On the Home Front
Angela Brown
Chapter 10 Section 4
1
Learning Targets:
• Explain how the government
financed the war and managed the
wartime economy.
• Describe how efforts to enforce
loyalty led to hostility and
repression.
• Describe how the lives of Americans
on the home front changed during
the war.
2
Financing the War
• Liberty bonds – special bonds sold
to support the Allied cause
• Could be redeemed for the original
value of the bonds plus interest = $20
billion
• Allowed U.S. to loan more than $10
billion to the allies.
3
http://www.usmm.net/p/fireshot.jpg
• Boy and Girl scouts set up booths on
street corners to sell bonds.
• Popular commercial artists drew
colorful posters/recruited famous
screen actors to host bond rallies/
speeches before movies, plays,
school/ union meetings.
4
Managing the Economy
• Government called on industry to
convert to the production of war
goods.
• Business leaders flocked to
Washington to take up posts in
thousands of new agencies.
• “dollar-a-year” men and women
because they gave their service for a
token salary.
5
New Agencies
• War Industries Board – oversaw warrelated production – told
manufacturers what and how much
to produce, and even fixed prices
• War Trade Board – licensed foreign
trade and punished firs suspected of
dealing with the enemy
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• National War Labor Board – worked
to settle labor disputes that might
hinder the war effort
• War Labor Policies Board – set
standard and wages , hours, and
working conditions in war industries
• Labor unions won limited rights to
organize and bargain collectively.
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Regulating Food and Fuel Consumption
• 1917 Lever Food and Fuel Control
Act – gave the president the power to
manage the production and
distribution of food and fuels vital to
the war effort.
• Lead by Herbert Hoover – increased
agricultural output and reduce waste.
• Had power to impose price controls –
a system of pricing determined by
the government on food.
http://www.historyplace.com/specials/calendar/docs-pix/h-hoover.jpg
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• Could have begun system of
rationing – distributing goods to
consumers in a fixed amount
• Hoover preferred voluntary restraint
• Appealed to women to stop throwing
away food, no second helpings, no
eating between meals, one meatlessone wheatless day a week and no
butter.
9
• Fuel Administration – sponsored
gasless days to save fuel
• Daylight Savings Time- began
practice of turning clocks ahead one
hour for the summer.
• (increased # of daylight hours for
activity)
• Lessened need for artificial light -=
lowered fuel consumption.
10
A Progressive Victory
• Government now regulated American
economic life to an extent
progressives never dreamed
possible.
• Regulations had not lessened the
power of the corporate world –
dismayed progressives
• Influence of business leaders grew,
the government relaxed its pursuit of
anti-trust suits, and corporate profits
tripled.
11
Enforcing Loyalty
• Government imposed censorship on
the press and banned some
publications from the mail.
• Committee on Public Information –
George Creel – 1917 – Job to rally
support for the war – produced short
films, pamphlets explaining aims and
posters selling recruitment and
liberty bonds.
12
Fear of Foreigners
• Fear of espionage – spying
• German staff member – left briefcase
on U.S. train – plans for weakening
pro-allied sentiment and disrupting
U.S. economy.
• Government feared secret agents
might destroy transportation or
communications networks.
13
• Generated calls for restriction on
immigration.
• National Security League – preached
“100% Americanism”
• Got Congress to override
Presidential veto for literacy test for
immigrants.
• Excluded those who could not read
English or some other language –
few immigrants failed.
14
“Hate the Hun!”
• Hostility toward Germans – Huns –
referencing Asiatic people who
brutality invaded Europe in the 4th
and 5th century
• German composers/musicians
banned from symphony concerts
• German Measles = Liberty Measles
http://docsouth.unc.edu/wwi/41862/A-1038-50.jpg
http://docsouth.unc.edu/wwi/41933/A-919-100.jpg
15
http://mishuna.image.pbase.com/u42/jpochard/upload/39615240.hamburger.jpg
• Hamburger = Liberty Sandwiche
16
• Lynched Robert Prager 1918 near St.
Louis
• German born; had tried to enlist in
the Navy.
• One of numerous attacks on
Germans in U.S.
17
Repression of Civil Liberties
• 1917 Congress passed – Espionage
Act – made it illegal to interfere with
draft
• Sedition – is speech of acting that
encourages rebellion
• Amended 1918 the Sedition Act –
illegal to obstruct the sale of liberty
bonds or discuss anything “disloyal,
profane, scurrilous or abusive” about
the U.S. form of government –
Constitution, Army or Navy
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• Pursued 1500 prosecutions = 1000
convictions
• Eugene Debs, socialist – ten year jail
sentence for criticizing
government/business and urging
“resist militarism”
19
Controlling Political Radicals
• Socialist argued war a quarrel among
imperialist capitalist
• (IWW) Organization Industrial
Workers of the World – gained
supporters – goal overthrowing
capitalism
• Police hounded IWW – Raids in 1917
– let to 200 convictions
• Vigilantes – citizens who take the law
into their own hands – lynched and
horsewhipped others
20
Social Mobility for Minorities and Women
• Americans turned away from military
styles and activities after the war
• War cut off immigrants from Europe
and took young men out of
workplace – businesses needed
workers
21
• Couldn’t discriminate – used who
they could get
• Great Migration – 500,000 African
Americans flooded North to
industries.
• 400,000 women joined the industrial
workforce.
22
http://www.seattlest.com/attachments/seattle_courtney/abe-prohibition-poster.jpg
http://www.northernsun.com/images/thumb/0746BiafraButton.jpg
23
Prohibition Finally Passes
• 1917 - 18th Amendment – illegal to
manufacture, sell, or transport
alcoholic beverages in U.S.
• Backed 18 Amendments to show
patriotism during the war – conserve
grain for bread
• 1919 states ratified 18th Amendment.
http://nitespyder.com/Prohibition.jpg
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