THE WAR AT HOME

p. 388-395
Objectives
Explain how business and government
cooperated during the war
Show how the government promoted the war
Describe the attack on civil liberties
Summarize the social changes that affected
African Americans and women
CONGRESS GIVES POWER TO WILSON
conflict of
smokestacks
Production of war goods
too important
Business and
government must
collaborate
President
Wilson could
Control economy
Fix prices
Nationalize war-related
industries
War Industries Board
Designed to increase efficiency
and discourage waste in war-
related industries
War
Industries
Board
use mass-production
techniques
Eliminate waste
Encouraged
companies to
Set quotas and allocated raw
materials
CONGRESS GIVES POWER TO WILSON
War Industries Board (cont.)
WIB applied price fixing only at the
whole sale level
Retail prices
sky rocked
2x pre war
Under the board, production was up
20%
War Economy
Blue-collar workers
20% hourly wage increase
Food and housing costs under cut the pay
increases
DuPont Company
1,600% increase in stock price
Increasing disparity between management and worker
resulted in boom in union membership
6,000 strikes broke out during the wae
CONGRESS GIVES POWER TO WILSON
War Economy (cont.)
Those who refused to obey the board
ricked losing their exemptions
work or fight
National War Labor Board
1918
8 hour day
Safety inspection
Enforced child-labor ban
NWLB also improved conditions
Food Administration
H
e
r
b
e
r
t

H
o
o
v
e
r

Help produce and
conserve food
gospel of the clean plate
C
o
n
s
e
r
v
a
t
i
o
n

D
a
y
s

1 day a week
meatless
sweetless
2 days a week
wheatless
porkless
CONGRESS GIVES POWER TO WILSON
Food Administration (cont.)

V
i
c
t
o
r
y

G
a
r
d
e
n
s

Shipment of food to
allies tripled
High government prices on
wheat and other staples
Farmers
planted 40m
more acres
Income increased
by 30%
SELLING THE WAR
War Financing
$
3
5
,
5
0
0
,
0
0
0
,
0
0
0

1/3
through
taxes
16
th

Amendment
Income tax
War-profits tax
Higher
Excise taxes
Tobacco
Liquor
Bonds
Liberty Loan
Victory Loan
Committee on Public Information
Backlash
Inflamed hate towards ethic groups & opponents of the war
How the War Came to America
Four-Minute Men
Draft Rationing Bond drives Victory gardens
Propaganda
Biased communication designed to influence peoples thoughts and actions
ATTACKS ON CIVIL LIBERTIES
Anti-Immigrant Hysteria
2,000,000 Americans had been born Germany
Many with German names lost their job
Orchestras would not play
Mozart
Bach
Beethoven
Towns changed names
Stopped teaching German in school
Removed German books
German-born Robert Prager
Wrapped in a German flag
and lynched
Mob leader cleared by jury

Liberty
Measles
German
Measles
Liberty
Sandwich
Hamburger
Liberty
Cabbage
Sauerkraut
Liberty
pups
Dachshunds
ATTACKS ON CIVIL LIBERTIES
Espionage and Sedition Acts
Espionage and
Sedition Acts
Person could be fined up to
$10,000 and jailed for 20
years for interfering with
the war effort, or saying
anything disloyal, profane,
or abusive about the
government or the war
effort
2,000+ prosecuted under loosely
defined antiwar activities
resulted in convictions
Anti-war newspapers and
magazines not allowed to ship
Victor Berger
Socialist congressman from WI
House refused to seat him
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuGp-0G1p4M
THE WAR ENCOURAGES SOCIAL CHANGE
African Americans and the War
Urged African Americans
to support the war
Would strengthen calls
for racial justice
W.E.B.
Du Bois
Boston Guardian
victims of racism should
not support a racist
government
William
Monroe
Trotter
The Great Migration
The Great Migration
Large scale movement of
hundreds of thousands of
Southern blacks to cities in the
north
Began in the late 19
th

century
The slow movement
become massive during the
war
THE WAR ENCOURAGES SOCIAL CHANGE
Women in the War

Railroad
Cooks
Dockworkers
Was not equal pay
for equal work, BUT
Movement towards
the 19
th
Amendment
Bricklayers
Miners
Shipbuilding
Move into jobs left vacant by men
THE WAR ENCOURAGES SOCIAL CHANGE
The Flu Epidemic
International Flu Epidemic
of the US population affected
Mines shut down
telephone services cut in
Working hours staggered
Coffins ran short
People laid unburied for weeks
500,000 Americans killed
1/3 of troops in the AEF died
German loses were worse
Believed worldwide
30,000,000 people were
killed by the disease
Why was the War Industries Board (WIB)
established?

How did the war affect the U.S. economy?

How did the U.S. civilians respond to the war?
How did the government finance the war?

How did the government build support for the
war?
What groups were the main targets of anti-
immigration hysteria during the war?

How did the Espionage and Sedition Acts affect
civilian liberties in the United States?
What was the Great Migration?

What new opportunities did the war offer to
women?

What were the effects of the worldwide flu
epidemic that erupted during the war?