Over Here

Over Here

                                     By Collette

President Woodrow Wilson had promised the electorate the United States would stay out of the Great War that engulfed Europe. Economically, our industrial production was needed by the countries considered allies. In April of 1917, the President officially asked Congress to declare war on the Axis Powers of Europe. The declaration allowed America to move to full-time war production on the home front.

As men were drafted to serve in the army and left for the warfront, women replaced them at every level. They worked in munitions, produced equipment and replaced men in factories. The general public supported national drives that declared “fuel less Mondays,” “meatless Tuesdays,” “wheat less Wednesdays,” and “gasless Sundays.” Children actively collected money for government bonds to help finance the war effort. Every family that could planted a “victory garden” so food could be sent to Europe. All the while propaganda was used to influence the home front and a cessation of civil liberties was allowed to protect America from foreign intervention and spying.

For more information about how America fought on the home front, the following might be helpful.

www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Home_front_during_World_War_I
www.archives.gov/boston/exhibits/homefront
www.authentichistory.com/1914-1920/2-homefront/1-propaganda
https://docs.askives.com/home-front-us-ww1.html