She was endorsed by President Teddy Roosevelt. Many women also worked for the U.S. Navy as clerical workers. The Army hired women to work as phone operators and nurses in the European theater, but playing the role as civilians.
But women also worked on a no-pay basis; more than 25,000 U.S. woman served the war cause by helping nurse some of the wounded as volunteers, helped provide food and other things the military needed. The "Hello Girls" were female volunteer phone operators, and helped entertain the troops. The "doughboys" (soldiers) treated American women entertainers with respect, but the doughboys didn't treat French women with the same respect.
Things during the fighting changed for young men of course, as a draft went into effect in 1917, which called for all men between the ages of 21 and 30 to register for military service; later those ages were change to 18 and 45. Second, a lot of money was raised by taxing people and by selling
There were "Liberty Loans" and "Victory Loans" (bonds) for people to buy, which raised over $21 billion. Income taxes were raised, and taxes on tobacco and liquor were raised very high.
It was a time of great sacrifice in
America. Everything cost more, and the government was constantly raising money at the expense of the average person. Postage for letters went up, and there was a "nuisance tax" on things like movie tickets, theater tickets, and telegraph messages, club dues. There was even an "excess profits tax" of between 20 to 60% on businesses.
Because many Americans did not feel the need to send troops to fight a war in
Europe, President Woodrow Wilson set up a public relations campaign and came up with slogans like "Make the world safe for democracy" and "A war to end war." There was a rush of
nationalism. Some critics of the war were put in jail, and if you were a conscious objector, you might be jailed.
The government set up certain days to save food; there were "meatless" days and there were "wheatless" days in which Americans were willing to give up their regular meals so enough food could be sent to the men fighting in Europe.
Works Cited
Carnes, Mark C., & Garraty, John a. The American Nation, 12th Edition. New…
