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Committee on Public Information (3)
Nor did Creel neglect the written word. He ordered a printing of almost 25 million copies of “How the War Came to America”—which included Wilson’s war message—in English and other languages. He distributed some 75 million pamphlets, booklets, and leaflets, many with the enthusiastic help of the Boy Scouts. Creel’s propaganda campaign was highly effective. -
Espionage and Sedition Acts (2)
Their passage led to over 2,000 prosecutions for loosely defined antiwar activities; of these, over half resulted in convictions.Newspapers and magazines that opposed the war or criticized any of the Allies lost their mailing privileges.The House of Representatives refused to seat Victor Berger, a socialist congressman from Wisconsin, because of his antiwar views. Columbia University fired a distinguished psychologist because he opposed the war. -
Espionage and Sedition Acts (4)
When she left jail, the authorities deported her to Russia. “Big Bill” Haywood and other leaders of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) were accused of sabotaging the war effort because they urged workers to strike for better conditions and higher pay. Haywood was sentenced to a long prison term. (He later skipped bail and fled to Russia.) Under such federal pressure, the IWW faded away. -
Central Powers
Germany and Austria-Hungary, together with the Ottoman Empire—an empire of mostly Middle Eastern lands controlled by the Turks—were later known as the Central Powers. The alliances provided a measure of international security because nations were reluctant to disturb the balance of power. As it turned out, a spark set off a major conflict. -
Schlieffen Plan
On August 3, 1914, Germany invaded Belgium, following
a strategy known as the Schlieffen Plan. This plan called
for a holding action against Russia, combined with a quick
drive through Belgium to Paris; after France had fallen, the
two German armies would defeat Russia. As German
troops swept across Belgium, thousands of civilians fled in
terror. In Brussels, the Belgian capital, an American war
correspondent described the first major refugee crisis of
the 20th century. -
Battle of the Somme
The scale of slaughter was horrific. During the First Battle of the Somme— which began on July 1, 1916, and lasted until mid-November—the British suffered 60,000 casualties the first day alone. Final casualties totaled about 1.2 million, yet only about seven miles of ground changed hands. This bloody trench warfare, in which armies fought for mere yards of ground, continued for over
three years. Elsewhere, the fighting was just as devastating and inconclusive. -
Sinking of British liner Lusitania
One of the worst disasters occurred on May 7, 1915, when a U-boat sank the British liner Lusitania off the southern coast of Ireland. Of the 1,198 persons lost, 128 were Americans. The Germans defended their action on the grounds that the liner carried ammunition. Despite Germany’s explanation, Americans became outraged with Germany because of the loss of life. American
public opinion turned against Germany and the Central Powers. -
Sinking of British liner Arabic
Despite this provocation, President Wilson ruled out a military response in favor of a sharp protest to Germany. Three months later, in August 1915, a U-boat sank another British liner, the Arabic, drowning two Americans. Again the United States protested, and this time Germany agreed not to sink any more passenger
ships. -
Sinking of French passenger liner Sussex
In March 1916 Germany broke its promise and torpedoed an unarmed French passenger steamer.The Sussex sank,and about 80 passengers, including Americans, were killed or injured.Once again the United States warned that it would break off diplomatic relations unless Germany changed its tactics.Again Germany agreed, but there was a condition:if the United States could not persuade Britain to lift its blockade against food and fertilizers,Germany would consider renewing unrestricted submarine warfare. -
Zimmermann note
The overt acts came. First was the Zimmermann note, a telegram from the German foreign minister to the German ambassador in Mexico that was intercepted by British agents. The telegram proposed an alliance between Mexico and Germany and promised that if war with the United States broke out, Germany would support Mexico in recovering “lost territory in Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona.” Next came the sinking of four unarmed American merchant
ships, with a loss of 36 lives. -
Selective Service Act of 1917
To meet the government’s need for more fighting power, Congress passed the Selective Service Act in May 1917. The act required men to register with the government in order to be randomly selected for military service. By the end of 1918, 24 million men had registered under the act. Of this number, almost 3 million were called up. About 2 million troops reached Europe before the truce was signed, and three-fourths of them saw actual combat. -
Convoy System
German U-boat attacks on merchant ships in the Atlantic were a serious threat to the Allied war effort. American Vice Admiral William S. Sims convinced the British to try the convoy system, in which a heavy guard of destroyers escorted merchant ships back and forth across the Atlantic in groups. By fall of 1917, shipping losses had been cut in half. The U.S. Navy also helped lay a 230-mile barrier of mines across the North Sea from Scotland to Norway. -
Second Battle of the Marne
When Russia pulled out of the war in 1917, the Germans shifted their armies from the eastern front to the western front in France. By May they were within 50 miles of Paris. The Americans arrived just in time to help stop the German advance at Cantigny in France. Several weeks later, U.S. troops played a major role in throw- ing back German attacks at Château-Thierry and Belleau Wood. In July and August, they helped win the Second Battle of the Marne. -
Austria-Hungary surrenders to the Allies
On October 8, 1918, armed only with a rifle and a revolver, York killed 25 Germans and—with six other doughboys—captured 132 prisoners. General Pershing called him the outstanding soldier of the AEF, while Marshal Foch, the commander of Allied forces in Europe, described his feat as “the greatest thing accomplished by any private soldier of all the armies of Europe.” For his heroic acts, York was promoted to sergeant and became a celebrity when he returned to the United States. -
