Chapter 30 – Part I Notes
Woodrow Wilson’s
War Message, April 2, 1917
 “The world must be made safe for democracy. It’s
peace must be planted upon the tested foundations of
political liberty. We have no selfish ends to serve. We
desire no conquest, no dominion. We seek no
indemnities for ourselves, no material compensation
for the sacrifices we shall freely make.”
Introduction
 Wilson was still committed to neutrality after winning the
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election of 1916.
On January 22, 1917, he delivered a moving address restating
America’s commitment to peace, stating America’s commitment
to neutrality and to “peace without victory”
Germany responded on January 31, 1917 by declaring unrestricted
submarine warfare, sinking all ships, including America’s, in the
war zone.
Germany was running out of supplies and no longer concerned
with distinguishing b/t military and civilian combatants
Wilson broke diplomatic relations with Germany but refused to
declare war until the Germans took “overt” actions against
Americans.
War by Act of Germany
 Wilson asked Congress to arm American merchant
ships
 Midwestern senators launched a filibuster to block
Wilson’s measure
 Zimmerman Note
 Intercepted and published on March 1, 1917
 Proposed German alliance with Mexico, and the return
of land in the southwest to Mexico
 Americans were infuriated
Declaration of War
 Overt Acts - German U Boats sank four unarmed
American merchant ships
 Russian Revolution begins – Russian despotism was
not longer a hindrance to war.
 US Declaration of War – April 2, 1917
 Myth that wall street and bankers dragged US into war
 Gang of Thieves (British) vs. Gang of Murderers
(Germany)
Wilsonian Idealism Enthroned
 For more than a century American people had prided
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themselves of on their isolation from the Old World
violence.
Six senators, and fifty reps. voted against the war
including Jeannette Rankin (first congresswoman)
To gain support Wilson espoused to “Make the world
safe for democracy” not for riches or conquest
Americans, crusaders vs. isolationists
Wilson’s utilized his rhetorical style to broaden public
support
Wilson’s Fourteen Points
 Wilson became the leader of the allied cause
 Delivered 14 Points on January 8, 1918
 1) Proposed to abolish secret treaties – pleased liberals
of all countries
 2) Freedoms of the seas – appealed to the Germans and
Americans
 3) Removal of economic barriers
 4) Removal of armament burdens
 5) Re-adjustment of colonial claims and– undermined
the old empires
Wilson’s 14 Points Cont…
 Additional points
 Self-determination
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Reached out oppressed minority groups – such as the Polices
in Germany and A-H
 Point 14 proposed a League of Nations
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Providing a system of collective security
Predecessor to United Nations
 Not everyone supported the 14 Points- Allied Nations
with expansionist ideation
 “Old Guard” Republicans also criticized Wilson
Creel Manipulates Minds
 Committed on Public Information was created
 George Creel was chosen to create US support for the war
 Creel Organization
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150000 workers home and overseas
Sent out 75,000 four minute men who would espouse US patriotic
ideals
Posters, leaflets, booklets
Moves were made to deface the Kaiser
Songs – “Over There”
Over there, over there
Send the word, send the word over there,
That the Yanks are coming, the Yanks are coming
The drums rum-tumming ev’rywhere
Enforcing Loyalty and Stifling Dissent
 German Americans numbered over 8 million, counting
those with at least on parent foreign-born (total pop was
100 million)
 German Discrimination
 Some were tarred and feathered
 Extreme case – German Socialist lynched in Illinois
 Orchestras stooped playing Wagner and Beethoven
 Books removed from libraries
 German language classes canceled
 Sauerkraut “liberty cabbage”, hamburger “liberty steak”
 Pabst and Schiltz were suspect
Espionage and Sedition Acts
 Espionage Act of 1917
 Imposed fines of $5,000 and 10,000 and jail sentences up to
20 years
 1900 prosecutions (including antiwar socialists and IWW
members)
 IWW leader Big Bill Haywood
 Objective was to make it illegal to write or utter any statement
that could be construes as criticizing the flag, constitution, or
opposing the military draft.
 Eugene Debs received a 10 year jail term for an antiwar speech
 Shneck v. United States (1919) – court affirmed legality of
limiting free speech
 Harding pardoned Debbs in 1921
The Nation’s Factories Go To War
 America was not immediately ready for “total war”
 1915 War Preparedness
 Creation of civilian Council of National Defense,
 Shipbuilding program
 Increased standing army to 100,000 – (5th among armies of
world)
 How much steel and gunpowder could be produced?
