Mobilizing the Home Front

1. Mobilizing the Home Front America Prepares for War

2. Learning Target: We are leaning to: • Explain how American civilians support the war effort on the home front • Explain how the role of the U.S. government grew as it mobilized the home front for war • Explain how WWII effected the U.S. economy and pulled America out of the Great Depression

3. Learning Target We are looking for: • 1a. Americans supported the war effort in the following ways: purchasing liberty bonds, planting victory gardens, recycled materials, Hollywood Propaganda, conserving resources, business and labor cooperation • 2a. The U.S. government established the Office of War Information, the Office of Civilian Defense, the War Production Board, National War Labor Board, and the Office of Price Information, and the Federal Income tax increased. • 3a. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) increased as well as the federal deficit • 3b. The cost of living rose dramatically • 3c. Unemployment was reduced significantly as factories and businesses increased production for the war.

4. Mobilizing the Home Front • How did the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor change the view of Americans towards war? • Unification of the country – seek revenge for 12.7.1941

5. Building National Morale: • Attack ended the tension between Isolationists and interventionists • Four Freedoms = 1. Freedom of Speech and Expression, 2. Freedom of Worship, 3. Freedom from Want, 4. Freedom from Fear

6. 1. Calling All Volunteers • a. OCD – Office of Civilian Defense – created to raise the country’s morale. - “Contribute an hour a day for the U.S.A.” - Asked people to volunteer to protect the country – 1. Volunteer air-raid wardens – enforced blackouts, while spotters scanned the sky. What is a blackout? Why enforce? - Victory Gardens – people should plant their own gardens because the farmers were providing food for the army. Eventually, victory gardens produced 40% of vegetables grown during the war. - Collecting materials for the war effort = scrap – newspapers, metals, aluminum, cans, box springs – used these scraps to create armaments (weapons)

7. b. The Media Go to War • Office of War Information – kept Americans informed about the war – coordinate war information from various news sources. • Newspapers, radio stations, movie industry – work to inform Americans about the war • Comics – Little Orphan Annie, Superman, G.I. Joe • Advertising – Use Less – why? Now manufacturing for war – cannot make same number of goods as before • Propaganda

8. Staging a Production Miracle: • By 1941, only 15% of businesses were producing for war. Now the nation needed to convert to war production • War Production Board (WPB) = convert industries from civilian to military production – switch from making clothes, cars, toys, to making uniforms, bombs, tanks, aircraft. Build new plants to increase production. • America became so efficient at producing war armaments, that in 1944 the US had a surplus of war crafts

9. Directing a Wartime Economy: • Gross National Product (GNP) – the dollar value of all goods and services produced annually - $90.5 Billion in 1939 to $211.9 Billion in 1945 - War created 17 million new jobs • - Farmers – crop prices doubled between 1940 and 1945 • - People make more money, people buy more goods – consumer goods low in supply, high in demand, price increases - Concern – inflation – general rise in wages and prices

10. a. Controlling Wages and Prices • National War Labor Board (NWLB) – job was to control wages and monitor inflation. • Office of Price Administration (OPA) – fix maximum prices – set ceiling prices on goods • Consumer Price Index (CPI) - measures changes in the price level of consumer goods and services purchased by households in a given year. Change in price of goods and services in a given year.

11. b. Reducing demand by Rationing • OPA used rationing to keep prices down – distribute limited goods fairly • Rationing reduced demand because ration coupons were needed to buy goods – meat, butter - Local rationing boards – set up a families rationing coupons – received coupons based on the number of people in the household and their needs - Government controlled demand and prices through rationing coupons - People now had money, couldn’t buy goods – why?

12. c. Paying for a Costly War • cost 10x more than WWI • Before the war, Americans did not pay federal income tax – Revenue Act – passed in 1942 – increased corporate taxes, Americans had to pay income tax. • Modern tax structure = created in 1942 – government controlled taxes through monthly payroll deductions • Government Bonds – US government borrowed money – citizens would buy government bonds – loan the government money, over time bond would gain interest – people cash in their bonds – get $ + interest

13. No-Strike Pledge • During war time, workers could not strike for higher wages or better working conditions

14. Recruiting New Workers: • 15 Million Americans left work to serve in the armed forces – their jobs were filled by the remaining adults and adolescents • Wartime labor wiped out unemployment of the Depression years • 1940-1945 – 6 million women joined the workforce – woman began working in manufacturing plants – airplanes, shipbuilding – still faced discrimination by their male counterparts • Women received 60% less pay than men, and little job security • Most employment jobs for women were temporary = why? When men returned home from the war, women lost their jobs, or left the workforce

15. War Production Recruitment