Chapter 30

Front 1

Zimmermann note (1917)

Back 1

German foreign secretary Arthur Zimmermann had secretly proposed a German-Mexican alliance against the United States. When the note was intercepted and published in March 1917, it cause an uproar that made some Americans more willing to enter the war.

Front 2

Fourteen Points (1918)

Back 2

Woodrow Wilson's proposal to ensure peace after World War I, calling for an end to secret treaties, widespread arms reduction, national self-determination, and a new League of Nations.

Front 3

Committee on Public Information (1917)

Back 3

A government office during World War I known popularly as the Creel Committee for its airman George Creel, it was dedicated to winning everyday American's support for the war effort. It regularly distributed prowar propaganda and sent out an army of "four-minute men" to rally crowds and deliver "patriotic pep."

Front 4

Espionage Act (1917)

Back 4

A law prohibiting interference with the draft and other acts of national "disloyalty." Together with the Sedition Act of 1918, which added penalties for abusing the government in writing, it created a climate that was unfriendly to civil liberties.

Front 5

Schenck v. United States (1919)

Back 5

A Supreme Court decision that upheld the Espionage and Sedition Acts, reasoning that freedom of speech could be curtailed when it posed a "clear and present danger" to the nation.

Front 6

War Industries Board (1917)

Back 6

Headed by Bernard Baruch, this federal agency coordinated industrial production during World War I, setting production quotas, allocating raw materials , and pushing companies to increase efficiency and eliminate waste. Under the economic mobilization of the War Industries Board, industrial production in the United States increased 20 percent during the war.

Front 7

National War Labor Board (1918)

Back 7

This wartime agency was chaired by former President Taft and aimed to prevent labor disputes by encouraging Haifa wages and an eight-hour day. While granting some concessions to labor, it stopped short of supporting labor's most important demand: a government guarantee of the right to organize into unions.

Front 8

Industrial Workers of the World (1905)

Back 8

The IWW, also known as the "Wobblies," was a radical organization that sought to build "one big union" and advocated industrial sabotage in defense of that goal. At its peak in 1923, it could claim 100,000 members and could gain the support of 300,000. The IWW particularly appealed to migratory workers in agriculture and lumbering and to miners, all of whom suffered from horrific working conditions.

Front 9

Nineteenth Amendment (1920)

Back 9

This Constitutional amendment, finally passed by Congress in 1919 and ratified in 1920, gave women the right to vote over seventy years after the first organized calls for woman's suffrage in Seneca Falls, New York.

Front 10

Sheppard-Towner Maternity Act (1921)

Back 10

Designed to appeal to new women voters, this act provided federally financed instruction in maternal and infant health care and expanded the role of government in family welfare.

Front 11

Battle of Château Thierry (1918)

Back 11

The first significant engagement of American troops in World War I - and, indeed, in any European war. To weary French soldiers, the American doughboys were an image of fresh and gleaming youth.

Front 12

Meuse-Argonne offensive (1918)

Back 12

General John J. "Black Jack" Pershing led American troops in this effort to cut the German railroad lines supplying the western front. It was one of the few major battles that Americans participated in during the entire war, and was still underway when the war ended.

Front 13

League of Nations (1919)

Back 13

A world organization of national governments proposed by President Woodrow Wilson and established by the Treaty of Versailles in 1919. It worked to facilitate peaceful international cooperation. Despite emotion appeals by Wilson, isolationists' objections to the League created the major obstacle to American signing of the Treaty of Versailles.

Front 14

Irreconcilables

Back 14

Led by Senators William Borah of Idaho and Hiram Johnson of California, this was a hard-core group of militant isolationists who opposed the Wilsonian dream of international cooperation in the League of Nations after World War I. Their efforts played an important part in preventing American participation in the international organization.

Front 15

Treaty of Versailles (1919)

Back 15

World War I concluded with this vengeful document, which secured peace but imposed sharp terms on Germany and created a territorial mandate system to manage former colonies of the world powers. To Woodrow Wilson's chagrin in incorporated very few of his original Fourteen Points, although it did include the League of Nations that Wilson had long sought. Isolationists in the United States, deeply opposed to the League, led the opposition of the Treaty, which was never ratified by the Senate.