 States Rights?
 1918 – Wilson appointed Bernard Baruch to head the War
Industries Board – never very strong, disbanded shortly
after the armistice.
Worker’s in Wartime
“Labor Will Win the War”
 If you were unemployed you could be immediately
drafted
 Taft chaired the National War Labor Board
 Arbitrated Labor disputes
 Pressed employers to grant concession
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High wages
Eight hour work day
Did not guarantee right to organize unions
 Why was there a war labor board?
Workers in Wartime Cont..
 AF of L and Gompers supported the war
 More than doubled membership, more than 3 mill.
 Real wages rose more than 20% in coal, manufacturing, and
transportation industries
 IWW “Wobblies” opposed the war
 Sabotaged several businesses b/c of poor working conditions, often
beaten by employers or arrested.
 Workers Unrest
 Wartime Inflation – prices doubled b/t 1914-1920 lessened
importance of new wages
 6,000 strikes occurred in war years
 ¼ million went on strike in steel industry – owners brought in
30,000 African Americans to keep mills running.
 Steel industry collapsed and dozens died in conflicts
Great Migration
 Many African Americans started migrated North to work in
factories during WWI
 By 1920 nearly 1.5 million African Americans had migrated
North
 Eventually migration would grow to massive proportions
 Interracial violence occurred as a result of white
discrimination
 St Louis riot of 1917 – nine whites and forty African Americans
dead
 Chicago Riots – white beachgoer threw a rock that killed an
African American swimmer.
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Two weeks of race rights ensued – 15 whites and 23 African
Americans were killed
Reported number of African American migrants
in New Jersey, September, 1917. (USDOL)
 New York Central camp,
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Weehawken 500
Erie camps: Weehawken 300
Jersey City 100
Philadelphia & Reading, Pennsylvania Railroad, etc.,
Camps 1,2000
Jersey City 3,000
Newark 7,000
Carneys Point 800
Trenton 3,000
Camden 2,000
Bayonne, Paterson, and Perth Amboy 4,000
Wrightstown and South Jersey 3,000
Total for New Jersey 25,000
Great Migration by Jacob Lawrence
Suffering Until Suffrage
 Thousands of women worked in factories and in the armed
forces
 Women’s movement split
 National Women’s Party (Anti-war)– Alice Paul
 National Women’s Suffrage Org. (supported war)
 Believed winning democracy abroad would bring democracy at
home.
 Wilson supported the 19th Amendment – provided all women
with the right to vote in 1920
 Women’s Bureau added to DOL
 Most women gave up jobs after the war
 Sheppard-Towner Maternity Act of 1921 provided federal
dollars for maternity education
Women Factory Workers WWI
Carrie Chapman’s Address to
Congress 1917
 “How can our nation escape the logic it has never
failed to follow, when its last unenfranchised class calls
for the vote? Behold our Uncle Sam floating the
banner with one hand, “Taxation without
representation is tyranny,’ and with the other seizing
the billions of dollars paid in taxes by women to whom
he refuses ‘representation.’… Is there a single man who
can justify such inequality of treatment, such
outrageous discrimination? Not one
Forging A War Economy
 Herbert Hoover led the Food Admin during WWI
 Quaker Humanitarian
 Previously led charitable drive to feed people of Belgium
 Led propaganda campaign to conserve food
 Opposed voluntary rationing
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Wheat less Wednesdays, Meatless Tuesdays, etc.
Vegetable “Victory Gardens”
Gov. restricted foodstuffs for brewing alcohol
 Many brewers were German, which garnered more support for
18th Amend.
