Transcript Chapter 16 PowerPoint

Chapter 16
Montana and World War One
1914-1918
 1914 – a young Bosnian assassinated Archduke
Ferdinand of Austria, triggered World War One
World War One
Basics
 Began on July 28th, 1914 and lasted until November
11th, 1918
 Allies – Great Britain, France, Russia, and US
 Central Powers – Germany and Austria
 In the beginning, both England and Germany
began pressuring the United States for help
Fight to Join
the War
 The U.S. began to support the war after the
sinking of a passenger ship by a German
submarine
 The British-owned Lusitania was a passenger
ship that sank killing 1,198 people, including
128 Americans
 At this point, the United States moved to join
the Allies
 Jeanette Rankin – the
first woman ever elected
to U.S. Congress
 Believed in pacifism –
the belief that war is
never justified
The
Opposition
 She voted against World
War One because she
believed women with
political power could
stop wars
 Many Montanans
(including her own
brother) were very angry
with her decision
 IWW – Industrial
Workers of the World
Rankin’s
Support
 A labor union that
opposed war along
with Rankin
 This group was led
by Frank Little
Support for
the War
 President Wilson created the federal
Committee for Public Information
 This committee was created to encourage
popular support for the war
 This office produced propaganda (information
provided for the purpose of persuasion) that
encouraged men to enlist
 The committee sent flyers and advertisements
all around the country urging US Citizens to
support the war
 Locals supported the war by planting Victory
Gardens and buying Liberty Bonds
 More than 12,500 Montanans volunteered for military
service
 Eventually, the government drafted over 40,000 men
from Montana
Montana Joins
the War Effort
 Montana sent a greater percentage of its population to
war than other states because the government had
overestimated the population of Montana
 12-15,000 Native Americans served in the war as well
 They saw this as a way to prove to the whites that they
could fight along-side of them and that they were
warriors
Farming
During the War
 The outbreak of the war in Europe in 1914
meant many Montanans needed to increase
production of wheat, metals and lumber
 European countries had a food shortage during
the war, so they turned to America as a food
sources
 The price of Montana wheat went sky-high due
to the high demand
 An increase in agricultural and industrial
production during the war forced farmers to
take on more debt to buy more land for
planting wheat
 The production of copper, lead and zinc was increased
to make guns, bullet casings, ships, communication
lines, and military supplies
Mining and
Logging
 Mines operated 24 hours a day
 The logging industry helped build ships, airplane
hangars, and military construction
 Both industries had many new, unskilled workers, so
there were many injuries and the work days were
dangerous and tiring
Economic
Effects
 Many workers went into
debt during World War
One because of inflation
(higher prices of goods)
 The cost of living went up
to pay for the war so many
people paycheck’s didn’t
last long
 People grew poorer and
poorer even though they
were working harder than
ever to send materials to
the war
 People grew their own
“Victory Gardens” for their
own food so all food
produced in agricultural
industries could go to the
war effort
 To support the war, each state government created
Councils of Defense
 This council created smaller councils in each county,
they supported the war and advertised ways for the
community to help with the war as well
The Growth of
Patriotism
 Many towns also formed Loyalty Committees in
support of the war
 These committees were responsible for selling Liberty
Bonds
 All councils and committees spread propaganda:
information provided for the purpose of persuasion
World War One
Propaganda
 Some committees took it upon themselves to
begin patrolling and looking for “spies”
Extreme
Patriots
 Anyone who seemed suspicious, foreign, or
unpatriotic was reported
 Some accused Montanans of “sedition”
 Sedition: promotion of rebellion against a
government
 On June 8th, 1917 a fire broke out in the Speculator Mine in Butte
 This was the words hard-rock mining disasters in the nation’s
history
 168 miners were killed and dozens were injured
Butte Erupts
 The disaster angered the miners of Butte, so they organized a new
labor union called the Metal Mine Worker’s Union
 The union pledged to avoid violence
 They demanded better pay, safer working conditions and an end
to the rustling card system
 The Anaconda Copper Mining Company issued
Rustling Cards before miners could work
Rustling Cards
 This was the way the company controlled their
workers
 Any miner who caused trouble or demanding
better conditions lost their rustling cards and
were not allowed to work
 By the end of June, 1917, over 15,000 miners went on
strike
 The ACMC fought back against the strike by:
The Strike
1. Calling the unionists traitors
2. Publishing stories against the union in the companyowned newspapers
3. Claiming the strike harmed the war effort
 Frank Little was the leader of the IWW
 He fought for the worker’s rights by giving speeches on
street corners and enacting his constitutional right to
speak out in favor of change
Frank Little –
the “Wobbly”
 His appearance agitated Butte and angered the ACMC
 On August 1, six men burst into the rooming hose
where Little slept, they dragged him from his bed and
hanged him from the Anaconda railroad trestle
 The strike failed, no wages were raised, no conditions
were improved
 In 1918, Montanans were worried about spies lurking in their
hometowns
 When the Council of Defense was made into a state agency, they
wrote a set of wartime rules for Montanans
Montana in a
Panic
 They were also given the power to investigate anyone they were
suspicious of and decided their punishment if they found them
guilty
 Germans suffered the most, the language was prohibited in the
state and could not be spoken in public
 The state Council of Defense were especially hard on the
Mennonites
 They were so disliked by Montanans because they were pacifists
that spoke German
 The Montana Sedition Law (passed in 1918) made it
illegal to say or write anything critical of the federal or
state government, the military, the war, or any war
programs.
Montana’s
Sedition Law
 This law was considered “divisive” because it opposed
the freedoms of the First Amendment of the U.S.
Constitution
 Each citizen of the United States is entitled to free
speech upon any subject according the U.S.
Constitution
 Some people were not
caught up in the hyperpatriotism (loyalty to a
person’s country taken to an
extreme level)
Speaking Out
 Several Montana judges
defended free speech against
hyper-patriotism
 The U.S. Attorney for
Montana during the war was
Burton K. Wheeler
 He refused to prosecute
people for sedition based on
false or unconvincing
evidence
 1918 – the Influenza (the flu) Epidemic spread
throughout the world
 It killed over 100 million people worldwide
The Influenza
Epidemic
 A person could be healthy when they woke up and
would be dead by the evening
Effects of the 1918 Influenza:
1. Killed 5 times as many Montanans as World War 1
2. Killed mostly adults from ages 20-40
3. Brought high fever, hallucinations, and delirium
 The Montana Department of Health reacted to
the 1918 influenza epidemic by encouraging
schools, businesses, and social centers to close
The Health
Department
 The Influenza hit harder on Indian reservations
because most families shared small, poorly
ventilated houses
 Less than 1,000 Montanans died on the
battlefields of WW1, over 5,000 Montanans
were killed by the influenza epidemic
 Homesteaders were faced with some of the
worst postwar problems because of drought,
wartime debt, and falling prices of goods
Postwar
Problems
 Soldiers returned from the war to find their
farms ruined by drought, farm towns shriveling
up, families poor and jobs were hard to find
 Bitterness between people was hard to get rid
of, the German-speaking ban was kept until the
1920’s and many foreigners still found it
difficult to fit in in Montana