1. WWI & Homefront

2. Selective Service Act May 1917
Required registration of all men from 18 to 45
No substitution aloud!
Yet exemptions took place from key industries (ex: shipbuilding)
Within a month, army increased from 200,000 to over 4 mil
Including 400,000 AA and Women (11,000 to Navy)
Over 300,000 escaped the draft (10,000 prosecuted)

3. Committee on Public Info. (Creel Committee)
Propaganda committee to try to sell America on the War & world on Wilson’s 14 Pts.
Headed by George Creel
Employed about 150,000 workers
Encouraged Liberty Leagues to spy on neighbors and report suspicious behavior

4. Paying for war? Liberty Loan Committee
US spent about 33 bil. directly on war effort
Raised 1/3 with increased taxes (income, excise on tobacco, liquor and other luxuries
Liberty Bonds
Propaganda used to entice Americans to purchase bonds including celebrities and massive billboard advertisement
Victory Loan Drives
William McAdoo (Treasure Secretary): “Only a friend of Germany would refuse to buy war bonds”

5. National War Labor Board
Approx. 6,000 strikes during the war (protest stagnant wages despite inflation)
Lost 35%purchasing power throughout war due to inflation
Created to oversee labor disputes
Prohibited strikes but encouraged progressive reforms such as 8-hour work day, higher wages, unionization, etc.
Union Membership
1916: 2.5 mil to 1919: 4 mil
Wobblies (IWW) continued to be strike

6. Food Administration Herbert Hoover
Utilized voluntary compliance than enacting laws
Wheatless Wednesdays & Meatless Tuesdays
Victory Gardens
Congress restricted the use of foodstuffs for manufacturing alcoholic beverages
18th Amendment in 1919 (prohibited sale, transportation, manufacturing, and consumption of alcohol
Results:
Farm production increased by 25%
Food exports to Allies tripled in volume

8. War Industries Board Created in March 1918, headed by Bernard Baruch
Response to lack of cooperation between military and civilian agency in purchasing supplies
Aimed to control raw materials, production, prices and labor relations
Encouraged mass-production techniques to increase efficiency
Used Price Controls
20% increase in industrial production under WIB

9. Fuel Administration
Issued Heatless Mondays, Lightless Tuesdays, and Gasless Sundays
Responsible for Start of Daylight-Saving Time

10. Poster #1

11. Poster #2

12. Poster #3

13. POSTER #4

14. Poster #5