The War at Home

1 388 CHAPTER11 Terms & NamesTerms & NamesMAIN IDEAMAIN IDEAOne American's StoryThe War at Home War IndustriesBoard Bernard propaganda George Creel Espionage andSedition Acts Great MigrationWorld War I spurred social,political, and economicchange in the United changes increasedgovernment powers andexpanded IT MATTERS NOWWHY IT MATTERS NOWThe suffragist Harriot Stanton Blatch visited a munitions plant in NewJersey during World War I and proudly described women at PERSONALVOICEHARRIOT STANTON BLATCH The day I visited the place, in one of the largest shops women hadonly just been put on the work, but it was expected that in less thana month they would be found handling all of the twelve hundredmachines under that one roof alone.

2 The skill of the women staggersone. After a week or two they master the operations on the turret, gauging and routing machines. The best worker on the facing machine is a woman. She is a piece worker, as many of the womenare.. This woman earned, the day I saw her, five dollars and fortycents. She tossed about the fuse parts, and played with thatmachine, as I would with a baby. quoted inWe, the American WomenBefore World War I, women had been excluded from many , the wartime need for labor brought over a million morewomen into the work force.

3 For women , as for the rest of society,World War I brought about far-reaching Gives Power to WilsonWinning the war was not a job for American soldiers alone. As Secretary of WarNewton Baker said, War is no longer Samson with his shield and spear andsword, and David with his sling. It is the conflict of smokestacks now, the com-bat of the driving wheel and the engine. Because World War I was such animmense conflict, the entire economy had to be refocused on the war effort. Theshift from producing consumer goods to producing war supplies was too compli-cated and important a job for private industry to handle on its own, so businessand government collaborated in the effort.

4 In the process, the power of govern-ment was greatly expanded. congress gave President Wilson direct control overmuch of the economy, including the power to fix prices and toregulate even to nationalize certain war-related Stanton Blatch followedin the footsteps of her famousmother, Elizabeth Cady Stanton. WAR INDUSTRIES BOARDThe main regulatory body was the WarIndustries Board(WIB). It was established in 1917 and reorganized in 1918under the leadership of Bernard M.

5 Baruch (bE-rLkP),a prosperous business-man. The board encouraged companies to use mass-production techniques toincrease efficiency. It also urged them to eliminate waste by standardizing prod-ucts for instance, by making only 5 colors of typewriter ribbons instead of WIB set production quotas and allocated raw materials. Under the WIB, industrial production in the United States increased by about20 percent. However, the WIB applied price controls only at the wholesale a result, retail prices soared, and in 1918 they were almost double what theyhad been before the war.

6 Corporate profits soared as well, especially in such indus-tries as chemicals, meatpacking, oil, and WIB was not the only federal agency to regulate the economy during thewar. The Railroad Administration controlled the railroads, and the FuelAdministration monitored coal supplies and rationed gasoline and heating oil. Inaddition, 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 BenjaminFranklin in the 1770s as a way to take advantage of the longer days of ECONOMYW ages in most industries rose during the war years.

7 Hourly wagesfor blue-collar workers those in the metal trades, shipbuilding, and meatpacking, for example rose by about 20 percent. A household s income, however, was largelyundercut by rising food prices and housing 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. By that time the company was earning a $68-millionyearly profit. As a result of the uneven pay between labor and management, increas-ing work hours, child labor, and dangerously sped-up conditions, unions membership climbed from about million in 1916 to more than 4 millionin 1919.

8 More than 6,000 strikes broke out during the war deal with disputes between management and labor, President Wilson estab-lished the National War Labor Board in 1918. Workers who refused to obey boarddecisions could lose their draftexemptions. Work or fight, theboard told them. However, theboard also worked to improve fac-tory conditions. It pushed for aneight-hour workday, promotedsafety inspections, and enforcedthe child labor ADMINISTRATIONT ohelp produce and conserve food,Wilson set up the Food Admin-istration under Herbert of rationing food, hecalled on people to follow the gospel of the clean plate.

9 Hedeclared one day a week meat-less, another sweetless, twodays wheatless, and two otherdays porkless. Restaurantsremoved sugar bowls from thetable and served bread only afterthe first First World War389 BackgroundIn 1913 HenryFord speeded upfactory productionwith a constantlymoving assemblyline. Wartimeproduction spreadthis techniquethroughout IDEAMAIN IDEAAM akingInferencesWhy wouldlabor disputesaffect the war effort?Consumer Price Index**A measure of changes in the prices of goods and services commonly bought by consumers.

10 See Economics Handbook, page 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919 1920 Consumer Price Index30354045505560 Source:Historical Statisticsof the United StatesAverage Annual Income1920191919181917191619151914$627$6 33$708$830$1,047$1,201$1,407 The War Economy, 1914 1920 The War Economy, 1914 1920 SKILLBUILDERI nterpreting did the rise in average annual income compare with the rise in prices from 1914 to 1920? might the combined change in wages and prices affect a working family?Homeowners planted victory gardens in their spent their after-school hours growing tomatoes andcucumbers in public parks.