Homefront during WWI

1. Homefront during WWI

2. Council for National Defense • allocate scarce resources, untangle railway transportation snarls, coordinate manufacturing, agriculture, fuel production and transportation. The War Industries Board • power over the economy • drew up plan for industrial mobilization, set production quotas, allocate raw materials, standardize products and develop new industries The War Labor Board • protected rights of workers to form unions and mediate labor disputes

3. Food Administration • headed by Herbert Hoover • Hoover guaranteed a high price for wheat so farmers would increase production • Meatless Mondays • Wheatless Wednesdays • Food shipments to the allies tripled Fuel administration • electric advertising signs remained dark on Thursdays and Sundays • daylight savings time enacted by congress

4. Assembly line • definition – power driven conveyer that carries each element of a product past workers. As it passes each worker adds or fixes some part • machine gun production • 20,000 a year  225, 000 a year • 7,500 ton vessel turned in 3 days Selective Service Act • Congress passed this in May 1917, requiring all men between the ages of 21 and 31 (later 18 and 45) to register for the draft. Local draft boards would then determine who would be called for duty. Government ran the railroads, telegraph and telephone systems during the war