War Time Economy
 Farm production rose by ¼
 Exports to Allies tripled
 Fuel Admin supported heatless Mondays and lightless
nights, and gasless Sundays
 Treasury Department
 Parades “Halt the Hun”
 Liberty Bonds and Victory Bonds raised 21 billion dollars (2/3 cost of
war)
 German Americans may find a yellow paint on their house or face
physical assault if they did not buy war bonds
 One German American baker was lynched in Illinois (1918),
defendants were found not guilty
 Wilson admin begrudgingly took control of railroad
industry and hurriedly constructed new ships
Making Plowboys into Doughboys
 The Draft (Selective Service Act)
 All men ages 18-45 had to register
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No subs, key men in industry were exempt
 Army quickly grew to 4 million men
 Supposed to receive 6 months in training in US and 2 months
overseas, rarely occurred
 337,000 dodged draft
 4,000 objectors were excused
 Women – 11,000 to the navy and 269 to marines
 African Americans
 Segregated units – non-combat rolls
 369th fought on the frontlines assigned to the French
 Ushered in Jazz to Europe
“Harlem Hellfighters” 369th
Harlem Hellfighters Clip
 http://youtu.be/j-nCIGtIuj4
 Complete a 3-3-3 KWL – while you view
WWI Notes Part II
Fighting in France-Belatedly
 Russian Revolutionaries overthrew the Czar, signed a treaty with
Germany, and withdrew from the “capitalistic” war in early 1918
 The Germans could now focus their main efforts on the Western
Front in France
 German Assumptions
 Defeat British in six months with unrestricted submarine warfare
 American soldiers would arrive and have difficulty transporting
troops
 Americans arrived about one year after Congress declared war.
 First Americans relieved British and French in quiet sectors
 Troops also fought in Belgium, Italy, and Russia at Archangel
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Russia – goal was to protect munitions from Germans, rescue Czech
troops, and inhibit Japanese expansion in Siberia
Americans in Battle
 Allies united under a French Commander
 Before allies had been fighting with limited
coordination
 German troops advanced to within 40 miles of Paris
 Americans arrive in Chateau Thierry near the Marne
River
 Second Battle of the Marne – Americans and French
gained the advantage
 September 1918, about 243,00o troops fight alongside
French to at St. Mihiel salient
Americans in Battle Cont..
 Meuse Argonne Offensive September – November 1918
 Americans cut German railroad lines
 Lasted 47 days, 1.2 American troops fought
 Heavy fighting in Argonne Forest killed or wounded
120,000 Americans
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Many died from lack or training in “no-mans land”
War Hero - Alvin C. York
 Critical Food Shortages occurred in Germany just as the
allies transport lines were slowing
 Propaganda leaflets were dropped into Germany to
convince soldiers to surrender
American Leaflet from the Friends
of German Democracy:
 BROTHERS!
The world is in great need. You and you alone can end this need rapidly. We are American
citizens of German descent. We know you and trust you. We beg you to trust us.
The great German nation is the barbarian and the breaker of trust in the eyes of the
world. You can recover your good reputation only if you overthrow this government,
which has made German intelligence and German industry a danger to the world. Take
the determination of your destiny into your own hands....
If you will do this the world war will end. In the name of America we give you our word,
that the new Germany will be taken up as an honorable member of the society of nations.
Your intelligence and industry will once again be a blessing to humanity, instead of a
curse.... Arise for a struggle for a free Germany!
In the name of Americans of German descent.
UNION OF FRIENDS OF
GERMAN DEMOCRACY
New York, March, 1918
Men Killed in Battle
Russia
1,700,000
Germany
France
1,600,000
1,385,000
USA
British
53,000
900,000
Italy
Austria
462,000
800,000
The Armistice
(Chapter Notes Part III)
 Germany was ready to
end the war
 Wilson insisted the
Kaiser abdicate
 The Kaiser fled to
Holland
 Germany signed an
Armistice agreement on
11/11/1918
US War Contributions
 Mainly: Foodstuffs, munitions, loans, oil for this first
mechanized war, and manpower
 No battlefield victories
 Fought only two major battles
 St. Mihiel
 Meuse Argonne
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Last two months of the four year wars
 The prospect of endless reinforcements demoralized
Germany
Wilson’s Attempts Instill Lasting
Peace
 Wilson had become a household to Europeans who wished
for peace and self-determination.
 Streets and buildings in Serbia still bare his name.
