622 Chapter 23 Woodrow Wilson and the Great War
The problem of mobilizing agricultural resources
was solved more quickly, and this was fortunate
because in April 1917 the British had on hand only a
six-week supply of food Wilson appointed as food
administrator Herbert Hoover; Hoover, a mining
engineer, had headed the Belgian Relief Commission
earlier in the war. Acting under powers granted by the
Lever Act of 1917, Hoover set the price of wheat at
$2.20 a bushel in order to encourage production. He
established a government corporation to purchase the
entire American and Cuban sugar crops, which he
then doled out to American and British refiners. To
avoid rationing he organized a campaign to persuade
consumers to conserve food voluntarily. One slogan
ran “If U fast U beat U boats”; another, “Serve beans
by all means.”
“Wheatless Mondays” and “meatless Tuesdays”
were the rule, and although no law compelled their
observance, the public responded patriotically. Boy
Scouts dug up backyards and vacant lots to plant veg-
etable gardens; chefs devised new recipes to save on
scarce items; restaurants added horsemeat, rabbit,
and whale steak to their menus and doled out butter
and sugar to customers in minuscule amounts.
Mothers pressured their children to “Hooverize”
their plates. Chicago residents were so successful in
making use of leftovers that the volume of raw
garbage in the city declined from 12,862 tons to
8,386 tons per month.
Without subjecting its own citizens to serious
inconvenience, the United States increased food
exports from 12.3 million tons to 18.6 million tons.
Farmers, of course, profited greatly. Their real income
went up nearly 30 percent between 1915 and 1918.
Workers in Wartime
With the army siphoning so many men from the labor
market and with immigration reduced to a trickle,
unemployment disappeared and wages rose. Although
the cost of living soared, imposing hardships on peo-
ple with fixed incomes, the boom produced unprece-
dented opportunities.
Americans, always a mobile people, pulled up
their roots in record numbers. Disadvantaged
groups, especially African Americans, were particu-
larly attracted by jobs in big-city factories. Early in
the conflict, the government began regulating the
wages and hours of workers building army camps and
manufacturing uniforms. In April 1918 Wilson cre-
ated the National War Labor Board, headed by for-
mer president Taft and Frank P. Walsh, a prominent
lawyer, to settle labor disputes. The board considered
more than 1,200 cases and prevented many strikes.
The War Labor Policies Board, chaired by Felix
Frankfurter of the Harvard Law School, set wages-
and-hours standards for each major war industry.
Since these were determined in consultation with
employers and representatives of labor, they speeded
the unionization of workers by compelling manage-
ment, even in antiunion industries like steel, to deal
with labor leaders. Union membership rose by
2.3 million during the war.
However, the wartime emergency roused the
public against strikers; some conservatives even
demanded that war workers, like soldiers, be con-
scripted. While he opposed strikes that impeded the
war effort, Wilson set great store in preserving the
individual worker’s freedom of action. It would be
“most unfortunate... to relax the laws by which
safeguards have been thrown about labor,” he said.
“We must accomplish the results we desire by orga-
nized effort rather than compulsion.”Paying for the War
Wilson managed the task of financing the war effec-
tively. The struggle cost the United States about
$33.5 billion, not counting pensions and other post-
war expenses. About $7 billion of this was lent to the
Allies,^1 but since this money was spent largely in
America, it contributed to the national prosperity.
Over two-thirds of the cost of the war was met
by borrowing. Five Liberty and Victory Loan drives,
spurred by advertising, parades, and other appeals to
patriotism, persuaded people to open their purses.
Industrialists, eager to instill in their employees a
sense of personal involvement in the war effort, con-
ducted campaigns in their plants. Some went so far
as to threaten “A Bond or Your Job,” but more typ-
ical was the appeal of the managers of the Gary,
Indiana, plant of U.S. Steel, who published bond
advertisements in six languages in order to reach its
immigrant workers.
In addition to borrowing, the government collected
about $10.5 billion in taxes during the war. A steeply
graduated income tax took more than 75 percent of the
incomes of the wealthiest citizens. A 65 percent excess-
profits tax and a 25 percent inheritance tax were also
enacted. Thus although many individuals made fortunes
from the war, its cost was distributed far more equitably
than during the Civil War.
Americans also contributed generously to philan-
thropic agencies engaged in war work. Most notable,
perhaps, was the great 1918 drive of the United War
Work Council, an interfaith religious group, which(^1) In 1914 Americans owed foreigners about $3.8 billion. By 1919
Americanswere owed$12.5 billion by Europeans alone.