Unit II- Becoming a World Power

Chapter 8 Section 3

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?

The Home Front

Loans and

Liberty Bonds

Mobilizing the Economy

Regulating Industry

•Going to war was extremely expensive, and President Wilson needed to find ways to pay for it.

Taxes

•Congress passed the War Revenue

Act of 1917.

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 and Liberty Bonds

Government takes control- War Industries Board

The Overman Act of 1918 helped create the War Industries Board- Bernard M. Baruch–Job-.–During the war.

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

Regulations to Supply U.S. and Allied Troops

Regulating Fuel

•The Fuel Administration

•daylight savings time

•fuel conservation.

Regulating Food

• Congress passed the Lever Food and Fuel Control Act.

• Herbert Hoover’s Food Administration.

• The 1919 Volstead Act.

Government takes control

Some Private Businesses were taken over.

Council of Defense

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.

This created enormous profits for stockholders

Factory wages also increased, but the cost of food and housing went up.

War demands also led to laborers working long hours in increasingly dangerous conditions.

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 WorkersWomen’s

War EffortsNational War Labor Board

Government takes control- The Labor Force

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.

The Influenza Pandemic of 1918 (02:38)

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.

Scientists haveReconstructed the1918 influenza Virus and found itto be a bird flu that was transmitted directly to humansThey analyzed twoPeople who died in 1918 epidemic..

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

Reactions

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.

Fear on the Homefront: The Espionage and Sedition Acts (05:19)

WWI: The Espionage and Sedition Acts (03:43)

Government takes control- Mobilizing Minds

Millions opposed to war- German Americans, Irish Americans, Socialists, Progressives, Pacifists,

Committee on Public Information- The Creel Committee

Propaganda and the Creel Committee – 1:51

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.

•Espionage Act

•Sedition Act

Limiting Antiwar Speech

Legislation

Opponents

•More than 1,000 opponents of war were jailed under those acts

•Socialist Party leader Eugene Debs

Opponents Go to the Supreme Court

Schenck v. United States Schenck v. United States (1919)(1919)

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?