Liberalism: Power, Economic Crisis, Reform, War 91had won again, however, the Americans ramped up their role in the Great War.
He had already essentially promised the British that the U.S. would enter the
war and when Germany resumed U-Boat strikes in 1917, Wilson broke off
relations with the government in Berlin and in April went to Congress to get
a declaration of war because, he said, “the world must be made safe for democ-
racy.” Given the president’s actions to that point, his economic motives for
supporting Britain and his acceptance of British violations of international law,
it might seem that his claim that the U.S. would fight for democracy was insin-
cere. Wilson, however, as we have noted, was a liberal, and one of the core
ideas of liberalism was free trade, the idea that commerce between nations
should occur without any barriers or any other party, like Germany, trying to
restrict it. And U-Boat warfare, especially when German subs were sinking
ships carrying American goods to sell to the Europeans or returning home with
the gold used to pay for such goods, was most definitely not liberal. Submarine
warfare, a most illiberal way to behave when ships were conducting commerce
on what Wilson deemed “free seas,” was surely a violation of democracy as
Wilson, liberals, and the American ruling class saw it.
And so America went to war in 1917, its first experience with a global
conflict since its own war for independence in the 1770s and 1780s. The U.S.
military role in the war was fairly limited. The army was not large and so the
government had to encourage young men to enlist and in May 1917 Congress
passed a Selective Service Act, a draft, to require American males to serve in
the military. By the time American troops arrived in Europe, the Germans
were on the defensive and, although U.S. troops did have an important role
in some key battles in 1918, they were not involved to anywhere near the
degree of the Europeans. When the fighting stopped with an armistice, or a
cease-fire, in November, 1918, Wilson could claim that he was part of the
winning coalition, but the Americans had not fought to a truly significant
level—in fact, more soldiers died from the flu and sexually transmitted dis-
eases than from battle. The U.S. made a much larger contribution through its
economic support of the allies, and in the process made significant changes to
the economy at home.
Mobilizing, acquiring, and preparing the men and resources needed for
made the connection between the state and big business, already growing in
the Progressive Era, even closer. In 1917, Wilson created the War Industries
Board [WIB], headed by financial expert and friend Bernard Baruch, to over-