Module 5

The Personal/Individual Experience of World War I

  1. Many individuals saw the war as an adventure or way to show their patriotism, those who did not either protested or were challenged by George Creel and his Committee on Public Information (which also other laws related to espionage and pro-Germanism).
  2. A sampling of different attitudes/experiences regarding the WWI (does not represent all views but, in general, these views held true for each group)
    1. Reformers:
      1. religious leader/clergy person–wanted safeguards for the morality of the men, training on venereal disease (“Fit to Fight” films were some of the first sex education used), concerns about illicit sex and alcohol abuse, closed down redlight districts (prostitution) near military bases, thousands of prostitutes jailed while ‘patrons’ went free
      2. suffragist–largely for the war, thought to enhance own opportunities to shift strategy to national campaign, National American Women’s Suffrage Association lobbying Congress members, more radical National Women’s Party (led by Alice Paul) picketing White House and calling on Wilson to grant suffrage
      3. prohibitionist–aimed tremendous hostility toward German-Americans, as they were a large drinking populations as were the Irish (Catholics), saw alcohol abuse as the ruin of American servicemen
    2. Labor
      1. southern African American worker–numerous jobs opened up, some even recruited to northern industries, more men available because military did not want or allow many African American men to join the service
      2. female industrial workers–enhanced jobs they were already in, or allowed move to industries that were more skilled and higher paying, still expected to give up their jobs when men return (after the war ended)
      3. Mexican immigrant workers–huge need in Southwest (TX, AZ, CA) for farm laborers, government rescinded immigration laws for duration of war, had to have identification papers and show proof of job to come
      4. Union leader/labor organizer–Samuel Gompers & American Federation Labor (AFL) support the war—pushed for an 8-hr day, promote skilled workers, even including women at equal pay idea whereas the International Workers of the World (IWW or “Wobblies”) were against the war—sought to organize unskilled workers, denounced capitalism as they saw war as result of it
      5. Teachers–intellectuals mostly for the war, mixed results as some saw as opportunity for social possibilities through science and greater efficiency (John Dewey) while few others argued the human/physical destruction did not justify the advances which would emerge
    3. Ethnicity and Ideology
      1. German-American–saw much discrimination, some for the Kaiser and German state but most were “true-blue” Americans, often the accusation of treason was enough to
        condemn, anti-Germans burned German literature and banned the language, boycotted their businesses; in self-defense many German-Americans changed last names (including your instructor’s grandfather Amos Mueller, who adopted the anglicized form of Miller instead), renamed goods with German spellings or inferences
      2. Socialist leader–Eugene Debs protested the war and the US government, was jailed for 20 years; but some socialists later saw the war as an opportunity to bring more government influence into American economy and culture (this is certainly true as a form of the social welfare state arose in the US by the 1930s)
      3. Conscientious objector (CI)–Of 10 million men registered for the draft and the 2.8 mil called to service, about 12% or 340,000 did not appear; could be for religious reasons such as Quakers or Mormons, could be by pacifist beliefs against warfare itself, some had outright fear or indifference; if the proper papers for the C.I. status were filed, then not answering the call to service was completely legal. Sometimes, C.I.’s still served but were given non-combat status as clerical aides, medical personnel, support services, etc. (There is a common misconception among students that avoiding the draft or military service was a modern concept, i.e. the Vietnam war, when in fact this status has existed since the earliest days of the American Revolution)
      4. Pacifist–supported peace and traditional US isolationism, American Union against Militarism (AUM) lobbied against WWI through a preparedness campaign and against intervention in Mexico, antiwar (pacifist) feeling very strong in the South (weaker economic ties and stakes with Allies, also historical suspicion of military power concentrated in Washington) and the Midwest where large German communities (who had mixed feelings about attacking their ancestral homeland) and socialist ties created basis of anti-war sentiment.
      5. Writer/journalist–Randolph Bourne wrote anti-war essays and argued the futility of war; war correspondents made new living off ideas, people like Ernest Hemingway and e.e. cummings wrote stories after the war was over (had volunteered for ambulance corps duty before war broke out so used their first-hand experience to relate their view of war)
    4. Government
      1. Anti-war senator–Jeannette Rankin (MT) and Robert LaFollette (WI) both voted against war, supported US patriotism but not the war effort, House Democrats opposed the war and even influenced Wilson’s reelection campaign in 1916 with slogan “He Kept Us Out of War”
      2. Female volunteers–responded to propaganda calling on their patriotism and humanitarianism, made up large number of health and sanitary services (Red Cross), food conservation, liberty bond drives, organizing benefits for money, feminists in Woman’s Peace Party supported war in hopes the war might win the right to vote though some like Jane Addams (of Hull House in Chicago) opposed the war
    5. Military
      1. female military personnel–served as USO morale volunteers, clerical and administrative work, telephone operators, translators, volunteered in droves as both received pay for their work and service gave them an opportunity for travel/adventure/excitement as well as a genuine wish to aid the war effort
      2. submarine captain–unrestricted submarine warfare problematic since 1914, more need to protect commercial interests at first then, later, as a safeguard for citizens and goods, use of convoys and submerged mine fields allowed submariners to create protective corridors in which vital support flowed across the Atlantic to support the Allies in Europe
      3. army chief of staff—Congress created the Department of Defense, started preparedness campaign as early as 1915, large build up in US military personnel (officers trained, also National Guard emerged), Brigadier General John J. Pershing (veteran leader of conflict in Mexico) was appointed as Commanding Officer of the American Expeditionary Force (AEF), demanded a minimum 6 month training program for American soldiers who were severely unskilled in the ways of war, wanted segregated regiments and divisions, also wanted to achieve military success as just Americans–did not want to share resources of men with Allies
      4. African American military personnel–volunteered and registered under Selective Service Act which made no mention of race, too many volunteered (in the eyes of the white leadership) so many were turned away. However, more than 200,000 African Americans served in segregated regiments and divisions, though few became officers; doing mostly manual work as servants, porters, transports, etc. usually for white officers and always commanded by whites, a few military regiments such as the 92d, and all-black 369th US regiment saw first and longest deployment in a foreign army (with the French). Though US urged French not to give “special” treatment—as in full equality—to its black troops, it was a positive experience for both sides.
      5. Medical personnel–doctors and nurses worked in field hospitals and veteran’s hospitals, homefront and behind frontlines, interacted with other medical groups, help from the Red Cross but also military units, mass response to flu epidemic (with respiratory complications usually pneumonia) at home and abroad in 1918-1919 as approx. 550,000 Americans died in 10 months (estimated 20 million people died from influenza outbreak worldwide)

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