Unit II- Becoming a World Power
Chapter 8 Section 3
The Home Front
The Home Front
The Main Idea
The U.S. mobilized a variety of resources to wage World War I.
Reading Focus

How did the government mobilize the economy for the war effort?

How did workers mobilize on the home front?

How did the government try to influence public opinion about the war?
Mobilizing the Economy
• Going to war was extremely expensive, and President Wilson needed to
find ways to pay for it.
Taxes
Loans and Liberty
Bonds
• Congress passed the
War Revenue Act of
1917, which
established very
high taxes.
• Wilson sparked an
intense campaign
to sell Liberty
Bonds.
• It taxed wealthy
Americans up to 77
percent of their
incomes.
• They were a form
of loan to the
government from
American people.
• It increased federal
revenue by 400
percent within two
years.
• The national debt
grew from $1.2
billion to $25.5
billion in three
years.
Regulating
Industry
• Congress created
administrative
boards to prepare
industries for
war.
• The War
Industries Board
(WIB) regulated
all war materials.
• It increased
industrial
production by 20
percent.
Government takes control- War
Industries Board

The Overman Act of 1918 helped create the
War Industries Board- Bernard M. Baruch
in charge.
– Job- decide what goods should be
produced and set prices for government
purchases or supplies.
– During the war production went up,
waste went down and criticism lessened.
Mobilization of Money

Military Expenses
–
–
–
Expenses for army, navy, credit and
materials for allies ran into billions.
$23 billion for the U.S. war effort and $10
billion for war loans to Allies.
Taxes and Loans to pay the expenses.
 Increased
taxes brought in $10.5 billion
 The rest came from loans from the people
through sale of Liberty Loans and a Victory
Loan.
Liberty bonds were first utilized during the first World War to support the allied
cause in World War I. Subscribing to the bonds became a symbol of patriotic duty
in the United States and introduced the idea of financial securities to many
citizens for the first time. This allowed private citizens to purchase a bond to help
support the military effort. After the war, the bond could be redeemed for its
purchase price plus interest.
A Liberty bond will have a maturation date somewhere on the front on the bond.
A maturation date is the earliest someone can redeem the value plus
interest. Liberty Bonds from WWI do not continue to earn interest. The
redemption value is usually the face value of the bond plus any unused coupons
attached to the bond.
There were four issues of Liberty Bonds:
Apr 24, 1917 Emergency Loan Act authorizes issue of $5 billion in bonds at 3.5
percent.
Oct 1, 1917 Second Liberty Loan offers $3 billion in bonds at 4 percent.
Apr 5, 1918 Third Liberty Loan offers $3 billion in bonds at 4.5 percent.
Sep 28, 1918 Fourth Liberty Loan offers $6 billion in bonds at 4.25 percent.
Raising Money, Conservation and Government Controls- 2:21 min.
Daylight Savings, Taxes, and Liberty Bonds – 1:04
Mobilization

Army needed to be fed, clothed, equipped
and armed
–
–
–
Shortages at first
American factories were supplying pistols,
rifles, machine guns, shells and bullets.
Heavy equipment- artillery, tanks and
airplanes were provided by British and
French.
Regulations to Supply U.S. and Allied Troops
Regulating Food
Regulating Fuel
• Congress passed the Lever Food
and Fuel Control Act, letting the
government set prices and
establish production controls.
• The Fuel Administration was
established to set production
goals and prices for fuel.
• Herbert Hoover’s Food
Administration promised farmers
higher prices for crops.
• He also asked Americans to eat
less and to plant food gardens.
• Prohibition also helped the war,
as alcohol is made using food
crops like grapes and wheat.
• The 1919 Volstead Act passed
Prohibition as the temperance
movement gained strength.
• Harry Garfield, son of former
president James A. Garfield,
headed the administration.
• Garfield introduced daylight
savings time to extend
daylight hours for factory
workers with long shifts.
• He promoted fuel
conservation by encouraging
Americans to go without gas
and heat on certain days.
Government takes control

Some Private Businesses were taken over.
–
–

Some railroads and railway express companies, and inland
waterway systems. Then telephone, telegraph and cable.
1/2 billion was invested in improvements and equipment.
Council of Defense
–
–
–
–
–
–
National Food-control program- Herbert Hoover
Broad powers over production and distribution of food, fuel, fertilizer,
and farm machinery.
Voluntary “wheatless, meatless, and heatless’ days.
War gardens
Set Prices for crops to help farmers and encourage production.
Farmers paid off mortgages, new machinery, etc. Price of land went
up. (Farmers would pay a peacetime price for wartime prosperity)
Rationed coal
Mobilizing the Economy




How did the government mobilize the economy
for the war effort?
What was the War Revenue Act of 1917?
What was the function of the War Industries
Board?
Why do you think it was necessary for the
government to set prices and production
controls for food and fuel during the war?
Mobilizing the Economy
 What
steps did the Fuel
Administration take to encourage
fuel conservation?
 How did patriotism play a part in
the passage of the 18th
Amendment?
Mobilizing Workers

During the war, the profits of many major industrial companies skyrocketed because
companies sold to the federal government.

