WWI: The Home Front
HOW DID THE AMERICANS ON THE
HOMEFRONT SUPPORT OR OPPOSE WWI?
Peace Groups
 Pacifists- people who oppose all war for political,
moral, or religious reasons
 Women’s Peace party- led by Jane Addams
feared that U.S.’s Entry into war would diminish
support for their reform
 Conscientious Objectors- people who opposed
war for religious or moral reasons and therefore
refused to serve in the armed forces
(often risking going to prison)
Government and the War
 Committee on Public Information (CPI)-
George Creel led this government created committee
in attempt to sell the war to the public.
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Films, Books, and Four Minute Men (speakers around the
country)
 Patriotic Fervor
 Propaganda (information or rumors spread by a group or the
government to promote causes or ideas to damage an opposing
cause or idea)
 Parades , flag waving, schools sending war materials, families
collecting apricot pits for making gas masks.
 Sometimes patriotic fervor started anti-German Hysteria
Transforming the Economy for the War Effort
 Raising money for the war
effort came through taxes and
liberty bonds
 Taxes funded ¼ of the cost of
war

War Revenue Act- increased
income taxes during WWI 1916437,000 to 1918- 4.4 million
 Liberty Bonds- certificate
issued by the government that
promises to pay back the
money with interest on a
specific date
Industry,
Food, and
Fuel for War
 War Industries Board- headed
by Bernard Baruch coordinated the
work of government agencies, and
industry groups to make sure
supplies and equipment were
produced and delivered to the
military

National War labor board- government
worked to ensure the cooperation of unions
 Food and Fuel
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Food Administration- oversaw the
production and distribution of food and
fuel
Meatless Mondays, Wheatless Wednesdays
Gasless Sundays, and Heatless Mondays
Victory Gardens (one in front of the
Whitehouse)
Democracy on the Home front
 African Americans-
most supported the war effort and the NAACP encouraged
people to serve in the military
 WEB Du Bois wrote, “Let us, while this war lasts, forget
our special grievances and close our ranks shoulder to
shoulder with our own white fellow citizens and the allied
nations that are fighting for democracy.
 GREAT MIGRATION- Mass movement of African
Americans to the North.
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Chicago, Ney York City, Cleveland saw an explosion of black
residents
Race Riots broke out in 1919 nicknamed “red summer”

St.Louis factory owner brought in black workers to break up a strike
and a riot broke out causing 30 Africans to die and 9 whites
Immigrants
 Immigrants faced
Americanization
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Most immigrants
supported the war
American Protective
League-self appointed
patriot group that targeted
immigrants for being
disloyal
German Americans were
often attacked and
targeted
Fear takes over
 Espionage Act (1917)- “spying”- made it a crime
to try and interfere with the military draft and set
penalties for spying, sabotage, and “obstruction of
the war effort.
 Sedition Act (1918)- made it a crime to say
anything that was disloyal, profane, or abusive about
the government
Speaking Out Against the War
 Wobblies- members of the Industrial Workers of the
World spoke out against the war.

165 arrested, 1 hung, viewed as disloyal
 Schenck v. United States- Espionage Act,
Charles Schenck, a socialists, was charged with
distributing leaflets to recent draftees, urging them
to resist the military draft.
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Schenck’s lawyer stated he had a right to free speech
Unanimous decision- Schenck’s publications created a clear
and present danger to a nation engaged in war.
Defining Free Speech
 All speeches that are protected by our freedoms
Pure Speech (spoken word)
 Speech-plus (speech plus action)
 Symbolic Speech (Conduct that conveys a message without word)
 United States v. O’Brien- 1960’s Vietnam anti war activist David
Paul O’Brian burnt his draft card and was punished by law
 Texas v. Johnson- 1984 George Lee Johnson protested the Reagan
administration by setting an American Flag on Fire. He was
protected by symbolic speech but Congress then passed the Flag
Protection Act of 1989 which made it illegal to burn or mutilate
an American Flag.
 The Flag protection Act was declared unconstitutional after
supreme court case United States v. Eichman.
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Treaty of Versailles: To Ratify
or Reject
SHOULD THE U.S. HAVE RATIFIED OR
REJECTED THE TREATY OF VERSIALLES?
Wilson’s vision for World Peace
 Fourteen Points-
Wilson’s Blueprint for peace
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End to Secret Alliances
Freedom of Seas
European reduction of Armaments (weapons)
Right to Self Determination
Creation of the League of Nations –an
international peace keeping organization in
which countries would protect territorial integrity
Paris Peace Conference
 Big Four- Wilson of US, David Loyd George of GB, Georges
Clemenceau of France, and Vittorio Orlando of Italy
 War Guilt Clause- addition to the Treaty of Versailles that
held Germany responsible of WWI and required them to pay
reparations to the allied nations (33 billion dollars)

Wilson did not agree with this Clause…
 Self-Determination- Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, Poland,
Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania all gained independence
 Germany was given to France, Poland, Demark, and Belgium
and Italy gained Austrian Territory. Conflict??
 The TREATY OF VERSAILLES WAS SIGNED June
18th, 1919 by the BIG FOUR
Wilson brings the Treaty home to ratify…
 Wilson needed 2/3 vote to ratify the treaty and
Republicans were hesitant
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Reservationists- Republican senators who agreed to
approve the treaty only if changes were made in response to
their concerns
Irreconcilables-Republican Senators who strongly opposed
the Treaty of Versailles (1 of 16)
Internationalists- Democratic senators who strongly
supported the Treaty of Versailles
A Divided Senate fails the Treaty
 Partisanship (rivalry)- defeats the treaty
 Many irreconcilables felt the treaty would drag us
into world affairs (the League of Nations) some
Democrats turned on Wilson and voted the treaty
down.
 The vote fell to 7 votes short with some democrats
siding with the irreconcilables and the Treaty was
turned down.
1920 Election
 Democratic Candidate- James Cox (Ohio) and VP
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (later president for 4 terms)
 Republican Candidate- Warren G. Harding
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Cox received 9.1 million votes
Harding received 16.1 million votes
HARDING becomes the President in 1921
 By 1921 the League of Nations was running without the
United States as a member (whose president had created
it)
 Could WWII have been avoided if the US joined the
League of Nations?