Transcript Unit 3.6 - WVHSUSHISTORY

Part Six
The Home Front
11.4.5: Analyze the political, economic and social ramifications of
WWI on the homefront
EQ: How did the war affect Americans at home?
America Mobilizes for War
Selective Service
• 98,000 men in the US army in
1914
• the US used conscription (the
draft) to raise an army after
April 1917
• 3 million immediately enlisted
• 24 million registered for the draft
• many Americans opposed the
war
• women, Quakers, and socialists
• they blamed the greed of big
business for our involvement
Wilson said the US
“must make the
world safe for
democracy”
America Mobilizes for War
• War Industries Board
• encouraged companies to
increase efficiency and eliminate
waste by adopting mass
production
• American businesses resisted
government control
• set prices, standardized
production
• rationed resources
• coal, gasoline, heating oil
• the government took control of
the railroads
• introduced daylight-savings time
America Mobilizes for War
• National War Labor Board
• dealt with disputes between
labor and management (work
or fight)
• pushed for the 8 hour work day
• factory safety inspections
• pressured manufacturers to
eliminate child labor
• unions agreed to not strike
during the war
America Mobilizes for War
• Food Administration
• worked to cut down on
consumption
• meatless Tuesdays
• wheatless Wednesdays
• also sweetless and porkless
• “victory gardens” increased
food production
• agricultural output rose by
25%
• increased food exports to
our allies
• food exports rose 300%
America Mobilizes for War
• Committee on Public
Information
• the nation’s artists and
advertising people used
propaganda
• 75,000 four-minute men made
patriotic speeches
• paintings, posters, cartoons,
and sculptures promoting the
war
• “Kill the Kaiser”
• “Over There” became the
anthem of the war
Opposition and Its Consequences
• Espionage and Sedition
Acts, 1917
• illegal to:
• interfere with the draft
• saying anything disloyal,
profane, or abusive about
the government or the war
effort
• the laws clearly violated
the spirit of the First
Amendment to the
Constitution
• the law targeted socialists
and labor leaders (Eugene
V. Debs)
• $10,000 fine and 20
years in jail
Opposition and Its Consequences
• Schenck vs. United States, 1917
• Schenck was arrested for suggesting that
people dodge the draft
• the court upheld the Sedition Act saying
that sometimes speech is “a clear and
present danger”
• “You can’t yell fire in a theater”
Opposition and Its Consequences
• Anti-Foreign Hysteria
• anti-immigrant hysteria
focused on Germans
• people with German sounding
names lost their jobs
• German words were not used
• kindergarten (pre-school),
hamburger (victory steak),
frankfurter (hot dog), sauerkraut
(liberty cabbage)
• Prohibition was passed
The War Changes American Society
• Women in the Workforce
• women began to fill
unfamiliar social roles
• they took jobs usually held
by men
• they volunteered for the
Red Cross
• women received the right
to vote in 1920
The War Changes American Society
• The Great Migration, 1916
• movement of hundreds of thousands
of Southern blacks to cities in the
North
• many went to find employment in
the big cities like New York, Chicago,
and Detroit
• fewer white workers meant more
jobs were available
• to escape racial discrimination
• Between 1916 and 1940 more than a
million African Americans moved to
the North
• African-Americans were split on how
to respond to the war effort
• Du Bois said blacks should support
the war because it would lead to
calls for racial justice
• Trotter said blacks should not
support a racist government period
The War Changes American Society
• Mexican Immigration
• thousands of Hispanics
moved to the US to take
the place of white
soldiers fighting in the
war
The War Changes American Society
• The Spanish Flu
Epidemic, 1918
• one in four Americans got
sick
• public places were closed
and people wore masks
when they did go out
• 500,000 Americans died
• more than died in the war
• effect on the economy
was devastating