 During the pinnacle of his popularity he made several
errors
 Appealed for a Democratic Congressional victory
 Republican majority returned to Congress
 Wilson went to Paris without a mandate at home
 Unlike other leaders in Europe
 Republicans were furious with Wilson’s decision to travel to
Paris (first US president in Europe)
 Did not bring a Republican representative, such as his rival
Lodge
The Idealist Battles the Imperialists
 Big Four Peace Conference
 US - Wilson at the lead
 Italy – Premier Vitorrio Orlando
 Britain – David Lloyd George
 France – Clemenceau
 Leaders believed a settlement was
urgent to ward off te tide of
communism
 Imperialists wanted annexation of
Territory and Wilson wanted an end
to imperialism
 The Compromise
 The French mandate of Syria and the
British mandate of Iraq
 The diplomats also agreed to the
League of Nations covenant
Treaty of Versailles Negotiations
 Republicans despised the League of Nations
 Wilson returned to the US to repudiate
 The “irreconcilables” led by Lodge, Hiram Johnson, and
Borah, stood ready to refute the League of Nations
 39 Republicans vowed not to ratify The Treaty of Versailles
in its current form
 When Wilson returned to Paris the imperialists had the
advantage
 France wanted the Saar Basin and the Rhineland
 Wilson brokered the UN mandate of the Saar basin
 US Security Treaty with France and Britian – later negated
in the US Senate
Negations Cont…
 Italy turned against Wilson when he insisted the port
of Fiume reside with the Yugoslavs.
 US sternly opposed Japanese annexation of Shandong
and the German islands in the Pacific
 Japan threatened to walk out and won temporrary
economic rights to Shandong
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The Chinese were outraged
 Clemenceau jeered that Wilson
 “talked like Jesus Christ and acted like Lloyd George
The Peace that Bred a New War
 The completed treaty was presented to Germany
 They had capitulated, believing the 14 points would be
utilized
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However, only 4 of the 23 points were fully honored
The Germans exclaimed they had been betrayed, later reiterated by
Hitler
Germany lost colonial territory, gave Alsace Lorraine to France, had
to pay reparations to allies, destroy war machinery/munitions, lost
Saar coal mine, and demobilize army.
 As a side note, the allies considered creating numerous pre-
unification territories in Germany, to avoid another war
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However, Wilson’s ideals of “peace without victory” inhibited this
possibility
A New War…
 Wilson had to compromise on his 14 Points to preserve
the League of Nations
 He was hoping a League with America as the leader
would ameliorate the inequailities
 Positives of the Treaty of Versailles
 Liberated millions of minority ethnicities, i.e., Poles,
Czechs, Hungarians, Finish, etc.
 If Wilson had not attended the negotiations
imperialists victors would have dominated
Detractors of the Treaty
 Isolationists
 “Irreconcilables”
 Rabid Hun-haters
 German Americans
 Italian Americans
 Irish Americans
Wilson’s Tour and Collapse
 The Republicans hoped to amend the treaty rather than defeat it.
 Republicans could claim credit
 Lodge stalled – read the entire 264 page treaty aloud in the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee
 Wilson needed the 2/3 majority vote
 He Embarked on a national tour to push treaty ratification
 The midwest was unimpressed – German Americans
 Johnson and Borah spoke in the same cities days later
 The Rocky mountain and western states embraced him
 Near the end of the tour a stroke paralyzed one side of his body
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For seven months he did not speak to his cabinet
His wife ran his presidency for his remaining term
Defeat Through Deadlock
 Lodge wrote his own 14 formal reservations to the treaty
 He found Article X- The League of Nations most alarming
 On the day of the vote Wilson insisted all Democrats vote
against the treaty with the appended Lodge reservations
 In time, it was clear the treaty could only be ratified with
the Lodge reservations
 Another vote occurred, Wilson again instructed to
Democrats to negate the treaty
 Once again a 2/3 “yay” ratification vote was not achieved
The Referendum of 1920
 Wilson believed the next president would enable treaty ratification
 Election of 1920 – Harding (Rep.) vs. Cox (Dem.)
 Warren Harding – wavered of the League
 James Cox – supported the League
 Election results
 Harding 7 million 16,143,407 (404 electorate)
 James Cox – 9,130, 328 (127 electorate)
 Debbs in Prison – 919,799
 Voters were oversaturated with morality and wished to return to “normalcy”
 Harding’s election was a death sentence to the League
 Conservative Referendum vs. Liberal Reform
 Wilson died in 1924
 The US never ratified the Treaty of Versailles
 Signed a separate treaty with Germany
Great Expectations Betrayed
 The mightiest power, the USA, never joined the
League of Nations
 Could US involvement averted WWII?
 Without the US the complicated Treaty was
unenforceable
 Hitler cited the treaty to incite fascisism
 If party politics had not derided the treaty perhaps the
war could have been prevented
 However, the US learned its lesson and after WWI, the
US assumed the role of “super-power” after WWII and
guided recover plans in Europe and Japan.
Allied vs. Central Powers
Before and After WWI