November 20, 2007

1. November 20, 2007 • How did the U.S. promote war and attack civil liberties? What social changes were made? • Quiz on Section 2 • War Organizations and Selling the War • Homework: “In Another Country” & “Returning Soldiers”

2. Congress Gives Power to Wilson • Winning war was not a job for American soldiers alone

3. Secretary of War: Newton Baker • The entire country had to refocus on the war effort.

4. Shift from consumer goods to producing war supplies too complicated private industry to handle • so business and government collaborated in the effort.

5. Government power greatly expanded • Congress gave Wilson direct control over the economy • the power to fix prices • to regulate (even to nationalize) certain war-related industries

6. War Industries Board (WIB) • Established 1917 and reorganized 1918 under Bernard M. Baruch (prosperous businessman)

7. What Baruch and WIB did: • Encouraged mass-production techniques to increase efficiency • Urged elimination of waste by standardizing products • by making only 5 colors of typewriter ribbons instead of 150

8. The WIB – industrial production in the U.S. increased by about 20% • WIB applied price controls only at the wholesale level

9. Retail prices soared • in 1918 they were almost double what they had been before the war • Corporate profits soared • especially in such industries as chemicals, meatpacking, oil, and steel

10. Other Federal Agencies • The Railroad Administration controlled the railroads

11. The Fuel Administration monitored coal supplies and rationed gasoline and heating oil • “Gasless Sundays” and “Lightless nights” to conserve fuel

12. March 1918 - the Fuel Administration introduced another conservation measure: daylight saving time • first proposed by Ben Franklin in 1770’s as way to take advantage of longer days

13. Do We Need Daylight Savings Today?

14. War Economy • wages in most industries rose during the war years • hourly wages for blue-collar workers (those in the metal trades, shipbuilding, and meatpacking) rose by 20%

15. Household’s income undercut by rising food prices and housing costs • Large corporations saw huge profits • DuPont Company saw its stock multiply in value 1,600 percent between 1914 and 1918 • The company was earning a $68 million yearly profit

17. Uneven pay between labor and management caused: • increasing work hours • child labor • dangerously “sped-up” conditions

18. Unions Boomed • Union membership climbed from about 2.5 million in 1916 to ore than 4 million in 1919 • More than 6,000 strikes broke out during the war months.

19. To deal with disputes between management & labor, President Wilson established the National War Labor Board

20. Workers who refused to obey board decisions could lose their draft exemptions • “Work or Fight”

21. Food Administration • Wilson set up the Food Administration under Herbert Hoover

22. Instead of rationing food, he called on people to follow the “gospel of the clean plate”

23. Declared one day a week “meatless,” another “sweetless,” two days “wheatless,” and two other days “porkless” • Restaurants removed sugar bowls from the table and served bread only after the first course

24. Homeowners planted “victory gardens” in their yards

25. Schoolchildren spent their after-school hours growing tomatoes and cucumbers in public parks • As a result, American food shipments to the Allies tripled

26. Hoover also set up high government price on wheat and other staples • Farmers responded by putting an additional 40 million acres into production • They increased their income by almost 30%

27. Selling the War • War Financing and the Committee on Public Information

28. War Financing • $35.5 billion on the war effort • Raised 1/3 of amount through taxes • progressive income tax (tax high incomes higher rates than low incomes) • war-profits tax • higher excise taxes on tobacco, liquor, and luxury goods

29. Raised the rest through tens of thousands of volunteers • Movie stars spoke at rallies in factories, in schools, and on street corners • Treasury Secretary William G. McAdoo: “a friend of Germany” would refuse to buy war bonds

30. Committee on Public Information • Popularized the war by setting up the first propaganda agency: the Committee on Public Information (CPI) • Propaganda - biased form of communication designed to influence people’s thoughts and actions

31. Head of the CPI was a former muckraking journalist named George Creel

32. Creel persuaded nation’s artists & advertising agencies to create paintings, posters, cartoons, & sculptures promoting the war

33. recruited 75,000 men to serve as “four-minute men” who spoke about everything relating to the war: • the draft • rationing • bond drives • victory gardens • “why we are fighting” or “the meaning of America”

34. ordered a printing of almost 25 million copies of “how the war came to America”

35. distributed some 75 million pamphlets, booklets, and leaflets, many with the enthusiastic help of the Boy Scouts

36. His propaganda campaign promoted patriotism; it also inflamed hatred and violations of the civil liberties of certain ethnic groups and opponents of the war.

37. Attacks on Civil Liberties Increase • Wilson expressed fears about war hysteria • As soon as war was declared, conformity indeed became the order of the day • Attacks on civil liberties, both official and unofficial, erupted

38. Anti-Immigrant Hysteria • Main targets of this Americans who had emigrated from other nations • Most bitter attacks were against those born in Germany, but those who were of German descent also suffered • Many with German names lost their jobs

40. Orchestras refused to play music of Mozart, Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms

41. Some towns renamed themselves (if they had German names) • Schools stopped teaching the German language • Librarians removed books by German authors from the shelves

42. People even resorted to violence (flogging, smearing with tar, and feathers) • A German was lynched while wrapped in his flag and the mob was cleared by a jury

43. German measles to “liberty measles” • Hamburger named after the German city Hamburg became “Salisbury steak” or “liberty sandwich” • Sauerkraut was renamed “liberty cabbage” • Dachshunds named “liberty pups

44. Espionage and Sedition Acts • June 1917 – passed the Espionage Act • May 1918 – passed the Sedition 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 or the war effort

45. Laws violated the 1st Amendment • Led to over 2,000 persecutions for loosely defined antiwar activities (over half resulted in convictions) • Newspapers & magazines that opposed the war or criticized any of the Allies lost their mailing privileges

47. House of Representatives refused to seat Victor Berger (socialist congressman from Wisconsin) b/c of his antiwar views

48. The Acts targeted socialist and labor leaders • Eugene V. Debs was handed a 10-year prison sentence for speaking out against the war and the draft

49. Eugene V. Debs

50. Anarchist Emma Goldman received 2-year prison sentence & $10,000 fine for organizing the No Conscription League • When she left jail, the authorities deported her to Russian