WWI

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WWI Homefront
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Selective Service Act

• May 1917
• Required registration of all men from 18 to 45
• No substitution aloud!
• Yet exemptions took place from key industries
  (ex shipbuilding)
• Within a month, army increased from 200,000 to
  over 4 mil
• Including 400,000 AA and Women (11,000 to Navy)
• Over 300,000 escaped the draft (10,000 prosecuted)

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Committee on Public Info. (Creel Committee)

• Propaganda committee to try to sell America on
  the War world on Wilsons 14 Pts.
• Headed by George Creel
• Employed about 150,000 workers
• Encouraged Liberty Leagues to spy on neighbors
  and report suspicious behavior

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Paying for war?

• Liberty Loan Committee
• US spent about 33 bil. directly on war effort
• Raised 1/3 with increased taxes (income, excise
  on tobacco, liquor and other luxuries
• Liberty Bonds
• Propaganda used to entice Americans to purchase
  bonds including celebrities and massive billboard
  advertisement
• Victory Loan Drives
• William McAdoo (Treasure Secretary) Only a
  friend of Germany would refuse to buy war bonds

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National War Labor Board

• Approx. 6,000 strikes during the war (protest
  stagnant wages despite inflation)
• Lost 35purchasing power throughout war due to
  inflation
• Created to oversee labor disputes
• Prohibited strikes but encouraged progressive
  reforms such as 8-hour work day, higher wages,
  unionization, etc.
• Union Membership
• 1916 2.5 mil to 1919 4 mil
• Wobblies (IWW) continued to be strike

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Food Administration

• Herbert Hoover
• Utilized voluntary compliance than enacting laws
• Wheatless Wednesdays Meatless Tuesdays
• Victory Gardens
• Congress restricted the use of foodstuffs for
  manufacturing alcoholic beverages
• 18th Amendment in 1919 (prohibited sale,
  transportation, manufacturing, and consumption of
  alcohol
• Results
• Farm production increased by 25
• Food exports to Allies tripled in volume

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War Industries Board

• Created in March 1918, headed by Bernard Baruch
• Response to lack of cooperation between military
  and civilian agency in purchasing supplies
• Aimed to control raw materials, production,
  prices and labor relations
• Encouraged mass-production techniques to increase
  efficiency
• Used Price Controls
• 20 increase in industrial production under WIB

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Fuel Administration

• Issued Heatless Mondays, Lightless Tuesdays, and
  Gasless Sundays
• Responsible for Start of Daylight-Saving Time

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Poster 1
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Poster 2
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Poster 3
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POSTER 4
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Poster 5