The War to
End War
1917 - 1918
War by Act
of Germany
 Jan 22, 1917 – futile attempt to mediate between
the embattles belligerents
– “peace without victory”
 Jan 31, 1917 – Germany announced unlimited
submarine warfare
– sink all ships, including America’s, in the war zone
Wilson Responds
 Wilson broke diplomatic relations
– War only if Germans took overt acts against American
lives or property
 Wilson asked Congress for the authority to arm
merchant ships
– Filibuster to block measure
– Reminder of the strength
of American isolationism
Zimmermann Note
 March 1, 1917 – note was intercepted &
published
– German foreign minister Arthur Zimmermann secretly
proposed a German-Mexican Alliance
– Promised recovery of Texas, New Mexico, & Arizona
– Infuriated Americans, especially westerners
Zimmermann Telegram
Zimmermann Telegram
Wilson Moves Toward War
 March 1917 - German U-boats sank 4 unarmed
American merchant vessels
 Russian Revolution had overthrown the tsar
– America could now fight for democracy
 April 2, 1917 – Wilson asked Congress for a
declaration of war against Germany
Wilsonian Idealism Enthroned
 6 senators & 50 representatives voted against war
– Jeannette Rankin – first congresswoman (Montana)
 Wilson goals for war:
– “a war to end war”
– Crusade “to make the world
safe for democracy”


Wilson’s Fourteen Points
Jan 8, 1918 – Wilson delivered his 14 points to
Congress
1st Five Points:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Abolish secret treaties
Freedom of the seas
Removal of all economic barriers
Reduction of armament burdens
Adjustment of colonial claims in the interest of both
native peoples & the colonizers
14th Point – League of Nations

International organization that would provide
collective security
Creel Manipulates Minds
 Committee on Public Information
– headed by George Creel
– Purpose: sell America on the war &
sell the world on Wilsonian war aims
– Employed 150,000 workers
• Sent 75,000 “four-minute men” delivered countless speeches
 Varies forms:
– Posters, leaflets, pamphlets,
propaganda booklets, movies, & songs
Propaganda
Enforcing Loyalty &
Stifling Dissent
 German-Americans numbered over 8 million
– Dependable loyalty to the US
 Hatred of Germans & things Germanic swept the
nation – Too bad for you Sauerkraut! I prefer
liberty cabbage!
 Controlling Public Opinion
– 1917 Espionage Act – stiff penalties for spying
– 1918 Sabotage Act & Sedition Act – made it a crime
to say, print, or write almost anything perceived as
negative about the government
 1,900 prosecutions under the laws
– Mostly antiwar Socialists & members of the radical
union Industrial Workers of the World (IWW)
 Eugene V. Debs sentenced to 10 years under the
Espionage Act in 1918 (Socialists)
– Later pardoned by President Harding in 1921
– William (Big Bill) Haywood (head of IWW) & 99
associations were also convicted
Debs in Prison (Read Aloud)
 following quote from President Wilson regarding Eugene
V. Deb’s release from prison.
 “I will never consent to the pardon of this man. While the
flower of American youth was pouring out its blood…this
man, Debs, stood behind the lines, sniping, attacking, and
denouncing them. Before the war he had the perfect right
to exercise his freedom of speech and to express his own
opinion, but once the Congress of the United States
declared war, silence on his part would have been the
proper course to pursue… This man was a traitor to his
country and he will never be pardoned during my
administration.”