This created enormous profits for stockholders of industries like steel, oil, and
chemicals.

Factory wages also increased, but the rising cost of food and housing meant that
workers were not much better off.

War demands also led to laborers working long hours in increasingly dangerous
conditions in order to produce the needed materials on time and faster than other
companies.

These harsher conditions led many workers to join labor unions.
Union membership increased by about 60 percent between
1916 and 1919, and unions boomed as well, with more than
6,000 strikes held during the war.
Wartime Workers
National War Labor Board
Women’s War Efforts
• Leaders feared strikes would
disrupt production for the war
effort.
• As men left their jobs to
fight, women moved in to
keep the American economy
moving.
• The Wilson administration
created the National War
Labor Board in 1918.
• Women took many jobs
traditionally held by men on
the railroads, in factories,
and on docks, as well as
building ships and airplanes.
• The board judged disputes
between workers and
management, handling 1,200
cases during the war years.
• Also, to improve working
conditions, it established an
eight-hour workday, sought
companies to recognize unions,
and urged equal pay for women.
• Other women filled more
traditional jobs as teachers
and nurses, and many
volunteered.
• About 1 million women
joined the workforce during
the war, and women used
this as leverage for suffrage
movements.
Government takes control- The
Labor Force







A million women helped fill the gap in the labor force left
by men.
Mills and factories
Acts of Patriotism by women, but yet after the war they
were asked to leave their jobs for men returning.
Blacks- moved north to get jobs.
Shortage of labor sent wages up. Real income went up
20%
United States Employment Service created to fill jobs in
vital industries.
A National War Labor Board- created to arbitrate labor
disputes.- 8 hour workday and government support of
unions.
Influenza Spreads

Three waves of a severe flu epidemic broke out between 1918 and 1919 in Europe
and in America.

Of all American troops who died in World War II, half died from influenza.

On the Western Front, crowded and unsanitary trenches helped flu spread among
troops, then to American military camps in Kansas and beyond.

This strain of influenza was deadly, killing healthy people within days, and during
the month of October 1918, influenza killed nearly 200,000 Americans.

Panicked city leaders halted gatherings, and people accused the Germans of releasing
flu germs into the populace.
By the time it passed, over 600,000 Americans lost their lives.
The Great Influenza- Spanish Flu Pandemic



In the spring of 1918 large numbers of soldiers in the trenches in France
became ill. The soldiers complained of a sore throat, headaches and a loss of
appetite. Although it appeared to be highly infectious, recovery was rapid and
doctors gave it the name of 'three-day fever'. At first doctors were unable to
identify the illness but eventually they decided it was a new strain of influenza.
The soldiers gave it the name Spanish Flu but there is no evidence that it really
did originate from that country. In fact, in Spain they called it French Flu.
Others claimed that the disease started in the Middle Eastern battlefields,
whereas others blamed it on China and India.
Other notions of this strain of influenza's origin contained less-politically
charged, but equally specious logic. According to one theory, poison gases used
in the war, air charged with carbon dioxide from the trenches, and gases
formed from decomposing bodies and exploding munitions had all fused to
form a highly toxic vapor that flu victims had inhaled. Among the other causes
advanced were: air stagnation, coal dust, fleas, the distemper of cats and dogs,
and dirty dishwater. A recent study argued that the disease was brought to the
Western Front by a group of USA soldiers from Kansas. It originally most
likely came from animals.
The Great Influenza- Spanish Flu Pandemic



The USA was also very badly affected by the virus. By September a particularly
virulent strain began to sweep through the country. By early December about
450,000 Americans had died of the disease.
The country that suffered most was India. The first cases appeared in Bombay
in June 1918. The following month deaths were being reported in Karachi and
Madras. With large numbers of India's doctors serving with the British Army
the country was unable to cope with the epidemic. Some historians claim that
between June 1918 and July 1919 over 16,000,000 people in India died of the
virus.
It has been estimated that throughout the world over 70 million people died of
the influenza pandemic. In India alone, more people died of influenza than were
killed all over the world during the entire 1st World War.
Mobilizing Workers




