America's Role in World War I: Mobilization, Social Change, and Wartime Challenges

1. Late-War Times In Europe and back home

2. America Joins the War • When war is declared, only 200,000 men in active Army service • Selective Service Act – ~3 million men drafted – rapid training with few supplies • ~2 million would reach Europe before fighting ends • ~400,000 African Americans in mostly segregated units • Women allowed to serve as nurses with army, served non-combat roles with navy and marines • Workers in shipyards so essentially, exempted or deferred from draft

3. American Influences 1 • Safety at sea – great reduction in shipping losses • Convoy system – armed escort for merchant vessels • 230-mile barrier of mines helps keep U-boats from roaming the Atlantic • Important shot of manpower and morale for demoralized Allies

4. Chateau-Thierry and Belleau Wood (June, 1918) • Perhaps most important American battle in WWI – (put a dot on your maps just to the west of the Marne battlefield labeled “BW” or “Belleau Wood”) • German advance had reached about 50 miles from Paris, Allies are struggling • American soldiers, including 5th Marine Division, bolster the line and turn back the offense • “Retreat? Hell, we just got here.” • After turning back German armies, go on the offense through Argonne forest and in St. Mihiel (Sept.) • A-H surrenders and German Navy mutinies on Nov. 3; Nov. 9, Kaiser Wilhelm gives up throne • Nov. 11, 1918 – Armistice!

5. New and Improved Deadliness! • Improved machine guns – more accurate, higher rate of fire, air cooling • Poison gas – lethal gases and irritants • Tanks – initially terribly ineffective (breakdowns, getting stuck, terribly slow), but technology improves rapidly • Airplanes – initially for observation, but once the synchronization gear is invented, become devastating – point-and-shoot interface ;)

6. Other Hazards • General filth • Mud, lice, rats • Tainted water  dysentery • dead/decaying bodies • “Shell Shock” – emotional fatigue/collapse • Trench foot – standing in wet trenches without any dry socks or boots – foot literally rots – many toes and whole feet had to be amputated • Trench mouth – infection of gums and throat

7. Final Toll • Around 22 million dead – about half civilians • 20 million wounded • 10 million refugees • Direct cost ~$338 billion • American losses – 48,000 dead in battle; 62,000 dead of disease; 200,000 wounded

8. War at Home • Congress gives Pres. Wilson a great deal of control, especially war-related industry • War Industries Board – increase efficiency, reduce waste – production increases 20% • Prices and corporate profits soar, wages increase, but struggle to keep up with prices • National War Labor Board – formed to settle disputes between labor and management. Keeps workers from striking, but also works for better conditions (8 hr day, safety inspections, etc.) • Food Administration – pushed conservation, not rationing • “Victory Gardens” at homes and garden plots in public plots to produce food, • “Meatless,” “Sweetless,” “Wheatless,” and “Porkless” days • High government price for staples – additional 40 million acres farmed

9. Selling the War • $35.5 billion bill to pay • Taxes – progressive income tax, war profits tax, excise taxes on luxuries • Borrowing – Liberty Loan and Victory Loan bond sales • Propaganda – Committee on Public Information • commissioned artists and ad agencies to make posters, paintings, cartoons, etc. • 75,000 “Four-Minute Men” – speak about war-related topics in public • 25 million copies of “How the War Came to America” and many other booklets, pamphlets, etc.

10. Attacks on Civil Liberties • Anti-Immigrant Hysteria • Especially directed at people of German descent • People with German names lost jobs • Orchestras refused to play German music (Mozart, Bach, Beethoven, Brahms) • Some towns with German names changed them • Schools stopped teaching German • Mob violence • Sauerkraut renamed “victory cabbage,” hamburgers become “Salisbury steak,” dachshunds become “liberty pups” • Espionage and Sedition Acts • Could be fined $10,000 or jailed 20 years for interfering with war effort or saying anything disloyal, profane, or abusive about the gov. or the war effort • Especially targets socialists and labor leaders

11. Social Change –African Americans and Women • “Great Migration” – migration of large numbers of Southern blacks to cities in the north • Escape discrimination • JOBS! • Many women move into jobs traditionally held by men • Also many volunteers – bond sales, victory gardening, working with Red Cross • Active in peace movement • Numerous contributions helped build public support for woman suffrage

12. Worldwide Flu Epidemic • Extremely virulent flu virus spreads in fall of 1918 • Possibly aided by close quarters in military, could have been spread virtually worldwide by soldiers • Affected about 25% of American population • Devastating to economy • 500,000 Americans die, somewhere between 20-40 million worldwide