Factories Go to War
 Wilson had done little to prepare for the
possibility of war
– 1915 – Council of National Defense – study problems
of economic mobilization
– Shipbuilding programs
– Modest beefing-up of the army – 100,000 regulars
 1918 – War Industries Board
– Bernard Baruch – “Labor will win the war”
The War & Workers
 1918 – War Department’s “work or fight” rule
– Threatened any unemployed male with being
immediately drafted
 National War Labor Board – chaired by Taft
– Head off labor disputes that might hamper the war
effort
• Helped workers receive higher wages & 8 hour days
• Did not guarantee the right to organize into unions
 Samuel Gompers & AF of L – supported the war
 IWW (Wobblies) & other radical labor
organizations
– Engineered damaging industrial sabotage
Strikes & The Strikebreakers
 6000 strikes broke out during the war years
 1919 – Steelworkers Strike
– More than a quarter of a million workers walked off
– Wanted right to organize & bargain collectively – did
not get that right
– Company refused to negotiate
• Hired 30,000 African American strikebreakers
– More than a dozen workers dead
– Crippling setback for the union movement
Great Migration
 African Americans moved North for war-industry
employment
 Racial tensions resulted:
– July 1917 – East St. Louis, MI
• 9 whites & 40 blacks dead
– July 1919 - Chicago Race Riot
• Reign of terror lasted 2 weeks / 15 whites & 23 blacks dead
Women & the War
 Thousands of female workers
worked in factories & fields
– took jobs vacated by men who went to war
 President Wilson – convinced to endorse woman
suffrage as a “vitally necessary war measure”
– 19th Amendment – women receive the right to vote 1920
 Women’s Bureau emerged after the war
– Protect women in the workplace
 Sheppard-Towner Maternity Act of 1921
– Provided federally financed instruction in maternal &
infant health care
Women’s Suffrage
Forging a War
Economy
 Food Administration
– Headed by Hebert C. Hoover – already considered a
hero because of the charitable drive to Belgium
– Preferred voluntary compliance
– Rejected ration cards
– Propaganda campaign
• Wheatless Wednesdays
• Meatless Tuesdays
• Victory Gardens
 1919 – 18th Amendment
– prohibited alcohol
– Many brewers were German & used foodstuffs
Voluntary Approach
 Fuel Administration – save fuel
– Heatless Mondays
– Lightless Nights
– Gasless Sundays
 Treasury Department
– Promoted sale of Liberty Loans
– Victory loan campaign - 1919
– Taxes were eventually raised
Forceful Approach
 1917 – Gov’t took over the nation’s railroads
 Gov’t seized merchant vessels in American
harbors
– Started campaign to build more ships// a few ships
vessels were launched – Faith
Making Plowboys
into Doughboys
 Early American involvement
– Used navy to uphold freedom of the seas
– Shipped war materials to the Allies & supplied them
with loans
 April & May 1917 – Allies confessed the need
for American troops
– More troops or the whole western
front would collapse
The Draft
 Wilson disliked draft but eventually supported
conscription
– Draft bill was criticized by Congress
– Passed 6 weeks after US had declared war
 Required registration of all males 18 – 45
– No one could purchase an exemption or hire a
substitute
– Worked effectively
– Army grew to 4 million
 Women & African Americans
– Women admitted to navy & marines
– African Americans – segregated units usually under
white officers
Fighting in France
 Bolsheviks withdrew Russia from
war early in 1918
– Released Germans from the eastern front in
Russia & moved them to western front in France
 Spring of 1918 before the US reached France to
fight
– Mainly used as replacements with the British &
French
 Small detachments were also sent to Belgium,
Italy, & Russia
Spring of 1918
 Allied nations united under French
Marshal Foch in order to fight the Germans
 May 1918 – Germans came within 40 miles of
Paris
 US troops sent to Château-Thierry; right into the
German advance
– 1st significant engagement of
troops in European war
 July 1918 – Second Battle of the Marne
– Beginning of the German withdrawal
American
War Continues
 Americans were demanding a separate army
– General (Black Jack) Pershing was assigned a front
 Last mighty Allied assault
– Sept 26 – Nov 11, 1918 - Pershing’s army undertook
the Meuse-Argonne offensive
