Chapter 12 Section 3
Notes
The War at Home
Pages 368-374
Mobilizing the Nation
• Government set up
programs to
– Finance the War
– Conserve Scarce
Resources
– Redirect Industry and
Labor toward Wartime
production
– Mobilize support
through propaganda
Directing the Economy
• William McAdoo
Sec. of Treasury
– Raise money to
pay for the war
• Cost $35 billion
including loans to
Allies
• Issued 4 Liberty
Bonds and Victory
Bond drives
Increased taxes
• Increased taxes on Business and Personal
incomes in October 1917
• Raised $10 billion
War Boards
• Established war boards which
coordinated government, business,
and industry
• Sweeping power without complete
control
• Set prices
• Set production levels
• Regulated crucial businesses
Conserving Resources
• Food Administration
– Headed by Herbert Hoover
• Regulate the production and supply of food
– Encourage increased agricultural production
• To stimulate production guaranteed high
prices
• 921 million bushels produced in 1919
• Conserve existing food supplies
– Wheatless days and meatless days
– Plant “victory gardens”
Fuel Administration
• Harry Garfield– son of
James Garfield
former president
• Heatless Monday’s
• When coal ran short
in 1918 closed
factories east of
Mississippi for several
days
Organizing Industry
• Railroad Administration
– William McAdoo leader
• Reorganized railroads with limits on transportation rates and
workers wages
War Industries Board (WIB)
• Led by Bernard Baruch
– Responsible for
• Allocating scarce materials
• Establishing production priorities
• Setting prices
– Preferred to get owners to cooperate but
threat of takeover when necessary
• Some thought government intervention
would damage free enterprise system but
changed minds when profits soared
Mobilizing Workers
• Organized Labor
–Because of draft and slower
immigration workforce decreases
• Industry has a shortage of labor
–Unions take advantage of situation
• 4500 strikes involving 1 million
workers in 1917 alone
National War Labor Board (NWLB)
• Forms in April 1918
• Arbitrates disputes between workers
and employers
• 1200 cases heard– usually rule in favor
of union
• Because of success of unions
membership in AFL grows to 3.2 million
in 1919
Labor Shortage
• Strengthened unions and
brought changes in workforce
• Number of women in
workforce grows by 6% to 1.5
million during war
Wartime Mobilization
• Carrie Chapman Catt– headed Women’s
Committee of the Council of National Defense
• Harriet Stanton Blatch– headed Food
Administration Speakers Bureau
• Womens efforts in wartime helped secure
passage of 19th Amendment– gave them the
right to vote
• Wilson supports passage in recognition of their
efforts
Volunteerism
• Americans voluntarily
– Conserved energy
– Recycled essential materials
– Planted “Victory Gardens”
– Purchased Liberty and Victory Bonds
Juliette Gordon Low
• Founded Girl Scouts of
America in 1915
• Grew from 500 girls in 1915 to
168,000 in 1927
Great Trek North
• Mexicans were fleeing Revolution in
Mexico in the late 1910’s
• Also were workers in Southwest U.S.
• 150,000 migrated north to U.S. during the
war
Great Migration
• Southern Blacks moved north to work in
industrial jobs
• Fleeing discrimination and poor living
conditions in the South
• Better standard of living
• Racial violence still a problem
• July 2, 1917 East St. Louis– white rioters
kill at least 39 blacks
Influencing Attitudes
• Committee on Public Information (CPI)
• Formed in Spring of 1917 and led by
George Creel