Lesson 5: Entering the War Flashcards

Question

How did African Americans contribute to the American armed forces in WWI?

Answer 1

At first, the armed forces did not allow African Americans in combat. When the government abandoned this policy, more than 2 million African Americans registered for the draft. Nearly 400,000 were accepted for duty. They were formed into segregated “black only” units that were commanded mostly by white officers. Still, African Americans rallied to the war effort.

Answer 2

For many recruits, the Army offered several firsts. It was their first exposure to military authority and discipline. It was the first time most had ventured outside their farms and villages, let alone outside their country. Some had never taken regular baths or eaten regular meals before. Others had never used indoor plumbing. About 25 percent were illiterate, that is, unable to read or write. The army became a great educator. It taught millions of young Americans not only how to fight but also how to read, how to eat nutritious meals, and how to care for their daily health needs.

Answer 3

Shocking rates of illiteracy and other low test scores among recruits fueled a drive to reform public education. State and local school boards lengthened the school day and required students to spend more years in school. They raised teacher-training standards. More truancy officers patrolled the streets. By 1920, nearly 75 percent of all school-age children were enrolled in school.

Answer 4

The United States reorganized its economy to produce food, arms, and other goods needed to fight the war. President Wilson set up government agencies to oversee the effort. A huge bureaucracy (byoo ROK ruh see) emerged to manage the war effort. A bureaucracy is a system of managing government through departments run by appointed officials.

Answer 5

Wilson chose Herbert Hoover to be head of the Food Administration. Hoover's job was to boost food production to feed American troops and send food to the Allies. In keeping with the nation's democratic traditions, Hoover relied on cooperation rather than force. He tried to win support for his programs with publicity campaigns that encouraged Americans to act voluntarily. “Food Will Win the War,” proclaimed one Food Administration poster. Encouraged by rising food prices, farmers grew more crops. Citizens planted “victory gardens” to raise their own vegetables. People went without wheat on “wheatless Mondays” and without meat on “meatless Tuesdays.” The food they saved helped the men in the trenches.

Answer 6

War caught the nation short of supplies. The military had on hand only around 600,000 rifles, 2,000 machine guns, and fewer than 1,000 pieces of artillery. Disorder threatened as the military competed with private industry to buy scarce materials. To meet this crisis, President Wilson set up a new government agency, the War Industries Board. It told factories what they had to produce. It also provided for the sharing of limited resources and decided what prices should be set.

Answer 7

Without the support of workers, industry could not mobilize. In 1918, Wilson created the War Labor Board. It settled disputes over working hours and wages and tried to prevent strikes. With workers in short supply, unions were able to win better pay and working conditions. Railroad workers, for example, gained a large wage increase and an 8-hour workday. With the President supporting workers, union membership rose sharply and labor unrest declined.

Answer 8

Americans on the home front united behind the war effort. Movie stars, such as Charlie Chaplin and Mary Pickford, helped sell Liberty Bonds. By buying bonds, American citizens were lending money to the government to pay for the war. The sale of Liberty Bonds raised $21 billion, just over half of what the United States spent on the war.

Answer 9

To rally public support for the war, the government sent out 75,000 men known as “Four-Minute Men” to speak to the American people. The name reminded people of the heroic minutemen of 1776. It also referred to the four-minute speeches the men gave at public events, movies, and theatrical productions. The speakers urged Americans to make sacrifices for the goals of freedom and democracy.

Answer 10

As men joined the armed forces, women stepped into men's jobs. Women received better pay in war industries than they had in peacetime. Still, they earned less than the men they replaced.

Answer 11

In factories, women assembled weapons and airplane parts. Some women drove trolley cars and delivered the mail. Others served as police officers, railroad engineers, or electric-lift truck drivers. By performing well in jobs once reserved for men, women helped change the view that they were fit only for “women's work.” Unfortunately, most of the gains made by women later disappeared when the men returned to the workforce at the end of the war. Thousands of women lost jobs as army defense workers.

Answer 12

German Americans endured suspicion and intolerance during the war. Newspapers questioned their loyalty. Mobs attacked them on the streets. In 1918, a mob lynched Robert Prager, whose only crime was that he had been born in Germany. A jury later refused to convict the mob leaders. Anti-German prejudice led some families to change their names. Schools stopped teaching the German language. Americans began referring to German measles as “liberty measles” and sauerkraut as “liberty cabbage.”

Answer 13

The war spurred migration within the nation. Immigration from abroad had stopped. The draft drained cities and factories of needed workers. Cities soon swelled with newcomers. During the war, almost a half million African Americans and thousands of Mexican Americans embarked on a great migration from the South and Southwest to cities in the North.

Answer 14

In northern cities, many African Americans found better-paying jobs in war industries. As a result, African American migration continued after the war ended. At the same time, however, they ran into prejudice and even violence. Competition for housing and jobs sometimes led to race riots. Thirty-nine African Americans were killed during a 1917 riot in East St. Louis, Illinois. A New York parade protested the deaths. Marchers carried signs demanding, “Mr. President, Why Not Make AMERICA Safe for Democracy?”

Answer 15

In the Southwest, ranchers pressed the government to let more Mexicans cross the border. Almost 100,000 Mexicans entered the United States to work on farms, mostly in California and Texas. By 1920, Mexicans were the leading foreign-born group in California. Some Mexicans moved on to northern cities to work in factories. Throughout the war, Mexicans worked in cotton and beet fields, in copper mines, and in steel mills. All these jobs were important to the war effort. Yet after the war, when veterans returned and unemployment grew, the United States tried to force Mexican workers to return to Mexico.

Answer 16

Some Americans opposed the war. Among them were Progressives such as Jane Addams. Many of these critics were pacifists, people who refuse to fight in any war because they believe that war is evil. Antiwar feeling also ran high among Socialists and radical labor groups. A Socialist believes that the people as a whole rather than private individuals should own all property and share the profits from all businesses. Socialists argued that the war benefited factory owners but not workers.

Answer 17

To encourage unity, Congress passed laws making it a crime to criticize the government or to interfere with the war effort. Nearly 1,600 men and women were arrested for breaking these laws. Eugene V. Debs, socialist candidate for President five times, was jailed for protesting the draft. The government also jailed “Big Bill” Haywood, head of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), a radical union. Using special powers granted under the wartime laws, government authorities ransacked the IWW's offices.

Answer 18

A few people questioned these laws. They argued that silencing critics violated the Constitution's guarantee of freedom of speech. Most Americans, however, felt that the laws were necessary in wartime.

Answer 19

Not all Americans supported the fighting. Jane Addams, for example, formed the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, which opposed war on humanitarian grounds. For her work, she won the Nobel Peace Prize.