Bell Ringer

• What was the reasoning and significance of the Zimmerman Note?

Americans on the Home Front

• Key Terms– Liberty Bond– Price Controls– Rationing– Daylight savings time

• Main Idea– Americans and their government took extra ordinary

steps at home to support the war effort

Setting the Scene• “I hate war, because war is murder, desolation and

destruction. If one-tenth of what has been spent on preparedness for war had been spent on the prevention of war the world would always have been at peace.”– Henry Ford

• War required huge amounts of money, personal, and supplies– “there are no armies… there are entire nations armed”• President Woodrow Wilson

Financing the War

• Liberty bonds were sold help the government raise money– Money went straight to the war effort– Raised more than $20 billion• Loaned $10 billion to Triple Entente

– First time bond posters were used as propaganda• “Every Scout to Save a Solider”

– Could be redeemed at a later date to receive money back plus interest

Managing the Economy• The government asked all industries to begin producing

goods for the war• Lever Food and Fuel Control Act (1917) – gave the

POTUS the power to manage the production and distribution of foods and fuel vital to the war effort– “Food will win the war”

• Food administration imposed:– price control – a system of pricing determined by the

government on the sale of food– Rationing – distribution goods to consumers in a fixed amount– Daylight Savings Time – turning clocks ahead one hour for the

summer

Enforcing Loyalty

• Censorship was enforced– Movies about the American Revolution was banned

• Fear of Foreigners – brief case left on train with planes to turn Americans against the Entente– Literacy test would be required for new immigrants

• “Hate the Huns” – refers to the people who invaded Europe in 4th and 5th Centuries– Everything German in America either stopped or

changed names

War changed daily lives

• By 1918 all able-bodied males in college and universities had become army privates

• Immigration from Europe had slowed to a stop• Industries and factories need workers and began

hiring African-Americans and Mexican-Americans– Began the Great Migration – 500k African-Americans

moved to the north to work in factories• By late 1917, 400k Women joined the work force– Would help lead to the 19th Amendment being ratified