Prologue to Part Two

1. U.S. became the world's greatest power
2. Federal government power increased
3. Rise of labor movement in two stages
4. Social transformation of the American people

Chapter 6 - 1914-1919

World War I "affected virtually every aspect of American life"

1. From Assassination in the Balkans

• "lethal mix" of ethnic tensions, nationalism, global imperialism, militarism, system of alliances and treaties

• stalemate on the western front after failure of German attack at Verdun and British attack at the Somme
• Clemenceau used the term "total war" - mobilization of entire society and economy

• GNP 20% higher 1917 than 1914; U.S. became lender, not debtor nation
• Lusitania and the German submarine

• "the public was deeply divided by the war"
• Irish opposed aid to England, Easter Rebellion 1916 crushed
• peace movement grew, including progressive reformers such as Robert La Follette; also included socialists and radicals such as IWW
• J. Addams and Carrie Chapman Catt f. Women's Peace Party; Addams went to 1915 international conference of women at The Hague
• preparedness movement led by T. Roosevelt

• Wilson won 1916 election; sent Col. House on peace missions
• sub warfare resumed, Zimmerman telegram, Congress voted for war
• except Jeannette Rankin, Socialist party gained votes in 1917, tenant farmers urged resistance to conscription, Green Corn Rebellion in east Oklahoma: "Get together, boys, and don't go. Rich man's war. Poor man's fight."

• CPI of George Creel, Liberty Bonds from Treasury Dept, new ROTC in colleges, Espionage Act 1917 banned treasonous mail, Sedition Act 1918
• War Industries Board of Bernard Baruch, Shipping Board, Railroad Administration
• "The Food Administration, a key wartime agency, was typical of the new economic bureaucracy" under Hoover who emphasized increased production and high wheat prices rather than rationing
• standardization (5 colors for typewriter ribbons)
• Revenue Acts had "the most lasting significance" - also graduated income tax

• labor shortage helped unions grow - Sydney Hillman and Amalgamated Clothing Workers' Union sold uniforms to government
• one million workers on strike each year - Bridgeport munitions workers 1915 won 8-hour day - Amalgamated Meatcutters Union won 8-hour day
• progressive Democrat Frank Walsh appointed cochair of War Labor Board

• was "the most visible example of the shift from country to city"
• before war, 9 of 10 blacks lived in South - then 500,000 left South 1910-20, esp to NYC - yet 3/4 blacks still lived in South by 1940
• but "vicious cycle of job competition and racism" caused riots - East St. Louis 1917

• Mexican Revolution, pancho Villa
• increase in immigration 1910-20, estimated between 185,000 to 385,000
• new opportunities at military bases for Mexican workers, e.g., around San Antonio
• violence in lower Rio Grande between Texas Rangers and "Plan de San Diego" of 3000 displaced farmers
• "There was a strong radical strain in the Mexican-American community."

• "the war did hasten the expansion of one area of work -- clerical jobs" that grew by 8 times 1900-1920
• "Work or Fight" laws used against black women to keep them as domestic servants
• Alice Paul f. National Women's party 1916 and followed British tactics, demonstrating and picketing White House, hunger strikes
• NAWSA more conservative, knitted socks
• both groups led suffrage fight, won ratification by Tenn as 36th state Aug. 18, 1920

• Polish refinery workers in Bayonne, NJ 1915 and 1916
• women in Brooklyn and Manhattan and Philadelphia and Boston
• new unit of IWW called the Agricultural Workers' Organization (AWO) helped farmers who harvested grain in Midwest
• IWW suppressed by federal government

• press censorship by Post Office, professors f. AAUP
• The government "launched an unprecedented campaign to manipulate the political direction of the union movement"
• "Government repression bred a vigilante spirit" by groups like the American Protective League that spied on neighbors, harassed radicals
• picture p. 294 of Cincinnati pillory
• Wilson called for "100% Americanism"
• Congress passed 1917 literacy test for immigrants, 18th amendment for prohibition

• some foreign-born put into ethnically segregated "development battalions" and blacks put into segregated units - 370,000 would be drafted and half put into combat rather than support units
• standardized testing to recruits by new IQ tests (but Christy Mathewson question)
• Gen. John Pershing, the Argonne

• Lenin and Bolsheviks pulled Russia out of war, published secret treaties
• 14 Points, Versailles Treaty

• 4 million workers struck in 1919: "Organized labor and political radicals put forth the most startling and fundamental challenge to the established order seen in the twentieth century."
• Seattle general strike successful; Gov. Coolidge suppressed Boston police strike; 350,000 steel workers vs. U.S. Steel but native-born skilled workers fell out: "it was a terrible defeat"
• 25 race riots in 1919; "Chicago was the site of the worst riot" that started on a segregated beach

• Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer led arrest of 6000 in Jan. 1920
• Justice Dept.. issued infamous "Spider-Web Chart" implicating PTA
• Sacco and Vanzetti arrested May 5, 1920, convicted and sentenced to death for two murders, "came to symbolize governmental injustice"

• growth of government that played larger role in economy, labor relations, shaping public opinion
• migration from South and from Mexico, but immigration restricted
• women gained vote but labor radicalism subsided

Links:

• Ramparts We Watch
• Taylorism
• World War I on the Web