• Goal was to cut the German railroad lines
• Lasted 47 days & included 1.2 million American troops
– Germans were ready to surrender
Fourteen Points Disarm Germany
 October 1918 – Wilson demanded that the Kaiser
be overthrown before an armistice could be
reached
– Kaiser was forced to flee to Holland
 Germany surrendered Nov. 11, 1918
 US’s main contributions:
– Foodstuffs, munitions, credits, oil,
& manpower
Woodrow Wilson
 Very popular
 Personally appealed for a Democratic victory in
the congressional elections of 1918
– Republicans won a majority to Congress
 Decided to go to Paris for the peace conference
– Infuriated Republicans
 Peace Treaty - snubbed the Senate & neglected
to include a single Republican
– Should have included Henry Cabot Lodge – chairman
of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations
Idealists Battles the Imperialists
 The Big Four:
– Woodrow Wilson – US
– Vittorio Orlando – Italy
– David Lloyd George – Britain
– Georges Clemenceau – France
 Wilson’s goal- League of Nations
– Victors would not take conquered territory outright
– Receive territory as trustees of the League of Nations
• Syria – France /// Iraq – Britain
 Feb. 1919 – League was included in peace treaty
Hammering Out
the Treaty
 League of Nations was not popular in US
– William Borah & Hiram Johnson
 Republican senators refused to approve
the League in its imperfect form
 France
– Demand: the Rhineland & the Saar Valley
– Compromise: Saar Bain would remain under the
League for 15 years & then a popular vote & Britain
and US would aid in defense from German invasion
 Italy
– Demand: Fiume but Wilson insisted
that the seaport go to Yugoslavia
– Turned against Wilson
 Japan
– Demand: China’s Shantung peninsula & German
islands in the Pacific
– Compromise: Japan kept Shantung & pledged to
return it to China at a later date
Treaty of Versailles
 June 1919 – Germans were forced to sign
–
–
–
–
Take full responsibility for the war
Disarmament
Pay 33 billion in reparations
Give up colonial holdings
 Wilson was forced to compromise in order to
save the League of Nations
– Liberation of millions of minority peoples
 Wilson was no longer popular in Europe
 US did not support any part of “entangling
alliances”
Wilson’s Tour
 Majority of Americans did support the treaty
 July 1919 – Lodge wanted to “Americanize,”
“Republicanize,” or “senatorialize” it
– Republicans wanted to take credit
 Summer 1919 - Wilson began speechmaking tour
– Appeal directly to the people for their support
– Midwest received Wilson lukewarmly
– Rocky Mountain region & Pacific Coast – welcomed
Wilson
– Borah & Johnson spoke out against Wilson
Wilson’s Collapse
 Breaking Point:
– September 25, 1919 –
Wilson pleaded for the
League of Nations in
Colorado
– Collapsed & later had
a stroke that paralyzed
one side of his body
– Did not meet with his
cabinet for 7½ months
Wilson Rejects the
Lodge Reservations
 Senator Lodge proposed 14 formal reservations
to the 14th Points
– Rejected by Wilson with the strong support of the
Democrats
– Republicans disliked it because it morally bound the
US to aid members – Article X
 Wilson sent word to all Democrats to vote no
 Nov 19, 1919 – treaty was rejected
Defeat Through Deadlock
 Majority of Congress could not agree
 March 1920 – Treaty was brought
up for a vote again
– Wilson sent word to the Democrats to vote down the
treaty with the Lodge reservations
– March 19, 1920 – treaty was rejected again
 Who defeated the treaty?
– Lodge-Wilson personal feud, traditionalism,
isolationism, disillusionment, & partisanship
– -Ultimately it was Wilson who defeated the treaty due
to his inability to compromise!~
Election of 1920
 Wilson proposed to settle the treaty in the election
– Appealed to the people for a “solemn referendum”
 Republicans
– Platform appealed to the Pro-League & Anti-Leaguers
– Warren G. Harding – presidential candidate
• Selected by Senate bosses meeting in the “smoke-filled”
Room 404 of the Hotel Blackstone
– Calvin Coolidge – vice presidential candidate
 Democrats
– James M. Cox
& Franklin Roosevelt
 Harding wins
Election
Results
– First Presidential election for franchised female voters
– Death sentence for the League
 Eugene V. Debs – received the largest vote ever
for the Socialist Party
– While he was in prison