Unit II- Becoming a World Power
Chapter 8 Section 3
The Home Front
The Main Idea
The U.S. mobilized a variety of resources to wage World War I.
Reading Focus
How did the government mobilize the economy for the war effort?
How did workers mobilize on the home front?
How did the government try to influence public opinion about the war?
The Home Front
Loans and
Liberty Bonds
Mobilizing the Economy
Regulating Industry
•Going to war was extremely expensive, and President Wilson needed to find ways to pay for it.
Taxes
•Congress passed the War Revenue
Act of 1917.
Mobilization of Money
Military Expenses– Expenses for army, navy, credit and
materials for allies ran into billions.– $23 billion for the U.S. war effort and $10
billion for war loans to Allies.– Taxes and Loans and Liberty Bonds
Government takes control- War Industries Board
The Overman Act of 1918 helped create the War Industries Board- Bernard M. Baruch–Job-.–During the war.
Raising Money, Conservation and Government Controls- 2:21 min.
Daylight Savings, Taxes, and Liberty Bonds – 1:04
Mobilization
Army needed to be fed, clothed, equipped and armed
Regulations to Supply U.S. and Allied Troops
Regulating Fuel
•The Fuel Administration
•daylight savings time
•fuel conservation.
Regulating Food
• Congress passed the Lever Food and Fuel Control Act.
• Herbert Hoover’s Food Administration.
• The 1919 Volstead Act.
Government takes control
Some Private Businesses were taken over.
Council of Defense
Mobilizing the Economy
How did the government mobilize the economy for the war effort?
What was the War Revenue Act of 1917? What was the function of the War Industries
Board? Why do you think it was necessary for the
government to set prices and production controls for food and fuel during the war?
Mobilizing the Economy
What steps did the Fuel Administration take to encourage fuel conservation?
How did patriotism play a part in the passage of the 18th Amendment?
Mobilizing Workers During the war, the profits of many major industrial
companies skyrocketed.
This created enormous profits for stockholders
Factory wages also increased, but the cost of food and housing went up.
War demands also led to laborers working long hours in increasingly dangerous conditions.
labor unions.
Union membership increased by about 60 percent between 1916 and 1919, and unions boomed as well, with more than 6,000 strikes held during the war.
Wartime WorkersWomen’s
War EffortsNational War Labor Board
Government takes control- The Labor Force
United States Employment Service created to fill jobs in vital industries.
A National War Labor Board- created to arbitrate labor disputes.- 8 hour workday and government support of unions.
The Influenza Pandemic of 1918 (02:38)
Influenza Spreads Three waves of a severe flu epidemic
broke out between 1918 and 1919 in Europe and in America.
Of all American troops who died in World War II, half died from influenza.
On the Western Front, crowded and unsanitary trenches helped flu spread among troops, then to American military camps in Kansas and beyond.
This strain of influenza was deadly, killing healthy people within days, and during the month of October 1918, influenza killed nearly 200,000 Americans.
Panicked city leaders halted gatherings, and people accused the Germans of releasing flu germs into the populace.
By the time it passed, over 600,000 Americans lost their lives.
Scientists haveReconstructed the1918 influenza Virus and found itto be a bird flu that was transmitted directly to humansThey analyzed twoPeople who died in 1918 epidemic..
Mobilizing Workers
How did workers mobilize on the home front? What were some of the policies set by the
National War Labor Board? What can you infer from the fact that profits of
many major industrial corporations skyrocketed because they sold their products to the federal government?
How did war demands lead to an increase in union membership?
Mobilizing Workers
How did the influenza epidemic affect American life?
How did the influenza epidemic spread?
Influencing Public Opinion
Reactions
President Wilson used a number of tactics to gain the support of Americans who had favored neutrality in World War I.
Propaganda
• The Committee on Public Information (CPI) appointed reporter and reformer George Creel as its leader.
Fear on the Homefront: The Espionage and Sedition Acts (05:19)
WWI: The Espionage and Sedition Acts (03:43)
Government takes control- Mobilizing Minds
Millions opposed to war- German Americans, Irish Americans, Socialists, Progressives, Pacifists,
Committee on Public Information- The Creel Committee
Propaganda and the Creel Committee – 1:51
Some Americans Speak Out
• Prominent Americans such as pacifist reformer Jane Addams and Senator Robert La Follette spoke out against the war.
• Addams founded the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom.
• Wilson’s administration tried to limit public speech about the war.
•Espionage Act
•Sedition Act
Limiting Antiwar Speech
Legislation
Opponents
•More than 1,000 opponents of war were jailed under those acts
•Socialist Party leader Eugene Debs
Opponents Go to the Supreme Court
Schenck v. United States Schenck v. United States (1919)(1919)
Influencing Public Opinion
How did the government try to influence public opinion about the war?
What is propaganda? How did anti-German feelings affect
American life during World War I?
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