The War to End War

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The War to End War

• 1917 - 1918

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War by Act of Germany

• Jan 22, 1917 futile attempt to mediate between
  the embattles belligerents
• peace without victory
• Jan 31, 1917 Germany announced unlimited
  submarine warfare
• sink all ships, including Americas, in the war
  zone

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Wilson Responds

• Wilson broke diplomatic relations
• War only if Germans took overt acts against
  American lives or property
• Wilson asked Congress for the authority to arm
  merchant ships
• Filibuster to block measure
• Reminder of the strength
  of American isolationism

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Zimmermann Note

• March 1, 1917 note was intercepted published
• German foreign minister Arthur Zimmermann
  secretly proposed a German-Mexican Alliance
• Promised recovery of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona
  
• Infuriated Americans, especially westerners

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Zimmermann Telegram
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Zimmermann Telegram
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Wilson Moves Toward War

• March 1917 - German U-boats sank 4 unarmed
  American merchant vessels
• Russian Revolution had overthrown the tsar
• America could now fight for democracy
• April 2, 1917 Wilson asked Congress for a
  declaration of war against Germany

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Wilsonian Idealism Enthroned

• 6 senators 50 representatives voted against war
• Jeannette Rankin first congresswoman (Montana)
• Wilson goals for war
• a war to end war
• Crusade to make the world
  safe for democracy

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Wilsons Fourteen Points

• Jan 8, 1918 Wilson delivered his 14 points to
  Congress
• 1st Five Points
• Abolish secret treaties
• Freedom of the seas
• Removal of all economic barriers
• Reduction of armament burdens
• Adjustment of colonial claims in the interest of
  both native peoples the colonizers
• 14th Point League of Nations
• International organization that would provide
  collective security

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Creel Manipulates Minds

• Committee on Public Information
• headed by George Creel
• Purpose sell America on the war
  sell the world on Wilsonian war
  aims
• Employed 150,000 workers
• Sent 75,000 four-minute men delivered countless
  speeches
• Varies forms
• Posters, leaflets, pamphlets,
  propaganda booklets, movies, songs

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Propaganda
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Enforcing Loyalty Stifling Dissent

• German-Americans numbered over 8 million
• Dependable loyalty to the US
• Hatred of Germans things Germanic swept the
  nation
• Controlling Public Opinion
• 1917 Espionage Act stiff penalties for spying
• 1918 Sabotage Act Sedition Act made it a
  crime to say, print, or write almost anything
  perceived as negative about the government

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• 1,900 prosecutions under the laws
• Mostly antiwar Socialists members of the
  radical union Industrial Workers of the World
  (IWW)
• Eugene V. Debs sentenced to 10 years under the
  Espionage Act in 1918 (Socialists)
• Later pardoned by President Harding in 1921
• William (Big Bill) Haywood (head of IWW) 99
  associations were also convicted

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Factories Go to War

• Wilson had done little to prepare for the
  possibility of war
• 1915 Council of National Defense study
  problems of economic mobilization
• Shipbuilding programs
• Modest beefing-up of the army 100,000 regulars
• 1918 War Industries Board
• Bernard Baruch Labor will win the war

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The War Workers

• 1918 War Departments work or fight rule
• Threatened any unemployed male with being
  immediately drafted
• National War Labor Board chaired by Taft
• Head off labor disputes that might hamper the war
  effort
• Helped workers receive higher wages 8 hour days
• Did not guarantee the right to organize into
  unions
• Samuel Gompers AF of L supported the war
• IWW (Wobblies) other radical labor
  organizations
• Engineered damaging industrial sabotage

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Strikes The Strikebreakers

• 6000 strikes broke out during the war years
• 1919 Steelworkers Strike
• More than a quarter of a million workers walked
  off
• Wanted right to organize bargain collectively
• Company refused to negotiate
• Hired 30,000 African American strikebreakers
• More than a dozen workers dead

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Great Migration

• African Americans moved North for war-industry
  employment
• Racial tensions resulted
• July 1917 East St. Louis, MI
• 9 whites 40 blacks dead
• July 1919 - Chicago Race Riot
• Reign of terror lasted 2 weeks / 15 whites 23
  blacks dead

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Women the War

• Thousands of female workers
  worked in factories fields
• took jobs vacated by men who went to war
• President Wilson convinced to endorse woman
  suffrage as a vitally necessary war measure
• 19th Amendment women receive the right to vote
  1920
• Womens Bureau emerged after the war
• Protect women in the workplace
• Sheppard-Towner Maternity Act of 1921
• Provided federally financed instruction in
  maternal infant health care

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Womens Suffrage
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Forging a War Economy

• Food Administration
• Headed by Hebert C. Hoover already considered a
  hero because of the charitable drive to Belgium
• Preferred voluntary compliance
• Rejected ration cards
• Propaganda campaign
• Wheatless Wednesdays
• Meatless Tuesdays
• Victory Gardens
• 1919 18th Amendment
• prohibited alcohol
• Many brewers were German used foodstuffs

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Voluntary Approach

• Fuel Administration save fuel
• Heatless Mondays
• Lightless Nights
• Gasless Sundays
• Treasury Department
• Promoted sale of Liberty Loans
• Victory loan campaign - 1919
• Taxes were eventually raised

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Forceful Approach

• 1917 Govt took over the nations railroads
• Govt seized merchant vessels in American harbors
• Started campaign to build more ships// a few
  ships vessels were launched Faith

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Making Plowboys into Doughboys

