Home Front During WWI

Chapter 10

Mobilizing Support

Several million Americans opposed the war and had to be convinced to support it.

Government took a chapter from the British playbook and used propaganda to change hearts and minds.

Committee on Public Information

CPI had the most effective propaganda campaign.

Targeted recent immigrants, working class, union members, and others of “questionable” loyalty

Many community leaders supported these efforts.

Raising Money for the War

War Dept. financed the war by higher taxes (as high as 63%), war profits taxes, excise taxes on liquor and luxuries, and increased estate taxes.

A big source of money was bonds.

Liberty Bonds

War bonds, sold to individual Americans through payroll taxes and direct sales, raised $21 billion for the war.

Govt. held war bonds drives, rallies, parades and propaganda to sell these to the public.

Providing for the War Effort

The US Food Administration encouraged Americans to conserve materials and food during the war.

Voluntary rationing was introduced to reduce the use of vital supplies.

“Victory Gardens” were encouraged to increase production for civilians.

Portraying the Enemy

Propaganda campaigns, like those in Britain, portrayed the Germans as “Huns” and “barbarians” and passed on stories of “atrocities” committed by German troops on civilians in Europe.

“100% Americanism”

This translated into hatred of ALL Germans, even those who were Americans also.

Many forced to kiss the flag, recite the pledge on demand, German books banned, German-sounding names were changed – towns, food. German composers’ music was banned.

Despite the hysteria, some Americans refused

to support the war. Some were German-Americans or Irish-

Americans, some were pacifists opposed to war on religious grounds, some Socialists believed it was “a capitalists’ war,” and it split the women’s suffrage movement.

Opposition to the War

Suppression of War Opposition

The U.S. government tried to suppress the war’s opponents.

The Espionage Act of 1917 made “anti-war activities” illegal.

The 1918 Sedition Act made anti-war speech or any anti-government, Constitution, military or flag illegal.

Limits of Free Speech

The Supreme Court upheld these laws as being necessary when the “exercise of free speech was a clear and present danger” to national security in several cases including:

Schenck v. United States (1919)

Now security laws must meet this “clear and present danger” test.

Economic Consequences

Industry and agriculture boomed

Factory production surged between 1914 and 1918

Workforce grew despite millions of men being drafted

Unemployment practically vanished

Wages rose, as did prices

No-strike rule in effect for labor unions

Union membership rose

8-hour workday became standard

Farm prices more than doubled

Real income rose

Social Consequences

Housing was scarce Schools strained by

overcrowding Social behaviors changed

– ex. Cigarette smoking increased by 350%

Great Migration of blacks to northern cities

Membership in NAACP doubled

Segregation became more evident in north, but still not de jure

Thousands of women served in military

One million women worked in factories

Women’s suffrage gained momentum

Boosted moral reform efforts, esp. temperance

Suffrage Expands

Women convinced Pres. Wilson to support suffrage by picking the White House, criticizing the government, going to jail, and hunger strikes.

He said women were “vital to winning the war” and deserved the vote.

19th Amendment ratified in 1920.

World War One, while avoided by the United

States for three years, served as a turning point in making modern America.

It marked an significant increase in the government’s influence on the lives of individual Americans and unprecedented regulation of the economy.

There would be no going back.

Conclusion