Official U. S. position in 1914

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Official U. S. position in 1914

• Officially the U.S. was neutral
• The U. S. does not become officially involved in
  World War I until 1917.
• Most Americans saw no reason for the U.S. to
  become involved and lose lives of its young men
  in a European war.

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British Blockade

• Britain used its very powerful navy to blockade
  the German coast and prevent weapons military
  supplies from getting through.
• Blockade included food and extended to the ports
  of neutral countries
• By 1917, Germany was experiencing famine
  Estimated 750,000 Germans starved to death
  because of the British blockade

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U-Boats

• Unterseeboot (under water boat)
• Any British or Allied ship found in waters around
  Britain would be sunk without warning to
  passengers or crew
• Lusitania May 7, 1915 off coast of Ireland,
  1,198 dead including 128 Americans
• Turns public opinion against Germany

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Germanys Empty Promises

• Sinks the Arabic, another British ship, killing 2
  Americans
• Germany keeps promising to not sink passenger
  ships
• Sussex, French passenger liner, March 1916, 80
  dead including some Americans
• Sussex Pledge Germany says it will stop if the
  U.S. gets Britain to lift the blockade against
  food fertilizer

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Zimmerman Note

• A telegram from the German foreign minister to
  the German ambassador in Mexico
• Intercepted by the British
• Promises that if Mexico allies with Germany,
  Germany would help Mexico recover territory lost
  in the Mexican-American War
• Texas, New Mexico, Arizona

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Final Straw

• Germany announced unrestricted submarine warfare
  will sink any ship at will
• Germany thought it would take the Americans
  awhile to be ready to fight and that the U.S. was
  already in the war unofficially because of
  helping the Allies with money and materials

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Woodrow Wilson

• Elected in 1912 Very intellectual
• Running for re-election in 1916
• Wilsons campaign slogan He Kept Us Out of War.
• Very close election That night most thought
  Wilson had lost
• After the election, Wilson starts working on a
  peaceful solution to the stalemate going on in
  Europe
• U.S. enters war April 1917

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The Mad Brute
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Preparing for War

• Bernard Baruch War Industries Board helped
  standardize products and increase efficiency so
  factories could produce more
• People had gasless Sundays and lightless
  nights to conserve fuel needed for the troops

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Feeding the Soldiers

• Herbert Hoover Food Administration
• Gospel of the Clean Plate
• Meatless, wheatless, sweetless days
• Victory gardens
• Income to wheat farmers rose by 30
• Tripled the amount of food available to be sent
  to U.S. and Allied soldiers

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Propaganda

• George Creel Committee on Public Information
• 75,000 men to speak about the war Why We are
  Fighting The Meaning of America
• Artists create posters, cartoons, paintings and
  sculptures
• 75 million pamphlets distributed by the Boy
  Scouts

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The Committee of Public Information (George Creel)

• Americas Propaganda Minister?
• Anti-Germanism.
• Selling American Culture.

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Financing the War
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Financing the War

• William Gibbs McAdoo
• U.S. spent 35.5 billion
• 1/3rd through taxes income tax, excise taxes on
  tobacco, liquor, luxury goods
• Public borrowing Liberty Bonds sold at
  rallies, in factories, in schools

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Anti-German Feelings

• Many Americans with German names lost their jobs
• Orchestras refused to play music by German
  composers like Bach, Beethoven, or Mozart
• Schools stopped teaching German language
• Librarians removed books by German authors
• German Americans were even attacked and sometimes
  killed by mobs.

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Anti-German Feelings

• Hamburger became Salisbury steak
• Sauerkraut became liberty cabbage
• Frankfurter became hot dog
• Dachshunds became liberty pups

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U. S. Food Administration
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American Expeditionary Force

• Called Doughboys various explanations of this
• Led by General John J. Pershing
• Believed in aggressive combat and felt 3 years of
  trench warfare had to end

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The Draft

• Selective Service Act 24 million men registered
  almost 3 million were drafted
• About 2 million reached Europe and about 3/4ths
  of those saw combat
• Most had not attended high school and 1 in 5 was
  foreign born
• 15-25 illiterate based on IQ testing

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1917 Selective Service Act

• 400,000 African-Americansserved in segregated
  units.
• 15,000 Native-Americans served as scouts,
  messengers, and snipers in non-segregated units.