How did workers mobilize on the home front?
What were some of the policies set by the
National War Labor Board?
What can you infer from the fact that profits of
many major industrial corporations skyrocketed
because they sold their products to the federal
government?
How did war demands lead to an increase in union
membership?
Mobilizing Workers
How
did the influenza
epidemic affect American
life?
How did the influenza
epidemic spread?
Influencing Public Opinion
President Wilson used a number of tactics to gain the support of
Americans who had favored neutrality in World War I.
Propaganda
• The Committee on Public
Information (CPI) appointed
reporter and reformer George
Creel as its leader.
• Creel began a campaign of
propaganda: posters, news
stories, speeches, and other
materials to influence opinion.
• Creel hired movie stars to
speak, and artists to create
patriotic posters and pamphlets.
• One famous poster by James
Montgomery Flagg pictures
Uncle Sam saying “I Want You
for the U.S. Army.”
Reactions
• Some Americans began to
distrust German things.
• Many schools stopped
teaching German, and
symphonies stopped playing
German music.
• German-sounding names
were changed, so sauerkraut
became liberty cabbage and
hamburgers became liberty
steak.
• Reports spread that German
secret agents were operating
in the U.S., causing some
Americans to discriminate
against German Americans.
Fear on the Homefront: The Espionage and Sedition Acts (05:19)
Government takes controlMobilizing Minds


Millions opposed to war- German Americans, Irish
Americans, Socialists, Progressives, Pacifists,
Committee on Public Information- The Creel Committee
–
–
–
–
–
Assigned to “sell the war to America”
Propaganda- depict the Germans as hateful beasts,
barbarous Huns bent on world domination.
Whip up enthusiasm, sell war bonds, hate our enemy, keep
people working hard.
Stirred up spy scares, traitor hunts, slackers, etc.
German language studies dropped, German words changed,
Anti- German madness was really Anti-American.
Propaganda and the Creel Committee – 1:51
Limiting Antiwar Speech
Some Americans Speak Out
• Prominent Americans such as pacifist reformer Jane Addams and Senator
Robert La Follette spoke out against the war.
• Addams founded the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom.
• Wilson’s administration tried to limit public speech about the war.
Legislation
• Congress passed the Espionage Act, which punished people for aiding the
enemy or refusing military duty.
• The year after, it passed the Sedition Act, making it illegal for Americans to
criticize the government, flag, or military in speech or writing.
Opponents
• More than 1,000 opponents of war were jailed under those acts, including
Robert Goldstein, who directed a film called The Spirit of ‘76 and refused to
remove scenes of British brutality during the American Revolution.
• Socialist Party leader Eugene Debs was sentenced to 10 years in prison for
criticizing the Espionage Act but was released after the war.
Government takes controlAttacking Civil Liberties

Espionage Act of 1917
–
–
–



Censorship
Penalties against anyone who handed out information about anything
connected with national defense.
Penalties to anyone urging resistance to military duty or draft.
Trading with the Enemy Act of 1917
– Any newspaper printed in a foreign language in the U.S. must
furnish an English translation to the Postmaster general
Sedition Act of 1918- went further that the 1798 version.
– Penalties on anyone who used “disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or
abusive language about the U.S. government, flag or uniform.
Strange way to fight a war- Eugene Debs socialist candidate for
President went to jail. How can the nation improve its war effort if
citizens are not allowed to criticize the gov’t or armed forces? Actual
opposition was light and did little to hamper the war effort.
Opponents Go to the Supreme Court

Many Americans thought the Espionage and Sedition Acts violated the First
Amendment, but others thought they were essential to protect military
secrets and the safety of America.

The Supreme Court also struggled to interpret the acts.

In one case, Charles Schenck, an official of the American Socialist Party,
organized the printing of 15,000 leaflets opposing the war and was
convicted of violating the Espionage Act.

He challenged the conviction in the Supreme Court, but the Court upheld his
conviction, limiting free speech during war.

Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. wrote the Court’s unanimous decision,
stating that some things said safely in peacetime are dangerous to the
country during wartime.
Influencing Public Opinion
 How
did the government try to
influence public opinion about
the war?
 What is propaganda?
 How did anti-German feelings
affect American life during
World War I?