War is the health of the state

CHRISTINE CHEN

CHS 245OL- 14003

Chapter 14- A People’s History of the United States

By Howard Zinn

“War is the health of the state” –

Randolph Bourne

The nations of Europe went to war at 1914.

In the United States, not yet in the war, they worried about the health of

the state.

During War

• Governments flourished

• Patriotism bloomed

• Class struggle was stilled. Class conflict was intense they wanted to make sure everyone was involved, “We must let our young men know that they owe some responsibility to this country” (James Wadsworth, Zinn).

• Socialism was growing

Causalities

• Ten million were to die on the battlefield

• 20 million were to die of hunger and disease related to the war

• In the first Battle of the Maine, the British and French succeeded in blocking the German advance on Paris. Each side had 500,000 casualties.

• In the first three months of war, almost the entire original British army was wiped out.

• The British and French counterattacked along the Seine, moved forward a few miles, and lost 600,000 men.

causalities

• The People of Britain and France were not told about the depth of these causalities.

• When Britain General Douglas Haig moved English soldiers into the six German division, off the 110,000 who attacked: 20,000 were killed, 40,000 more wounded-all those bodies strewn on no man's land, the ghostly territory between the contending trenches.

To go to war or not to go to war, that is the question.

United States decided to stand neutral."There is such a thing as a nation being too proud to

fight” –President Woodrow Wilson

United States position on war

• Wilson "was forced to find legal reasons for policies that were based not upon law but upon the balance of power and economic necessities” instead of going to war (Richard Hofstadter-The American Political Tradition, Zinn)

• German didn’t believe US was neutral, because they shipped war goods.

• America became bound up with the Allies in union of war and prosperity.

Prosperity with war

• England became more and more a market for American goods and for loans at interest.

• J. P. Morgan and Company acted as agents for the Allies.

• In 1915, Wilson lifted the ban on private bank loans to the Allies.

• Morgan could begin lending money in such great amounts as to both make great profit and tie American finance closely to the interest of a British victory in the war against Germany.

W.E.B Du Bois

• The United States fitted that idea of Du Bois: American capitalism needed international rivalry-and periodic war-to create an artificial community of interest between rich and poor, supplanting the genuine community of interest among the poor that showed itself in sporadic movements.

• “It is no longer simply the merchant prince, or the aristocratic monopoly, or even the employing class, that is exploiting the world: it is the nation, a new democratic nation composed of united capital and labor” – Du Bois

The espionage act

• About nine hundred people went to prison

• The reason for this act was because people opposition to

draft and war.

• This was put out of sight while the visible national mood was

represented by military bands, flag wavings, the mass

buying of war bonds, the majority’s acquiescence on

the draft and the war.

• Free speech was argued against this Act.

Schenck vs. United States

• Charles Schenck, an anti-war Socialist, had been convicted of violating the Act when he sent 15,000 leaflets that denounced the draft law and the war.

• Found guilty and was sentenced to six months in jail.

• Appealed by arguing first amendment was being violated, freedom of speech.

• Oliver Wendell Holmes helped Schenck’s case by comparing a situation in a theater screaming fire and causing a panic to war.

• Free speech should be allowed in “clear and present danger” (Zinn).

Opposition to war

• Schools and universities discouraged opposition to war.

• In Congress, only a few voices spoke out against war. For an example: the House of Representatives, Jeannette Rankin, did not respond when her name was called in the roll call of declaration of war. She said “I want to stand by my country, but I cannot vote for war. I vote No” (Zinn).

• Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman were sentenced to prison for opposing the draft.

THE END OF war

• Ended in November 1918

• 50,000 American soldiers died

• It did not take too long for bitterness and

disillusionment to spread throughout the country.

Socialist-view on war

• The Socialists saw the war as inevitable and thought that only victory in class struggle, only revolutionary change, could end war.

• With all the wartime failings, the intimidation, the drive for national unity, when the war was over, the Establishment still feared socialism.

• This led to the face of revolutionary challenge: reform and repression.

tHANK YOU!

REFERENCES:Zinn, Howard. A People’s History of the United States.

New York: HarperCollins Publishers. 2005. Web.