• Early American involvement
• Used navy to uphold freedom of the seas
• Shipped war materials to the Allies supplied
  them with loans
• April May 1917 Allies confessed the need for
  American troops
• More troops or the whole western
  front would collapse

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The Draft

• Wilson disliked draft but eventually supported
  conscription
• Draft bill was criticized by Congress
• Passed 6 weeks after US had declared war
• Required registration of all males 18 45
• No one could purchase an exemption or hire a
  substitute
• Worked effectively
• Army grew to 4 million
• Women African Americans
• Women admitted to navy marines
• African Americans segregated units usually
  under white officers

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Fighting in France

• Bolsheviks withdrew Russia from
  war early in 1918
• Released Germans from the eastern front in
  Russia moved them to western front in France
• Spring of 1918 before the US reached France to
  fight
• Mainly used as replacements with the British
  French
• Small detachments were also sent to Belgium,
  Italy, Russia

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Spring of 1918

• Allied nations united under French
  Marshal Foch in order to fight the Germans
• May 1918 Germans came within 40 miles of Paris
• US troops sent to Château-Thierry right into the
  German advance
• 1st significant engagement of
  American troops in European war
• July 1918 Second Battle of the Marne
• Beginning of the German withdrawal

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War Continues

• Americans were demanding a separate army
• General (Black Jack) Pershing was assigned a
  front
• Last mighty Allied assault
• Sept 26 Nov 11, 1918 - Pershings army
  undertook the Meuse-Argonne offensive
• Goal was to cut the German railroad lines
• Lasted 47 days included 1.2 million American
  troops
• Germans were ready to surrender

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Fourteen Points Disarm Germany

• October 1918 Wilson demanded that the Kaiser be
  overthrown before an armistice could be reached
• Kaiser was forced to flee to Holland
• Germany surrendered Nov. 11, 1918
• USs main contributions
• Foodstuffs, munitions, credits, oil,
  manpower

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Woodrow Wilson

• Very popular
• Personally appealed for a Democratic victory in
  the congressional elections of 1918
• Republicans won a majority to Congress
• Decided to go to Paris for the peace conference
• Infuriated Republicans
• Peace Treaty - snubbed the Senate neglected to
  include a single Republican
• Should have included Henry Cabot Lodge chairman
  of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations

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Idealists Battles the Imperialists

• The Big Four
• Woodrow Wilson US
• Vittorio Orlando Italy
• David Lloyd George Britain
• Georges Clemenceau France
• Wilsons goal- League of Nations
• Victors would not take conquered territory
  outright
• Receive territory as trustees of the League of
  Nations
• Syria France /// Iraq Britain
• Feb. 1919 League was included in peace treaty

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Hammering Out the Treaty

• League of Nations was not popular in US
• William Borah Hiram Johnson
• Republican senators refused to approve
  the League in its imperfect form
• France
• Demand the Rhineland the Saar Valley
• Compromise Saar Bain would remain under the
  League for 15 years then a popular vote
  Britain and US would aid in defense from German
  invasion

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• Italy
• Demand Fiume but Wilson insisted
  that the seaport go to Yugoslavia
• Turned against Wilson
• Japan
• Demand Chinas Shantung peninsula German
  islands in the Pacific
• Compromise Japan kept Shantung pledged to
  return it to China at a later date

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Treaty of Versailles

• June 1919 Germans were forced to sign
• Take full responsibility for the war
• Disarmament
• Pay billions in reparations
• Give up colonial holdings
• Wilson was forced to compromise in order to save
  the League of Nations
• Liberation of millions of minority peoples
• Wilson was no longer popular in Europe
• US did not support any part of entangling
  alliances

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Wilsons Tour

• Majority of Americans did support the treaty
• July 1919 Lodge wanted to Americanize,
  Republicanize, or senatorialize it
• Republicans wanted to take credit
• Summer 1919 - Wilson began speechmaking tour
• Appeal directly to the people for their support
• Midwest received Wilson lukewarmly
• Rocky Mountain region Pacific Coast welcomed
  Wilson
• Borah Johnson spoke out against Wilson

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Wilsons Collapse

• Breaking Point
• September 25, 1919 Wilson pleaded for the
  League of Nations in Colorado
• Collapsed later had a stroke that paralyzed one
  side of his body
• Did not meet with his cabinet for 7½ months

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Wilson Rejects the Lodge Reservations

• Senator Lodge proposed 14 formal reservations to
  the 14th Points
• Rejected by Wilson with the strong support of the
  Democrats
• Republicans disliked it because it morally bound
  the US to aid members
• Wilson sent word to all Democrats to vote no
• Nov 19, 1919 treaty was rejected

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Defeat Through Deadlock

• Majority of Congress could not agree
• March 1920 Treaty was brought
  up for a vote again
• Wilson sent word to the Democrats to vote down
  the treaty with the Lodge reservations
• March 19, 1920 treaty was rejected again
• Who defeated the treaty?
• Lodge-Wilson personal feud, traditionalism,
  isolationism, disillusionment, partisanship

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Election of 1920

• Wilson proposed to settle the treaty in the
  election
• Appealed to the people for a solemn referendum
• Republicans
• Platform appealed to the Pro-League
  Anti-Leaguers
• Warren G. Harding presidential candidate
• Selected by Senate bosses meeting in the
  smoke-filled Room 404 of the Hotel Blackstone
• Calvin Coolidge vice presidential candidate
• Democrats
• James M. Cox
  Franklin Roosevelt

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Election Results

• Harding wins
• First Presidential election for franchised female
  voters
• Death sentence for the League
• Eugene V. Debs received the largest vote ever
  for the Socialist Party
• While he was in prison

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