World War I: The War at Home

Mobilization

Workers During the War

  • •Industry had to expand!
    • Factories had to make supplies & weapons
  • Labor shortage because men left for war
    • New job opportunities for women & African-Americans

Paying for the War

  • •$32 billion needed

    • 2/3 raised through liberty bonds

    • Government increased income & business taxes

Producing Supplies

  • •Food Administration (Herbert Hoover)

    • Encouraged American farmers to produce more

    • Persuaded the public to consume less

  • Rationing - price controls; limiting the use of goods needed for war

 

  • The War Industries Board

  • Monitored factories switching from producing civilian goods to wartime goods

  • example: Ford trucks to tanks

Mobilizing Support

  • •Committee of Public Information

    • Persuade the U.S. that the war was a battle for democracy & freedom

    • Propaganda campaign

African-Americans and the War

  • Great Migration (1914-1920)

    • 300,000 to 500,000 African-Americans moved from the South to the North in search of jobs and settlement

     

  • July 1917, East St. Louis, Illinois

    • A white mob attacked an African-American neighborhood

    • burned homes & fired on residents

Controlling Public Opinion

  • Immigrants remain sympathetic to the Central Powers

  • Socialists - believe that industry should be publicly owned

    • Opposed war b/c it would help rich & hurt poor

  • Pacifists - opposed the use of violence

"The Unpatriotic"

  • Committee of Public Information worked to stop unpatriotic Americans

  • •The Espionage Act

    • 1917 - stiff penalties for spying & aiding the enemy or interfering with recruitment

  • •Sabotage & Sedition Act

    • Crime to say, print, or write anything against the government

 

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