7.12 World War II Mobilization

War Production Board, Office of Price Administration, federal spending, accumulated debt, Manhattan Project, Office of War Information, the Good War, Double V, civil rights, executive order to prohibit discrimination, Smith v. Allwright, braceros, Korematsu v. U.S., Rosie the Riveter, wartime migration

federal government and the economy

• War Production Board (WPB) - established to manage war industries

• Office of War Mobilization - set production priorities and controlled raw materials

• Office of Price Administration (OPA) - tried to regulate wartime inflation by freezing prices, wages, rent and rationing meat, sugar, gasoline, and tires

• federal spending increased, America spent its way out of depression and developed accumulated debt of $250 bIllion

business and industry

wartime demand and government contracts → spike in production and profits, concentrated in large businesses

Office of Research and Development

established to contract scientists and universities to improve technologies to defeat the enemy

• Manhattan Project - top-secret project that produced the first atomic weapons

workers and unions

• workers and unions agreed not to strike during the war

• went on strike disgruntled that wages were frozen

• Smith-Connally Anti-Strike Act of 1934 - act passed over FDR’s veto, empowered the federal government to take over war-related businesses threatened by strikes

financing the war

• increased income tax

• selling war bonds

wartime propaganda

• primarily focused on maintaining morale

• Office of War Information - controlled news about troop movement and battles

• Norman Rockwell’s “Four Freedoms”

• “the Good War” - the war was seen as being fought for democracy and patriotism

WWII impact on society

• wartime expansion of factory jobs → wartime migration from rural areas

• African Americans still discriminated against, left the south for jobs and joining the armed forces

• Mexican Americans - braceros and race riots

  • braceros - Mexican farm workers, allowed to enter the U.S. as temporary residents

• Native Americans - more than half never returned to reservations

• Japanese Americans - ordered into internment camps

  • Korematsu v. U.S. - Supreme Court upheld internment policy because it was seen as a wartime necessity

• women - took on jobs left behind by men

  • Rosie the Riveter - song encouraging women to take defense jobs

WWII impact on African Americans

• taking jobs and joining the armed forces

• race riots in the summer of 1943 due to resentment against new African American neighbors

• Double V slogan - victory over fascism abroad and victory of equality at home, encouraged by civil rights leaders

• increased activity in civil rights organizations

• Roosevelt’s executive order to prohibit discrimination in government and businesses that received federal contracts

• Smith v. Allwright - the Supreme Court ruled against denying membership in political parties to African Americans for the purpose of excluding them from political primaries