How were Americans working at home in order to support the war effort?

1. WWI Chapter 12.4
Americans on the Home Front

2. • Notes (#23)==Answer the 3 Qs on the top of p. 432
• What steps did the government take to finance the war &
manage the economy?
• How did the government enforce loyalty to the war
effort?
• How did the war change the lives of Americans on the
home front?
• *Lists or bullet points are fine*

3. • “There are no
armies…; there are
entire nations
armed.”
President Wilson

4. • Liberty Bonds
• Redeemed for original value + interest
• Boy and Girl Scouts sold them to public
• “Every Scout to Save a Soldier”
• 75,000 “Four-Minute Men”
• Artists and actors also helped sell bonds
• Paid for ¼ of U.S. war costs; $20 billion+
• “Buy Bonds Till It Hurts”
• “The Soldier Gives—You Must Lend”
Financing the War

7. • Industry switched from commercial to war goods
• “Dollar-a-year” men
• Business men moved to Washington, DC to head up new gov’t
agencies
• War Industries Board – Bernard Baruch
• Handed out raw materials, told what and how much to
produce, and how much to sell them for (fixed prices)
Managing the Economy

8. • National War Labor Board, led by Taft (former President)
• Unions gain some rights
• Un-patriotic to protest/strike/miss work
• Samuel Gompers promised to limit strikes/labor unrest
Managing the Economy

9. • Lever Food and Fuel Control Act – August, 1917
• President manages production and distribution of food and
fuels necessary for war effort
• Increased farm output, price controls on food, and rationing
– Herbert Hoover (future President)
• “Food will win the war”
• “Gospel of the Clean Plate,” see quote on p. 434
• Daylight Savings Time – more sunlight during the day for
work and less fuel used
• Increased production during summer/fall
• Still have this today, should we?
Managing the War

10. • Herbert Hoover
• Head of the Food
Administration during
WWI
• President from 1929 to
1933

14. • Government censorship on press and banning of
publications from mail
• Committee on Public Information
• George Creel (former muckraker)
• Rally support for war
• Films, pamphlets, posters
Enforcing Loyalty

16. • Fear of spies/espionage
• Might undermine the war efforts
• National Security League preached “100% Americanism”
• Non-profit, non-partisan group
• Nativists
• Fear of Foreigners
• Literacy tests for immigrants
• German hate
• “Salisbury steak” & “police dogs”
• Espionage and Sedition Acts (1917 & 1918)
• Broke 1st amendment rights
• Over 1000 convictions, including Eugene Debs
Enforcing Loyalty

17. • Gov’t esp. cracked down on “radicals”
• Socialists, communists, anarchists
• The IWW or “Wobblies”
• Early stages of the “Red Scare”
• * more on this later*
Enforcing Loyalty

19. • After the War
• Stalled flow of immigrants from Europe
• Business needed workers – African Americans & Mexican
Americans & Women
• 400K women in industrial work during WWI
• African American “Great Migration” to North during war
• 500K moved from South (mostly rural) to North (mostly urban)
Changing People’s Lives

20. • Notes (#23)==Answer the 3 Qs on the top of p. 432
• What steps did the government take to finance the war &
manage the economy?
• How did the government enforce loyalty to the war
effort?
• How did the war change the lives of Americans on the
home front?
• *Lists or bullet points are fine*