Establishment of the German Republic
On November 3, 1918, German sailors mutinied against government authority. The mutiny spread quickly. Everywhere in Germany, groups of soldiers and workers organized rev- olutionary councils. On November 9, socialist leaders in the capital, Berlin, established a German republic. The kaiser gave up the throne. -
Cease-fire and armistice
Although there were no Allied soldiers on German territory and no truly decisive battle had been fought, the Germans were too exhausted to continue fighting. So at the eleventh hour, on the eleventh day, in the eleventh month of 1918, Germany agreed to a cease-fire and signed the armistice, or truce, that ended the war. -
War Industries Board (1)
The main regulatory body was the War Industries Board (WIB). It was established in 1917 and reorganized in 1918 under the leadership of Bernard M. Baruch, a prosperous business- man. The board encouraged companies to use mass-production techniques to increase efficiency. It also urged them to eliminate waste by standardizing prod- ucts—for instance, by making only 5 colors of typewriter ribbons instead of 150. The WIB set production quotas and allocated raw materials. -
Food Administration
To help produce and conserve food, Wilson set up the Food Admin-istration under Herbert Hoover. Instead of rationing food, he called on people to follow the “gospel of the clean plate.” He declared one day a week “meat- of the United States less,” another “sweetless,” two days “wheatless,” and two other days “porkless.” Restaurants removed sugar bowls from the table and served bread only after
the first course. -
National War Labor Board (1)
Wages in most industries rose during the war years. Hourly wages for blue-collar workers—those in the metal trades, shipbuilding, and meatpacking, for example—rose by about 20 percent. A household’s income, however, was largely undercut by rising food prices and housing costs. By contrast, stockholders in large corporations saw enormous profits. One indus- trial manufacturer, the DuPont Company, saw its stock multiply in value 1,600 per- cent between 1914 and 1918. -
National War Labor Board (3)
To deal with disputes between management and labor, President Wilson estab- lished the National War Labor Board in 1918. Workers who refused to obey board decisions could lose their draft exemptions. “Work or fight,” the board told them. However, the board also worked to improve factory conditions. It pushed for an eight-hour workday, promoted safety inspections, and enforced the child labor ban. -
Committee on Public Information (1)
To popularize the war, the govern- ment set up the nation’s first propaganda agency, the Committee on Public Information (CPI). Propaganda is a kind of biased communication designed to influence people’s thoughts and actions. The head of the CPI was a former muck- raking journalist named George Creel. -
Committee on Public Information (2)
Creel persuaded the nation’s artists and advertising agencies to create thou- sands of paintings, posters, cartoons, and sculptures promoting the war. He recruited some 75,000 men to serve as “Four-Minute Men,” who spoke about everything relating to the war: the draft, rationing, bond drives, victory gardens, and topics such as “Why We Are Fighting” and “The Meaning of America.” -
Espionage and Sedition Acts (1)
In June 1917 Congress passed the Espionage Act, and in May 1918 it passed the Sedition Act. Under the Espionage and Sedition Acts a person could be fined up to $10,000 and sentenced to 20 years in jail for interfering with the war effort or for saying anything disloyal, pro- fane, or abusive about the government or the war effort. Like the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798, these laws clearly violated the spirit of the First Amendment. -
Espionage and Sedition Acts (3)
A colleague who supported the war thereupon resigned in protest, saying,“If we have to suppress everything we don’t like to hear, this country is resting on a pretty wobbly basis.” The Espionage and Sedition Acts targeted socialists and labor leaders. Eugene V. Debs was handed a ten-year prison sentence for speaking out against the war and the draft. The anarchist Emma Goldman received a two-year prison sentence and a $10,000 fine for organizing the No Conscription League. -
Allies
By 1907 there were two major defense alliances in Europe.
The Triple Entente, later known as the Allies, consisted of France, Britain, and Russia. The Triple Alliance consisted of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy -
1914 Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand
In June 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to
the Austrian throne, visited the Bosnian capital Sarajevo. As
the royal entourage drove through the city, Serbian nationalist
Gavrilo Princip stepped from the crowd and shot the
Archduke and his wife Sophie. Princip was a member of the
Black Hand, an organization promoting Serbian nationalism.
The assassinations touched off a diplomatic crisis. On
July 28, Austria-Hungary declared what was expected to be a
short war against Serbia. -
War Industries Board (2)
Under the WIB, industrial production in the United States increased by about 20 percent. However, the WIB applied price controls only at the wholesale level. As a result, retail prices soared, and in 1918 they were almost double what they had been before the war. Corporate profits soared as well, especially in such indus- tries as chemicals, meatpacking, oil, and steel. The WIB was not the only federal agency to regulate the economy during the war. -
War Industries Board (3)
The Railroad Administration controlled the railroads, and the Fuel Administration monitored coal supplies and rationed gasoline and heating oil. In addition, many people adopted “gasless Sundays” and “lightless nights” to con- serve fuel. In March 1918, the Fuel Administration introduced another conserva- tion measure: daylight-saving time, which had first been proposed by Benjamin Franklin in the 1770s as a way to take advantage of the longer days of summer. -
National War Labor Board (2)
By that time the company was earning a $68-million yearly profit. As a result of the uneven pay between labor and management, increas- ing work hours, child labor, and dangerously “sped-up” conditions, unions boomed. Union membership climbed from about 2.5 million in 1916 to more than 4 million in 1919. More than 6,000 strikes broke out during the war months.