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Racism and the Military

• Segregation
• General Black Jack Pershing
• Treatment in France unrest when returning home

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African-American Soldiers

• Segregated units and excluded from Navy and
  Marines
• Most assigned to non-combat duties
• Commanded by white officers
• Were some exceptions 369th Infantry saw
  continuous duty on the front lines and two of
  their men received the Croix de Guerre medal from
  France (its highest military honor)

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Women

• Army Corps of Nurses denied army rank, pay and
  benefits though
• 13,000 served in non-combat positions in the Navy
  and Marines as nurses, secretaries, and telephone
  operators with full military rank

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Sargent York

• October 8, 1918 an ordinary soldier, who
  originally claimed conscientious objector status,
  armed only with a rifle and a revolver, York
  killed 25 Germans and with 6 other soldiers
  captured 132 prisoners.
• Earned him the promotion to Sargent and celebrity
  in the United States.

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Conscientious Objectors

• Object to fighting or violence for religious
  reasons Quakers other religious groups
• ACLU American Civil Liberties Union forms to
  assist with their claims.

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Council of National Defense

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

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Results of This New Organization of the Economy?

1. Unemployment virtually disappeared.
2. Expansion of big government.
3. Excessive govt. regulations in eco.
4. Some gross mismanagement --gt overlapping
   jurisdictions.
5. Close cooperation between public and private
   sectors.
6. Unprecedented opportunities for disadvantaged
   groups.

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Women In the War

• Moved into jobs previously held by men railroad
  workers, dockworkers, bricklayers, coal miners,
  shipbuilding
• Also traditional roles of nurses, clerks,
  teachers
• Volunteers Red Cross, selling liberty bonds,
  planting victory gardens
• 1920 Women earn the right to vote with the
  passage of the 19th Amendment

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The Red Cross - Greatest Mother in the World
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Prohibition

• 18th Amendment
• Volstead Act
• J. Edgar Hoover
• Elliott Ness G-men
• Save wheat for food in the war effort

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Medicine

• Gas damaged lungs and led to better treatments
  for asthma early chemotherapy
• Amputations led to better prosthetics
• Blood transfusions are finally successful
• Sulfur drugs before antibiotics the only real
  drug that killed bacteria
• Shell Shock psychiatric treatments

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Espionage Sedition Acts

• Could be fined up to 10,000 and sentenced to 20
  years in jail for interfering with the war effort
  or saying anything disloyal, profane, or abusive
  about the government or the war effort
• Violates free speech
• Over 2,000 prosecutions
• Newspapers or magazines that criticized the war
  lost their mailing privileges

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Eugene Debs

• Socialist labor leader
• 10 year prison sentence for speaking against the
  war and the draft

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Emma Goldman

• Anarchist promoted workers rights and womens
  rights
• 2 year prison sentence 10,000 fine for
  organizing the No Conscription League
• She was deported after serving her prison sentence

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Big Bill Hayward

• Leader of the Industrial Workers of the World
• Accused of sabotaging the war effort because
  they urged workers to strike for better
  conditions and higher pay.
• He skipped bail and fled to Russia

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Loyalty Leagues

• Neighborhood groups
• Neighbors were encouraged to let the police know
  if there was any suspicious behavior by their
  neighbors showing they might be anti-war or
  pro-German
• Teachers had to swear a loyalty oath to keep
  their jobs

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Government Excess Threats to the Civil
Liberties of Americans
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.
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Government Excess Threats to the Civil
Liberties of Americans
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, scurrilous, 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.
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Government Excess Threats to the Civil
Liberties of Americans
Schenck v. US 1919 - in ordinary times the
mailing of the leaflets would have been
protected by the 1st Amendment. - BUT,
every act of speech must be judged according
to the circumstances in which it was spoken.
-The most stringent protection of free
speech would not protect a man in falsely
shouting fire in a theater and causing a
panic. Chief Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes -
If an act of speech posed a clear and
present danger, then Congress had the power
to restrain such speech.
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Government Excess Threats to the Civil
Liberties of Americans
Abrams v. US 1919 - majority ruling --gt
cited Holmes Clear and present danger
doctrine. - Holmes Brandeis dissented
The best test of truth is the power of
the thought to get itself accepted in
the competition of the market, denying
that a silly leaflet published by an
unknown man constituted such a
danger.
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The Great Migration Racial Tensions

• Rise of the Ku Klux Klan
• Lynching some soldiers in uniform, some set on
  fire while alive
• Riots
• Chicago beach incident

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Opportunities for African-Americans in WW1

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

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Rescuing a Negro During the Race Riots in
Chicago, 1919
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Labor Strife

• After the war
• Trying to hold on to and move forward from gains
  made during the war

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Government Excess Threats to the Civil
Liberties of Americans

• Post-war labor unrest
• Coal Miners Strike of 1919.
• Steel Strike of 1919.
• Boston Police Strike of 1919.

