Unit II- U.S. Foreign Policy History

1. Unit II- U.S. Foreign Policy History Chapter 21 Section 3 The Home Front

2. 10th American HistoryUnit II- U.S. Foreign AffairsReading Quiz for Chapter 21 Sect. 3 1. What is mobilization? 2.What was the Selective Service Act 1917? 3. What was a convoy in WWI? 4. How was money raised for the war effort in WWI? 5. Herbert Hoover, as the head of the Food Administration, called for what kind of days to save food for the war effort? 6. What was the job of War Industries Board? 7. Who helped fill the labor gap made by 4 million men enlisting in WWI? 8. What was the job of Creel Committee?

3. Mobilization of Men and Women • Nation needs an army • May 28, 1917- Selective Service Act (Draft) • All men between 21 and 31 had to register • No buying ones way out- 10 million were listed. • Lottery was the fairest way to choose. Everyone got a number between 1 and 10,500. Numbers placed in a fishbowl and withdrawn enough for 687,000 men into the army. • 24 million men between 18-45 entered selective service. 3 million called into service. • 1918- 4.8 million- enlistee, draftees, and national guard in armed service.

4. Mobilization • Army needed to be fed, clothed, equipped and armed • Shortages at first • American factories were supplying pistols, rifles, machine guns, shells and bullets. • Heavy equipment- artillery, tanks and airplanes were provided by British and French.

5. Mobilization • War at Sea • Convoy to move troops and supplies to Europe. To provide a bridge of ships • Organized group of merchant and passenger ships surrounded and protected by naval vessels to ward off submarine attacks. • US ship building- a mammoth program. • US also seized German vessels in American waters and impressing US vessels the ship gap was filled.

6. Mobilization of Money • Military Expenses • Expenses for army, navy, credit and materials for allies ran into billions. • $23 billion for the U.S. war effort and $10 billion for war loans to Allies. • Taxes and Loans to pay the expenses. • Increased taxes brought in $10.5 billion • The rest came from loans from the people through sale of Liberty Loans and a Victory Loan.

7. Government takes control • Some Private Businesses were taken over. • Some railroads and railway express companies, and inland waterway systems. Then telephone, telegraph and cable. • 1/2 billion was invested in improvements and equipment. • Council of Defense • National Food-control program- Herbert Hoover • Broad powers over production and distribution of food, fuel, fertilizer, and farm machinery. • Voluntary “wheatless, meatless, and heatless’ days. • War gardens • Set Prices for crops to help farmers and encourage production. Farmers paid off mortgages, new machinery, etc. Price of land went up. (Farmers would pay a peacetime price for wartime prosperity) • Rationed coal

8. Government takes control- War Industries Board • The Overman Act of 1918 helped create the War Industries Board- Bernard M. Baruch in charge. • Job- decide what goods should be produced and set prices for government purchases or supplies. • During the war production went up, waste went down and criticism lessened.

9. Government takes control- The Labor Force • A million women helped fill the gap in the labor force left by men. • Mills and factories • Acts of Patriotism by women, but yet after the war they were asked to leave their jobs for men returning. • Blacks- moved north to get jobs. • Shortage of labor sent wages up. Real income went up 20% • United States Employment Service created to fill jobs in vital industries. • A National War Labor Board- created to arbitrate labor disputes.- 8 hour workday and government support of unions.

10. Government takes control- Mobilizing Minds • Millions opposed to war- German Americans, Irish Americans, Socialists, Progressives, Pacifists, • Committee on Public Information- The Creel Committee • Assigned to “sell the war to America” • Propaganda- depict the Germans as hateful beasts, barbarous Huns bent on world domination. • Whip up enthusiasm, sell war bonds, hate our enemy, keep people working hard. • Stirred up spy scares, traitor hunts, slackers, etc. • German language studies dropped, German words changed, Anti- German madness was really Anti-American.

11. Government takes control- Attacking Civil Liberties • Espionage Act of 1917 • Censorship • Penalties against anyone who handed out information about anything connected with national defense. • Penalties to anyone urging resistance to military duty or draft. • Trading with the Enemy Act of 1917 • Any newspaper printed in a foreign language in the U.S. must furnish an English translation to the Postmaster general • Sedition Act of 1918- went further that the 1798 version. • Penalties on anyone who used “disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language about the U.S. government, flag or uniform. • Strange way to fight a war- Eugene Debs socialist candidate for President went to jail. How can the nation improve its war effort if citizens are not allowed to criticize the gov’t or armed forces? Actual opposition was light and did little to hamper the war effort.

12. The Great Influenza- Spanish Flu Pandemic • In the spring of 1918 large numbers of soldiers in the trenches in France became ill. The soldiers complained of a sore throat, headaches and a loss of appetite. Although it appeared to be highly infectious, recovery was rapid and doctors gave it the name of 'three-day fever'. At first doctors were unable to identify the illness but eventually they decided it was a new strain of influenza. • The soldiers gave it the name Spanish Flu but there is no evidence that it really did originate from that country. In fact, in Spain they called it French Flu. Others claimed that the disease started in the Middle Eastern battlefields, whereas others blamed it on China and India. • Other notions of this strain of influenza's origin contained less-politically charged, but equally specious logic. According to one theory, poison gases used in the war, air charged with carbon dioxide from the trenches, and gases formed from decomposing bodies and exploding munitions had all fused to form a highly toxic vapor that flu victims had inhaled. Among the other causes advanced were: air stagnation, coal dust, fleas, the distemper of cats and dogs, and dirty dishwater. A recent study argued that the disease was brought to the Western Front by a group of USA soldiers from Kansas.It originally most likely came from animals.

13. The Great Influenza- Spanish Flu Pandemic • The USA was also very badly affected by the virus. By September a particularly virulent strain began to sweep through the country. By early December about 450,000 Americans had died of the disease. • The country that suffered most was India. The first cases appeared in Bombay in June 1918. The following month deaths were being reported in Karachi and Madras. With large numbers of India's doctors serving with the British Army the country was unable to cope with the epidemic. Some historians claim that between June 1918 and July 1919 over 16,000,000 people in India died of the virus. • It has been estimated that throughout the world over 70 million people died of the influenza pandemic. In India alone, more people died of influenza than were killed all over the world during the entire 1st World War.