1. 19.4 Americans on the Home Front

2. Financing the War One way of raising money was through the sale of Liberty Bonds. Secretary of the Treasury William Gibbs McAdoo raised more than $20bil this way. People bought these bonds as a show of patriotism.

3. Managing the Economy War Industries Board headed by Bernard Baruch oversaw the nation’s war-related production. War Trade Board licensed foreign trade and punished firms suspected of dealing with the enemy.

4. Labor unions won limited rights to organize and bargain collectively. Herbert Hoover led the Food Administration to increase farm output and reduce waste. Hoover began a system of rationing. Hoover preached wheatless days, meatless days, gasless days. Daylight savings time was instituted.

5. Enforcing Loyalty Govt. challenged any media influences that threatened the war effort. George Creel, a journalist, was appointed the head of Committee on Public Information, rally support for the war: propaganda.

6. Propaganda used involved making the Germans look like barbarians- ”Hate the Hun.” Schools stopped teaching German, German music wasn’t played, hamburger was changed to Salisbury steak, sauerkraut into liberty cabbage, German Sheppard into “police dogs.”

7. 1918 Congress passed the Sedition Act- couldn’t say or write anything bad about the govt. Govt convicted more than 1,000 people. Socialists argued that the war was fought to move capitalist wishes forward. Moderate labor leaders like Samuel Gompers promised to work with the war.

8. Changing Peoples Lives Men were away fighting. Factory workers now recruited African and Mexican Americans, discriminated against before. Some 500,000 African Americans moved north for work- Great Migration.

9. Women also found new opportunities. 400,000 women joined the workforce as- telegraph messengers, elevator operators, mail carriers, etc.