THE HOME FRONT

T HE GOVERNMENT ’ S ROLE Before the war the government played a small role in the day to day lives of Americans It regulated industrial and agricultural products. Attempted to manipulate the public’s opinion (propaganda)

M OBILIZATION AT HOME. Mobilization Economic Emotional Troops

A MERICA M OBILIZES FOR W AR US Army was originally a fraction of the size of European armies. Wilson encouraged Americans to volunteer and pushed congress to pass “Selective Services Act” Passed in 1917 Authorized a draft of young men for military service in Europe. 9.6 million registered for the draft and were assigned a number. Gov’t held a “great national lottery” to decide the order in which the draftees would be called into service. Over course of war 24 million registered 2.8 actually drafted. 4 million total served including volunteers.

Wilson also worked to shift the economy to wartime production Council of National Defense Created to oversee different agencies. Food production, coal, petroleum distribution, and railway use. Government determined what crops grew and how supplies moved around on nation’s trains. A MERICA M OBILIZES FOR W AR

W AR I NDUSTRIES B OARD (WIB) Bernard Baruch WIB regulated all industries engaged in war effort. System of free enterprise was curtailed to fulfill the nations need for war materials.

T O KEEP WORKERS WORKING …

W HAT DID FACTORIES PRODUCE ? Women's blouse factories made signal flags Radiator manufacturers made guns Automobile factories made airplane engines Piano companies made airplane wings.

C OMMITTEE ON P UBLIC INFORMATION (CPI) Had to convince Americans that war was a just cause Distributed 75 million pamphlets Millions of posters that dramatized the needs of America and its allies Stressed cruelty of Germans

P ROPAGANDA : W ILSON FORMED THE C OMMITTEE ON P UBLIC I NFORMATION (CPI). What do these posters say about Germany?

D OES PROPAGANDA EXIST IN THE 21 ST CENTURY ? WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The cafeteria menus in the three House office buildings changed the name of "french fries" to "freedom fries," in a culinary rebuke of France stemming from anger over the country's refusal to support the U.S. position on Iraq.

T HE H OME F RONT Censorship Not told about high death toll Romanticized the battlefields “soldiers have died a beautiful death, in noble battle, we shall rediscover poetry…epic and chivalrous”

T HE H OME F RONT Impossible to hide death Women in mourning Badly wounded soldiers returned home Opposition began to emerge

O PPOSITION TO THE WAR German Americans and Irish Americans opposed the allies Sometimes treated with prejudice Draft created controversy Some refused and often court-martialed and imprisoned. 12% of men who received draft notices didn’t respond.

C ONSCIENTIOUS O BJECTORS Moral or religious beliefs forbid them to fight in wars. Exempted from combat “any well recognized religious sect or organization… whose existing creed or principles forbid its members to participate in war.

W OMEN W ORK FOR P EACE Many American women opposed the war. Jeanette Rankin, first women to serve in the US House of Representative voted against declaration of war. Jane Addams- Women’s Peace Party

G OVERNMENT CRACKS DOWN ON DISSENT Espionage Act Ban treasonable or seditious newspapers, magazines, or printed materials from the mail. Limited freedom of Speech further with the Sedition Act Unlawful to use “disloyal, profane, scurrilous or abusive language.”

W OMEN E MBRACE N EW O PPORTUNITIES Many women moved into the workforce for the first time. Women filled jobs that were vacated by men who had gone to fight. By their efforts during the war women convinced President Wilson to support their suffrage demands right to vote.

A FRICAN -A MERICAN Presented new opportunities to African- Americans “If this is our country this is our war” Movement from the rural South to the industrial North Great Migration Escape the violent racism of the south Others desired better jobs “I beg you, my brother, to leave the benighted land... Get out of the South… Come north then, all you folks, both good and bad… The Defender says come”

Push from the South by… Jim Crow Segregation laws Lynching and other racial violence Low-paying jobs as sharecroppers or servants Ruined cotton crops due to weevil infestation Pulled to the North by… Economic prosperity in northern cities Job openings due to reduced immigration Aid from African Americans in the North

M EXICAN A MERICANS M OVE N ORTH Some of the same reasons African- Americans moved north Many settled in the West working on large farms. Barrios - Hispanic neighborhoods.

S CHENCK V. U NITED S TATES 1919 The FactsThe IssueThe Decision During World War I, Charles Schenck was convicted of violating the Espionage Act of 1917, which made it a crime to cause refusal of duty in the military. Schenck had distributed pamphlets urging men to resist the military draft Schenck’s appeal to the Supreme Court argued that his actions were protected by the First Amendment “Clear and Present Danger” The Court unanimously upheld Schenck’s conviction and said that in times of war the government may place reasonable limitations on freedom of speech.