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American Pageant Chap 31
The War to End War (1917 – 1918)
Reading Questions
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1. Summarize President Wilson’s Fourteen Points. Which were substantially attained as
a result of American participation in World War I? Which were not? Why?
2. Was it necessary to suppress dissent in order to win the war? Explain fully.
3. Why did President Wilson have such difficulty getting his own allies at the Paris
Peace Conference to accept the principles of the Fourteen Points?
Vocab 31
1. Zimmerman Note
2. Fourteen Points
3. League of Nations
4. Committee on Public Information
5. Espionage Act
6. Sedition Act
7. Industrial Workers of the World
8. Schenck v. US
9. War Industries Board
10.Alice Paul
11.Nineteenth Amendment
12."victory gardens"
13.draft act
14.Big Four
15.Treaty of Versailles
16."normalcy"
3 Main Causes of War for US:
1. Zimmermann Note
– German foreign secretary Arthur Zimmermann secretly proposed a GermanMexican alliance News leaked out to the public, infuriating Americans.
2. Unrestricted submarine warfare
– January 31, 1917: Germany announced unrestricted submarine warfare on all
ships, including American ships, in the war zone.
3. Bolshevik Revolution
– Collapse of Russian front means Germany free to concentrate on Western front,
pursue victory against France and Britain
Wilson spins the war
• Wilson had been elected on anti- (or at least reluctance to) war platform
• Now he has to justify it:
– “A war to end war"
– “Make the world safe for democracy."
– America only fought to shape an international order in which democracy could
flourish without fear of dictators and militarists.
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Wilson’s Fourteen Points
• Intended to reach the people and leaders of the Central Powers as a seductive
appeal for peace
• 14 Points would provide a framework for peace discussions.
• Gave Wilson the position of moral leadership among the Allies
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• Gave Wilson the position of moral leadership among the Allies
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Wilson’s Fourteen Points
1. Abolish secret treaties:
– pleased liberals of all countries.
2. Freedom of the seas:
– appealed to Germans (and Americans)
3. Free trade:
– comforting to Germany, which feared postwar vengeance.
4. Reduction of armament burdens:
– gratifying to everyone for $ and war weariness
5. Colonial claims adjusted in the interests of both native people and the colonizers:
– pleased colonized and minority peoples and anti-imperialists.
6-12. Border adjustment in Europe, SW Asia and colonies
14. foreshadowed the League of Nations:
– an international system of collective security.
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US brought to the War
Troops:
• Selective Service Act
– US needed troops fast
– Began a draft
– US Army went from 200,000 men to 3 million
– Industrial production
Supplies
• US had already massively increased production of war supplies to allies from 19141917
– US had to build ships to make up for German U-boat losses
– Developed convoy system to protect ships at sea
– Laid a barrier of floating mines across the North Sea to fence in German subs
Morale
• Brought fresh hope and boosted morale of troops bogged down after 3 years of
stalemate
War’s Effects at Home
• Labor shortage due to need for more production and men in Europe
– Workers were discouraged from striking by the War Department's decree in 1918
that threatened to draft any unemployed male
– Women filled jobs
– African-Americans migrated north—race riots
• Industrial struggle: Need to coordinate and control production
– US created the War Industries Board headed by Bernard Baruch to streamline
production
– Civilian Council of National Defense to study problems of economic mobilization
– Increased size of army : Draft Act in 1917
– Created a shipbuilding program.
• Eek! Big Government!
• War creates profits for those selling war materials: prices went up, meaning workers
got poorer while stockholders got rich (war profiteering)
– Labor unions grew in response
– AFL doubled
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– AFL doubled
– Massive steel strike (broken)
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Pro-War Conformity
• Wilson warned that if the US went to war, “Conformity would be the only virtue, and
every man who refused to conform would have to pay the penalty.”
– Immigrants attacked (particularly Germans and Austrians)
– 2 million German-born in US discriminated against
– People regarded as pro-German were hounded from their jobs, pressured to
change their German names, and in a few cases beaten or lynched.
– German language press closed
• Civil Liberties curtailed:
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Sedition Act
• 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
war…with intent of such curtailment to
cripple or hinder, the US in the
prosecution of the war.
• This act quickly came under fire as unconstitutional
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• 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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• 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. [Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes]
- If an act of speech posed a clear and
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- If an act of speech posed a clear and
present danger, then Congress had
the power to restrain such speech.
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Committee on Public Information (CPI)
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• Headed by George Creel, “America’s Propaganda Minister”
• Job was to “sell the war" to the American people.
• The CPI produced films, pamphlets, curriculum guides and other instruments
designed to "paint Germany in a bad light."
• It encouraged businesses to spy on their employees, parents to spy on their children,
and neighbors to spy on neighbors, and to report "disloyal," pro-German sentiments.
• CPI got Americans to:
– Ban teaching German in schools,
– Tear German folksongs like "Oh Tannenbaum" from children's songbooks,
– Change German street names
– Rename sauerkraut “Victory Cabbage.“
Creel CPI Propaganda
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U. S. Food Administration
National War Garden Commission
Industrial Propaganda
The Red Cross Nurse
African Americans: “True sons of Freedom”
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Ironic, eh?
Appeal to Immigrants:
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The “Flag of Liberty”
Represents All of Us!
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