U.S. Joins the War!!!!Preparing to Fight

• Allies were short on soldiers, food & weapons• Britain & France were on the verge of collapse• Russia: soldiers were deserting to join the revolution

Raising an Army• U.S. needed to expand its army before they could fight• Selective Service Act: all men ages 21-30 are required to

register for the military draft• Draft: law requiring people of a certain age need to enlist

(or enroll) in the military

The Draft– 4,000,000 men & women joined

armed forces

– All ethnic groups enlisted + tons of immigrants

– African Americans served in “black only” units commanded

by white officers• At first unwelcomed, then

segregated within ranks• Relate to Buffalo soldiers?

Educating Troops• 25% were illiterate:

unable to read or write• Services: live healthy,

fight, eat right, read, write

• Helped to improve educational standards for students & teachers thereafter

Managing the war effort• U.S. reorganizes economy to produce food, arms &

goods needed to fight the war• Wilson set up gov’t agencies to oversee the effort• Bureaucracy: system of managing government

through departments run by appointed officials

Food Administration

• Nation had to feed its own troops + send food to the Allies• Used propaganda posters, papers, media• Encouraged by rising food prices, farmers grew more

crops• Citizens planted “victory gardens” to raise their own

vegetables• People went without wheat on “Wheatless Mondays”• People went without meat on “Meatless Tuesdays”• The resources they saved were shipped to the men in the

trenches

War caught the nation short of supplies

• Military had only 600,000 rifles, 2,000 machine guns & 1,000 pieces of artillery

• War Industries Board: told factories what they had to produce & provided for the sharing of limited resources/ decided which prices should be set

• 1918 Wilson creates the War Labor Board: settled disputes over working hours & wages/ tried to prevent strikes

Homefront • Liberty Bonds: bonds sold by the U.S. gov’t to raise money for WW1– U.S. citizens bought bonds

(lending money to gov’t to pay for war)

• “Four-Minute Men”: speakers who gave short public speeches in theaters, movies & public events to urge Americans to make sacrifices for the goals of freedom & democracy

Women Workers

• Men leave for war, women stepped into their jobs• Factories: assembled weapons & plane parts, delivered

mail, police, engineers, drivers– Though pay wasn’t the same, women changed the view that they

were fit for “women’s work”

• When men came back, thousands of women lost jobs

Anti-German Prejudice

• German Americans endure suspicion & intolerance during war• Newspapers questioned their loyalty• Mobs attacked them in the streets• Led some families to change their names• Schools stopped teaching the German language• Americans began to refer to German measles as “liberty measles” &

sauerkraut as “liberty cabbage”– How does this treatment compare to the age of immigration & the base of

Statue of Liberty?

Great Migrations• The war spurred in-migration• Cities/ factories were drained and in need of workers• ½ million African Americans & Mexican Americans traveled

from the South to cities in the North

Great Migrations

• Black populations grew in cities for jobs, yet racism, prejudice & violence also increased

• Competition for jobs & housing lead to riots (especially when soldiers returned from war)

• African American communities rallied with human rights activists– “Mr. President, Why Not Make AMERICA Safe for

Democracy?

Great MigrationsBy 1920, Mexicans were the leading foreign-born group in California• Wartime: cotton fields, copper mines, steel mills (important

jobs at this time)• When veterans returned home & unemployment grew, the

U.S. tried to force Mexican workers to return to Mexico

Opposition to the War• Pacifists: people who refuse to fight in any war

because they believe that war is evil • Socialists: believe that the people as a whole

rather than private individuals should own all property & share the profits from all businesses

Opposition to the War• Socialists argued that war benefited factory owners, but not workers• To promote unity, Congress passed laws making it a crime to criticize

the gov’t or to interfere with the war effort– 1,600 people arrested for breaking these laws

• Resisting or protesting the draft