The Home Front during WWI

1
The Home Front during WWI
2
http//www.firstworldwar.com/audio/overthere.htm
3
1917 Selective Service Act

• 24,000,000 men registered for the draft by the
  end of 1918
• 4,800,000 men served in WWI (2,000,000 saw
  active combat)
• 400,000 African-Americansserved in segregated
  units
• 15,000 Native-Americans served as scouts,
  messengers, and snipers in non-segregated units

4
Opportunities for African Americans during WWI

• Great Migration. 1916 1919 ? 70,000
• War industries work
• Enlistment in segregated units

5
Labor
'Women working in larger munitions factories were
known as Canaries because they dealt with TNT
which caused their skin to turn yellow. Around
400 women died from overexposure to TNT during
World War One. Other hazards were more obvious
and minor problems were common.'
The War Industries Board told factories what to
produce and the War Labor Board settled labor
disputes
From the biography of a 'Munitionette', Miss Joan
Williams
6
The Role of Women in WWI

• Women in the military
• Army Nursing Corps 10,000 overseas
• Navy clerical duties, radio operators

7
Organizing the War Effort at Home

• War Industries Board Bernard Baruch
• Food Administration Herbert Hoover
• Fuel Administration
• Railroad Administration William McAdoo
• National War Labor Board W. H.Taft
  Frank P. Walsh

8
Food Administration Wheatless Mondays
Meatless Tuesdays Porkless Thursdays
9
(No Transcript)
10
(No Transcript)
11
(No Transcript)
12
V is for Victory (Garden that is!)
13
(No Transcript)
14
Fuel Administration
15
Liberty Bonds and Victory Bonds
16
(No Transcript)
17
Committee on Public Information
18
How far are YOU willing to go for your country?
Espionage Act 1917 - forbade actions that
obstructed recruitment or efforts
to promote insubordination in the
military. - ordered the Postmaster
General to remove Leftist materials from the
mail. - fines of up to 10,000 and/or
up to 20 years in prison.
19
How far are YOU willing to go for your country?
Sedition Act 1918 - it was a crime to
speak against the purchase of war bonds or
willfully utter, print, write or publish any
disloyal, profane, or abusive language about
this form of US Govt., the US
Constitution, or the US armed forces or to
willfully urge, incite, or advocate any
curtailment of production of things
necessary or essential to the prosecution of
the warwith intent of such curtailment to
cripple or hinder the US in the prosecution
of the war.