returned home & unemployment grew, the
U.S. tried to force Mexican workers to return to Mexico
Opposition to the War• Pacifists: people who refuse to fight in any war
because they believe that war is evil • Socialists: believe that the people as a whole
rather than private individuals should own all property & share the profits from all businesses
Opposition to the War• Socialists argued that war benefited factory owners, but not workers• To promote unity, Congress passed laws making it a crime to criticize
the gov’t or to interfere with the war effort– 1,600 people arrested for breaking these laws
• Resisting or protesting the draft