1. The Home Front during WWI

3. 1917 Selective Service Act
24,000,000 men registered for the draft by the end of 1918
4,800,000 men served in WWI (2,000,000 saw active combat)
400,000 African-Americans served in segregated units
15,000 Native-Americans served as scouts, messengers, and snipers in non-segregated units
Selective Service Act of 1917 required all men between 21 and 30 to register for the draft. A lottery randomly determined the order they were called before a local draft board in charge of selecting or exempting people from military service. Progressives believed civilians in local communities made best decisions about which men to draft
African Americans served in segregated units often under the direct supervision of white officers. 92nd and 93rd infantry divisions fought in bitter battles along the Western Front, and the 369th infantry division won the highly prized French decoration, the Criox de Guerre (war cross)

4. Mobilization
Gathering of resources and the preparation for war affected every part of American life
National War Labor Board
Created to ensure the most basic demands of workers were met so production for war went unaffected
8 Hour working day
Overtime pay
Equal pay for women

5. Opportunities for African Americans during WWI
War industries work
The Great Migration
300, ,000 African American moved to Northern cities from the rural South to find job in factories
Enlistment in segregated units

6. The Role of Women in WWI Women in the military
Army sent 30,00 women overseas as nurses
Navy employed women in clerical positions

7. Producing Supplies
Government encouraged farmers to produce more and civilians to eat less
Food Administration
Encouraged voluntary rationing
War Industries Board
Managed factories in transition

8. Food Administration “Wheatless Mondays” “Meatless Tuesdays”
“Porkless Thursdays”
· Food: Americans learned to
conserve food for the soldiers.

10. The government standardized the size of loaves of bread made by bakeries. Only bread baked with the exact percentage of substitute ingredients as required by the food laws could be called “victory bread”

12. “V” is for Victory (Garden that is!)
In order to support the troops “victory gardens” were grown by people throughout the nation.

14. Fuel Administration

15. Committee on Public Information

16. Controlling Public Opinion
Even after American entered the war, opposition to it remained strong
Committee on Public Information
Began trying to scilence war disagreement or opposition

17. Espionage Act – 1917
- forbade actions that obstructed recruitment or efforts to promote insubordination in the military.
- ordered the Postmaster General to remove Leftist materials from the mail.
- fines of up to $10,000 and/or up to 20 years in prison.

18. How far are YOU willing to go for your country?
Sedition Act – it was a crime to speak against the purchase of war bonds or willfully utter, print, write or publish any disloyal, profane, or abusive language about this form of US Govt., the US Constitution, or the US armed forces or to willfully urge, incite, or advocate any curtailment of production of things necessary or essential to the prosecution of the war…with intent of such curtailment to cripple or hinder the US in the prosecution of the war.

19. European Home Front Total war
Warfare that includes any and all civilian associated resources and infrastructure as legitimate military targets
Young men removed from production jobs to serve in military roles
Men left farms for the front thus food production fell
German soldiers as young as 15