7.6 World War I: Home Front

Food Administration, Railroad Administration, National War Labor Board, Liberty Bonds, George Creel, Committee on Public Information, Espionage Act, Sedition Act, Eugene Debs, Schenck v. United States, Selective Service Act, service of African Americans, jobs for women, migration of Mexicans, Great Migration, 1918 pandemic, recession, Red Scare, anti-German hysteria, anti-Communist hysteria, xenophobia, Palmer Raids, Strikes of 1919, racial riots

mobilization of industry and labor, finance, and public opinion

• War Industries Board set production priorities and established centralized control over raw materials and prices

• Food Administration - encouraged American families to eat less meat and bread for more to be shipped to French and British troops

• Fuel Administration - efforts to save coal

• Railroad Administration - took public control of railroads, coordinated traffic, promoted standardized railroad equipment

• National War Labor Board - arbitrated disputes between workers and employers

• Liberty Bonds - received Americans’ savings to fund the war

• Committee on Public Information - propaganda agency depicting heroism of U.S. soldiers and villainy of Germany

civil liberties

• Barred Zone Act/Immigration Act of 1917 - prohibited anyone from Middle East to Southeast Asia region from entering the U.S., established literacy tests in the immigration process

• Espionage Act - allowed imprisonment for up to 20 years for inciting rebellion in armed forces or obstructing the draft

  • Schenck v. United States - Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes of the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Espionage Act, free speech could be limited when representing “clear and present danger”

• Sedition Act - prohibited “disloyal” remarks about the U.S. government (ex. Eugene Debs sentenced to 10 years)

armed forces

• Selective Service Act - democratic method ensuring all groups of population were called into service

• service of African Americans - African Americans were segregated against in the army and still did not earn equal rights after the war

effects on American society

• jobs for women - women’s contributions to war effort persuaded Wilson and congress to ratify the 19th amendment

• migration of Mexicans into the U.S. and employment

• Great Migration - African Americans migrate north for jobs in cities due to the South’s

  • segregation and racial violence

  • destruction of cotton crops by boll weevil

  • limited economic opportunities

postwar problems

• 1918 pandemic - influenza outbreak, underreported to keep up morale during the war

• demobilization and recession

  • employment was taken by returning soldiers

  • military product factories declined

  • U.S. farmers were hurt by the return of European products

  • inflation occurred → recession in 1921, 10% unemployment

• Red Scare - anti-German hysteria was replaced by anti-Communist Hysteria, fueling xenophobia and immigration restrictions

• Palmer Raids - unexplained bombings → Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer to mass arrest foreign-born anarchists, socialists, labor agitators

• Strikes of 1919 - made public opinion turn against unions

• racial violence

  • racial riots erupted during the war

  • Tulsa Race Massacre - massacre and destruction of black-owned business and properties after a black man was saved from lynching

• Confederate monument construction

• death of Progressive idealism

Strikes of 1919

made public opinion turn against unions

• shipyard workers peacefully struck for higher pay, no violence

• police went on strike because unionizers were fired, National Guard was sent to break the strike

• U.S. steel corporation workers struck, state and federal troops were called, leading to violence and deaths