22.4:

Over Here

A. Organizing the Economy1. In a sense, WWI was the ultimate progressive crusade. 2. Wilson established the War Industries Board to

coordinate industrial mobilization. Headed by Bernard Baruch, the WIB forced industries to comply with government plans.

3. Herbert Hoover ran the Food Administration.4. The Fuel Administration introduced daylight saving

time.5. Financing the war required new taxes.

6. Most of the needed financing came from Liberty Bond drives.

B. The Business of War1. Industrialists saw the war as an opportunity for expansion and

high profits.2. Henry Ford pioneered efficient mass production techniques. 3. Businessmen and farmers saw the war years as a golden age

of high demand and high profits. 4. The need to coordinate war mobilization:

a. required more efficient managementb. resulted in an unprecedented business-government partnership

5. Government cooperation helped to create new corporations like RCA that set the stage for the new radio broadcasting industry of the 1920s.

6. Some worried about the trend toward a higher government presence in their lives.

C. Labor and the War 1. The wartime labor shortage led to higher wages and a

growth in union membership. 2. The National War Labor Board (NWLB) included AFL

President Samuel Gompers and former President Taft. a. It mediated wage disputes and arbitrated solutions that generally

led to higher wages. b. The NWLB supported workers’ rights to organize unions and

the eight-hour day.

3. Immigration laws were eased in the Southwest to recruit Mexican workers.

4. The radical IWW was destroyed as businesses and government cracked down on it. Over 300 “Wobblies” were arrested in a single government roundup, effectively destroying the organization.

D. Women at Work

1. The war allowed women to shift from low paid domestic service to higher-paying industrial jobs.

2. The Women in Industry Service advised industry on the use of women workers and won improved conditions.

3. Women earned much less than their male counterparts.

4. At the end of the conflict, nearly all women lost their war-related jobs.

Women workers at the Midvale Steel and Ordinance Company in Pennsylvania, 1918. Wartime labor shortages created new opportunities for over one million women to take high-wage manufacturing jobs like these. The opening proved temporary, however, and with the war’s end, nearly all of these women lost their jobs. By 1920, the number of women employed in manufacturing was lower than it had been in 1910. SOURCE:National Archives and Records Administration (1-SC-31731).

E. Woman Suffrage

1. The war also brought a successful conclusion to the women’s suffrage campaign.

a. Prior to WWI, women in several western states had won the vote.

b. Most suffragists had opposed entry into the war.

2. Carrie Chapman Catt, a key leader, convinced her organization to back the war effort.

3. Militants like Alice Paul pursued a strategy of agitation.

4. Catt won Wilson’s support and by 1920 the nineteenth amendment became law.

MAP 22.3 Woman Suffrage by State, 1869–1919 Dates for the enactment of woman suffrage in the individual states. Years before ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920, a number of Western states had legislated full or partial voting rights for women. In 1917, Montana suffragist Jeannette Rankin became the first woman elected to Congress.SOURCE:Barbara G.Shortridge,Atlas of American Women (New York:Macmillan,1987).

F. Women’s Suffrage

Members of the National Woman’s Party picketed President Wilson at the White House in 1917. Their militant action in the midst of the war crisis aroused both anger and sympathy. The NWP campaign helped push the president and the Congress to accept woman suffrage as a “war measure.” SOURCE:Library of Congress.

G. Prohibition

1. During the war, the temperance movement benefited from:

a. anti-German feeling that worked against breweries with German names

b. the need to conserve grain

c. moral fervor associated with the entry into the war

2. Prohibition gained during the war leading to passage of the eighteenth amendment.

H. Public Health

1. The war effort also addressed public health issues such as child welfare, disease prevention, and sex hygiene.

2. The government attempted to safeguard the soldiers’ moral health by discouraging drinking and educating troops on the dangers of venereal disease.

3. Both the war and a worldwide flu epidemic that killed 20 million people in 1918–1919 influenced Congress to appropriate money for public health after the return of peace.

4. In the postwar years, clinics for prenatal and obstetrical care greatly reduced the rate of infant and maternal mortality and disease.

Seattle policemen wearing protective gauze face masks during the influenza epidemic of 1918. The pandemic killed over half a million Americans and some twenty million people worldwide. SOURCE:Time Life Pictures/Getty Images.