1. Unit II- Becoming a World Power
Chapter 8 Section 3
The Home Front

2. The U.S. mobilized a variety of resources to wage World War I.
The Home Front
The Main Idea
The U.S. mobilized a variety of resources to wage World War I.
Reading Focus
How did the government mobilize the economy for the war effort?
How did workers mobilize on the home front?
How did the government try to influence public opinion about the war?

4. Mobilizing the Economy
Going to war was extremely expensive, and President Wilson needed to find ways to pay for it.
Taxes
Congress passed the War Revenue Act of 1917.
Loans and Liberty Bonds
Regulating Industry

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 and Liberty Bonds

11. Government takes control- War Industries Board
The Overman Act of 1918 helped create the War Industries Board- Bernard M. Baruch
Job-.
During the war.

13. Raising Money, Conservation and Government Controls- 2:21 min.

14. Daylight Savings, Taxes, and Liberty Bonds – 1:04

15. Army needed to be fed, clothed, equipped and armed
Mobilization
Army needed to be fed, clothed, equipped and armed

17. Regulations to Supply U.S. and Allied Troops
Regulating Food
Congress passed the Lever Food and Fuel Control Act.
Herbert Hoover’s Food Administration.
The 1919 Volstead Act.
Regulating Fuel
The Fuel Administration
daylight savings time
fuel conservation.

21. Government takes control
Some Private Businesses were taken over.
Council of Defense

22. Mobilizing the Economy
How did the government mobilize the economy for the war effort?
What was the War Revenue Act of 1917?
What was the function of the War Industries Board?
Why do you think it was necessary for the government to set prices and production controls for food and fuel during the war?

23. Mobilizing the Economy
What steps did the Fuel Administration take to encourage fuel conservation?
How did patriotism play a part in the passage of the 18th Amendment?

24. Mobilizing Workers
During the war, the profits of many major industrial companies skyrocketed.
This created enormous profits for stockholders
Factory wages also increased, but the cost of food and housing went up.
War demands also led to laborers working long hours in increasingly dangerous conditions.
labor unions.
Union membership increased by about 60 percent between 1916 and 1919, and unions boomed as well, with more than 6,000 strikes held during the war.

26. National War Labor Board
Wartime Workers
National War Labor Board
Women’s War Efforts

28. Government takes control- The Labor Force
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.

29. The Influenza Pandemic of 1918 (02:38)

30. Influenza Spreads
Three waves of a severe flu epidemic broke out between 1918 and 1919 in Europe and in America.
Of all American troops who died in World War II, half died from influenza.
On the Western Front, crowded and unsanitary trenches helped flu spread among troops, then to American military camps in Kansas and beyond.
This strain of influenza was deadly, killing healthy people within days, and during the month of October 1918, influenza killed nearly 200,000 Americans.
Panicked city leaders halted gatherings, and people accused the Germans of releasing flu germs into the populace.
Scientists have
Reconstructed the
1918 influenza
Virus and found it
to be a bird flu that
was transmitted
directly to humans
They analyzed two
People who died in
1918 epidemic..
By the time it passed, over 600,000 Americans lost their lives.

32. Mobilizing Workers How did workers mobilize on the home front?
What were some of the policies set by the National War Labor Board?
What can you infer from the fact that profits of many major industrial corporations skyrocketed because they sold their products to the federal government?
How did war demands lead to an increase in union membership?

33. How did the influenza epidemic affect American life?
Mobilizing Workers
How did the influenza epidemic affect American life?
How did the influenza epidemic spread?

34. Influencing Public Opinion
President Wilson used a number of tactics to gain the support of Americans who had favored neutrality in World War I.
Propaganda
The Committee on Public Information (CPI) appointed reporter and reformer George Creel as its leader.
Reactions

35. Fear on the Homefront: The Espionage and Sedition Acts (05:19)

36. WWI: The Espionage and Sedition Acts (03:43)

40. Government takes control- Mobilizing Minds
Millions opposed to war- German Americans, Irish Americans, Socialists, Progressives, Pacifists,
Committee on Public Information- The Creel Committee

41. Propaganda and the Creel Committee – 1:51

42. Limiting Antiwar Speech
Some Americans Speak Out
Prominent Americans such as pacifist reformer Jane Addams and Senator Robert La Follette spoke out against the war.
Addams founded the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom.
Wilson’s administration tried to limit public speech about the war.
Legislation
Espionage Act
Sedition Act
Opponents
More than 1,000 opponents of war were jailed under those acts
Socialist Party leader Eugene Debs

46. Opponents Go to the Supreme Court
Schenck v. United States (1919)

47. Influencing Public Opinion
How did the government try to influence public opinion about the war?
What is propaganda?
How did anti-German feelings affect American life during World War I?