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Coal Miners Strike - 1919
Keeping Warm Los Angeles Times
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Boston Police Strike - 1919
He gives aid comfort to the enemies of
society Chicago Tribune
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Boston Police Strike - 1919
Striking Back New York Evening World
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Anti-Labor
If Capital Labor Dont Pull Together
Chicago Tribune
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Consequences of Labor Unrest
While We Rock the Boat Washington Times
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Make the World Safe for Democracy

• Wilson and many Americans believed the war would
  pave the way for a future order of peace and
  freedom
• The War to End All Wars

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Surrender

• November 11, 1918 at 11 a.m.
• 11/11 at 11
• Veterans Day
• 1914-1918

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Toll of the War

• 22 million dead half were civilians
• 10 million refugees
• 338 Billion
• U.S. 48,000 in battle
• 62,000 of disease

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Wilsons Plan for Peace

• 14 Points
• No secret treaties among nations
• Freedom of the seas for all
• Lower tariffs more free trade
• Arms reduction fewer weapons ships
• Colonies should consider the interests of the
  colonial peoples, not just the imperialist nation
• League of Nations a forum for nations to
  discuss and mediate their differences without
  going to war

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Big Four
Britain David Lloyd George France Georges
Clemenceau Italy Vittorio Orlando U.S.
Woodrow Wilson

• They negotiate the Treaty of Versailles without
  input from other countries. All but Wilson want
  to punish the Central Powers and Wilson gives up
  on all his points except the League of Nations

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Treaty of Versailles

• New Nations Poland, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia,
  Finland, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Syria, Iraq,
  Jordan
• Germany could not have an army
• Germany had to give Alsace-Lorraine back to
  France
• Germany had to pay 33 billion to the Allies

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Weaknesses

• War-guilt clause Germany had to take sole
  responsibility for the war
• Germany had to dismantle its military
• Germany lost all its colonies in the Pacific
• Germany could not pay the huge reparations bill
• Soviet Union not part of the treaty although
  they fought with the Allies for 3 years
• Determined to regain territory lost
• Southeast Asia Vietnamese want independence

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Opposition in U.S. to Treaty

• Henry Cabot Lodge led the opposition in the
  Senate
• Thought that joining the League of Nations would
  commit the U.S. to go along with any economic or
  military action

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Wilsons Appeal

• President Wilson set out on a tour of the U.S. to
  get citizens to pressure the Senate to ratify the
  treaty
• 34 speeches planned for 3 weeks

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Final Fate

• Treaty is not passed by U.S. Senate
• Separate treaty is signed in 1921 with Germany
• U.S. never joins League of Nations
• Woodrow Wilson leaves office in 1921 and dies in
  1924

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Russia

• Civil War breaks out as Tsar Nicholas is
  overthrown
• Democratic and Communist supporters fight one
  another for control of Russia
• Treaty of Brest-Litovsk Ends Russias war with
  Germany
• Woodrow Wilson sends supplies and aid to the
  white army
• Lenin gains control

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Russian Royal Family

• After the fall of the Soviet Union the bodies
  were found in a pit
• They had been shot and covered in acid and then
  burned to disguise their identities
• DNA was used to verify who they were

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Government Excess Threats to the Civil
Liberties of Americans
The Red Scare

• 1919 - 3rd. Internationalgoal --gt promote
  worldwide communism
• Attorney General, A. Mitchell Palmer (The Case
  Against the Reds)
• Palmer Raids - 1920

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Red Scare Palmer Raids
A. Mitchell Palmers Home Bombed, 1920
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Red Scare Palmer Raids
Police Arrest Suspected Reds in Chicago, 1920
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Influenza

• 1918 30 million dead worldwide - about 500,000
  Americans died
• Mostly in prime of life not elderly or very
  young like most flu
• Could be fine in morning and dead by nightfall
• Shortages of coffins
• Dont know where it came from or why it stopped
  in 1919
• If it had kept going another 10 months at the
  pace it was, it would have wiped out the entire
  human population

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Legacy of the War

• U.S. becomes a world power
• Social change for women African-Americans
• Women get right to vote
• More women in workforce
• African-Americans move North
• African-Americans demand more equality after
  being treated with respect in France
• Intensified anti-immigrant and anti-radical
  sentiment

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Legacy of the War

• Massive destruction and loss of life in Europe
• Political instability and violence in Europe
• Russia becomes a communist country The Union of
  Soviet Socialist States - USSR
• Fascist governments gain power in Spain, Italy
  Germany

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Election of 1920

• Wilson cannot run
• Democrats James Cox
• Republican Party compromise candidate is Warren
  Harding
• Socialist Eugene V. Debs - runs from prison
  and gets 3.4 of the vote (1900-1920)

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The 1920 Election