THE HOME FRONT
THE GOVERNMENT’S ROLE Before the war the government played a
small role in the day to day lives of Americans
It regulated industrial and agricultural products.
Attempted to manipulate the public’s opinion (propaganda)
MOBILIZATION AT HOME.MobilizationEconomicEmotional
Troops
AMERICA MOBILIZES FOR WAR US Army was originally a fraction of
the size of European armies.
Wilson encouraged Americans to volunteer and pushed congress to pass “Selective Services Act”
Passed in 1917 Authorized a draft of young men for
military service in Europe.
9.6 million registered for the draft and were assigned a number.
Gov’t held a “great national lottery” to decide the order in which the draftees would be called into service.
Over course of war 24 million registered 2.8 actually drafted. 4 million total served including volunteers.
Wilson also worked to shift the economy to wartime production
Council of National Defense Created to oversee
different agencies. Food production, coal,
petroleum distribution, and railway use.
Government determined what crops grew and how supplies moved around on nation’s trains.
AMERICA MOBILIZES FOR WAR
WAR INDUSTRIES BOARD (WIB)
Bernard Baruch WIB regulated all
industries engaged in war effort.
System of free enterprise was curtailed to fulfill the nations need for war materials.
TO KEEP WORKERS WORKING…
WHAT DID FACTORIES PRODUCE? Women's blouse
factories made signal flags
Radiator manufacturers made guns
Automobile factories made airplane engines
Piano companies made airplane wings.
COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC INFORMATION (CPI) Had to convince
Americans that war was a just cause
Distributed 75 million pamphlets
Millions of posters that dramatized the needs of America and its allies
Stressed cruelty of Germans
PROPAGANDA: WILSON FORMED THE COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC INFORMATION (CPI).
What do these
posters say about Germany?
DOES PROPAGANDA EXIST IN THE 21ST CENTURY?
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The cafeteria menus in the three House office buildings changed the name of "french fries" to "freedom fries," in a culinary rebuke of France stemming from anger over the country's refusal to support the U.S. position on Iraq. http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/03/11/sprj.irq.fries/
THE HOME FRONT Censorship
Not told about high death toll
Romanticized the battlefields
“soldiers have died a beautiful death, in noble battle, we shall rediscover poetry…epic and chivalrous”
THE HOME FRONT Impossible to
hide deathWomen in
mourningBadly wounded
soldiers returned home
Opposition began to emerge
OPPOSITION TO THE WAR German Americans and Irish Americans
opposed the allies Sometimes treated with prejudice
Draft created controversy Some refused and often court-martialed and
imprisoned. 12% of men who received draft notices didn’t
respond.
CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTORS Moral or religious
beliefs forbid them to fight in wars.
Exempted from combat “any well recognized
religious sect or organization… whose existing creed or principles forbid its members to participate in war.
WOMEN WORK FOR PEACE Many American
women opposed the war.
Jeanette Rankin, first women to serve in the US House of Representative voted against declaration of war.
Jane Addams- Women’s Peace Party
GOVERNMENT CRACKS DOWN ON DISSENT Espionage Act
Ban treasonable or seditious newspapers, magazines, or printed materials from the mail.
Limited freedom of Speech further with the Sedition Act Unlawful to use
“disloyal, profane, scurrilous or abusive language.”
WOMEN EMBRACE NEW OPPORTUNITIES
Many women moved into the workforce for the first time.
Women filled jobs that were vacated by men who had gone to fight.
By their efforts during the war women convinced President Wilson to support their suffrage demands. 1919 right to vote.
AFRICAN-AMERICAN Presented new opportunities
to African-Americans “If this is our country this is
our war” Movement from the rural
South to the industrial North Great Migration
Escape the violent racism of the south
Others desired better jobs “I beg you, my brother, to
leave the benighted land . . . Get out of the South… Come north then, all you folks, both good and bad… The Defender says come”
Push from the South by… Jim Crow
Segregation laws Lynching and other
racial violence Low-paying jobs as
sharecroppers or servants
Ruined cotton crops due to weevil infestation
Pulled to the North by… Economic
prosperity in northern cities
Job openings due to reduced immigration
Aid from African Americans in the North
MEXICAN AMERICANS MOVE NORTH Some of the
same reasons African-Americans moved north
Many settled in the West working on large farms.
Barrios- Hispanic neighborhoods.
SCHENCK V. UNITED STATES 1919The Facts The Issue The Decision•During World War I, Charles Schenck was convicted of violating the Espionage Act of 1917, which made it a crime to cause refusal of duty in the military.
•Schenck had distributed pamphlets urging men to resist the military draft
•Schenck’s appeal to the Supreme Court argued that his actions were protected by the First Amendment
•“Clear and Present Danger”
•The Court unanimously upheld Schenck’s conviction and said that in times of war the government may place reasonable limitations on freedom of speech.