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United States Mobilization for War & Homefront. Newly Create d Government Provisions. Neutrality Acts of 1935, 1936, 1937 Isolationistic influence Neutrality Act of 1936 “Cash and Carry” Selective service act of October1940 Peacetime draft Conscientious O bjection Lend-Lease Act 1941
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Newly Created Government Provisions • Neutrality Acts of 1935, 1936, 1937 • Isolationistic influence • Neutrality Act of 1936 • “Cash and Carry” • Selective service act of October1940 • Peacetime draft • Conscientious Objection • Lend-Lease Act 1941 • Economic declaration of war on Germany } Terms and Forms of Aid to Allied powers
New Government Agencies • Office of War Information (OWI) 1942 • organized the distribution of war information to the public to help create means of understanding the war http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3eoE12ywDzA&feature=related • War Production Board (WPB) 1942 • Oversaw industrial transformation
More Agencies • Office of War and Mobilization 1942 • supervised efforts to distribute proper materials for converted industries, regulated production of civilian goods, established production contracts, negotiate organized labor, and controled inflation • Woman’s Army Corps (WAC) 1943 • provided secretarial workers, truck drivers, instructors, and lab technicians
Problems and Conflicts • War contributed to increased prices and shortages in food, housing, gas, clothing, transportation • Standard of living decreased as a result • Increases in salary due to jobs created by the war did not improve purchasing power of most citizens • Many Americans were unhappy that they had to sacrifice so much • Wealthy lived luxuriously on products purchased on the newly created black market
Problems: Rationing • Wartime rationing: • Sugar: May 1942 • Coffee November: 1942 • Canned Goods: March 1, 1943 (Meat and butter later that month) • Meat: 28oz. per person per week • Butter: 4oz. per person per week • Gasoline Rationing (May 1941): • Stickers distributed based on use of the vehicle (i.e. for workers commute, on the job use, pleasure, and emergency vehicles) • Labled “A” through “E” to indicate usage and amount of gasoline allowed for purchase • Led to suspicion and scandal
Conflicts: Companies reaping benefits of war? • April 1943: the government declares 27 million workers "essential", forbidding them to leave their jobs • Many union members who committed to a no-strike pledge held protests • Protests concerned workers’ safety and working conditions • Many were “walkouts”