THE EFFECTS OF WORLD WAR I IN THE UNITED STATES: SOCIAL, POLITICAL, AND ECONOMIC CHANGES Created by:...
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Transcript of THE EFFECTS OF WORLD WAR I IN THE UNITED STATES: SOCIAL, POLITICAL, AND ECONOMIC CHANGES Created by:...
THE EFFECTS OF WORLD WAR I IN THE UNITED STATES: SOCIAL, POLITICAL, AND
ECONOMIC CHANGES
Created by:
Sydney Steele
Austin Roth
CONG RE SS G IVE S POWE R TO WILSONBecause World War I created such a conflict, the entire economy
had to be refocused on the war effort. The shift from producing
consumer goods to producing war supplies was too complicated
for private industries. Therefore, the government collaborated in
the effort, granting President Wilson direct control in order to:
• Fix prices• Regulate businesses• Nationalize certain war-related
industries.
WAR INDUSTRIES B OARDEstablished in 1917
Board encouraged companies to use mass production to increase efficiency and urged
them to eliminate waste by standardizing production products.
Industrial production in U.S. increased about 20%
Retail prices soared because the price controls only affected whole sale prices. As a
result:• corporate profits soared• Railroad Administration had also helped regulate the economy and they had
monitored coal supplies and rationed gasoline and heating oil. • Fuel administration introduced daylight saving time, as a way to take
advantage of the longer days of summer.
WAR ECONOMYHourly wages for blue-collar workers-those in the metal trades,
shipbuilding, and meatpacking rose 20%, but household’s income was
largely undercut by rising food prices and housing costs.
Stockholders in large corporations saw enormous profits.
More than 6,000 strikes broke out during the war effort.
To deal with disputes, President Wilson established the National War
Labor Board in 1918. • Workers who disobeyed, could lose their draft exemptions. • The board worked to improve factory conditions and pushed 8
hour workday, promoted safety inspections, and enforced the child labor to be banned.
FOOD ADMINISTRATIONWilson set up the Food Administration under Herbert Hoover.
He declared for certain foods to be eaten on certain days.
Restaurants removed sugar bowls from the table and served bread
only after the first course.
Gardens were planted. As a result,• American food shipments to the Allies tripled.
He set a high government price on wheat and other staples. As a
result, • Farmers responded by putting an additional 40 million acres
into production• Increased their income to 30%
WAR FINANCING
U.S. spent about $35.5 billion on the war effort. • 1/3 of this amount was raised through taxes, including:
• Progressive income tax• war profits tax• And higher excise taxes on tobacco, liquor, and
luxury goods
Government sold bonds through tens of thousands of
volunteers.
COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC INFORMATION
To popularize the war, the government set up a
propaganda agency.
The head of the CPI was a former muckraking
journalist named George Creel who: • Persuaded the nation’s artists and advertising
agencies to create many items to promote the war.
ANTI IMMIGRANT HYSTERIA
Main targets of attacks on civil liberties were focused on: • Americans who emigrated from different nations, especially
from Austria-Hungary and Germany• 2 million Americans who were born in Germany.
As a result:• many Americans lost their jobs,• Schools stopped teaching the German language, • Librarians removed books by German authors from the
shelves, • People even resorted to violence.
ESPIONAGE AND SEDITION ACTS
In June 1917, Congress passed the Espionage Act
Under the Espionage Act, a person could be fined up to
$10,000 and sentenced to 20 years in jail for interfering
with the war effort or for saying anything disloyal, profane,
or abusive about the government in the war effort.
Targeted socialists and labor leaders.
THE WAR ENCOURAGED SOCIAL CHANGE
Black public opinion about the war was divided:• On one side were people like W.E.B. Du
Bois, who believed that blacks should support the war effort
• On the other side, William Monroe Trotter, believed that victims of racism should not support a racist government. He favored protest instead.
THE GREAT MIGRATION
Blacks moving to the North to escape the
Jim Crow South because: • Many African Americans sought to
escape racial discrimination in the south
• A boll weevil infestation, aided by floods and droughts, had ruined much of the South’s cotton fields
• More job opportunities in the North
WOMEN IN THE WARWomen began to integrate into jobs that have been attained by men such
as: • Railroad workers• Cooks • Doc workers• Brick layers • Coal miners/Ship builders
More women began to apply for traditional jobs such as nurses.
Women volunteers, (red cross volunteers), also increased.
In 1919, Congress passed the nineteenth amendment, which had allowed
women the right to vote.
FLU EPIDEMIC Fall of 1918, brought about an international flu
epidemic that affected about 25% of the U.S.
population. It affected the economy through many
ways such as: • Mines being shut down, • Offices staggered, • Working hours changed so that more people
would not be exposed, • Troop living conditions allowed the disease to
spread more rapidly, killing 500,000 Americans
It finally disappeared in 1919.