Mobilizing a Nation: America’s Entry Into World War I :: United States History Historical Essays

Mobilizing a Nation Americas Entry Into World War IWorks Cited Missing Woodrow Wilson delivered his now-famous War Message to Congress on April 4, 1917. Four days later, Congress declared war and the United States became a formal accessory in the war to end all wars. As the Wilson judiciary was to discover, however, declaring war and making war were two very different propositions. The former required just an abstract statement of ideals and justifications and a two-thirds Congressional majority the latter required the massive mobilization of virtually every sector of American society - military, industrial, and economic, as well as public opinion. The Wilson administration sought to accomplish this daunting task in two concomitant and interdependent fashions. First, it undertook an unprecedented assumption of federal control and regulation. The federal government established an array of bureaus and agencies endowed with sweeping powers to define th e nations economy and industrial production. Furthermore, it passed a series of laws knowing to support these agencies and to stifle what it deemed subversive antiwar opinion and activity. Second, and of equal importance, the administration appealed to the publics patriotism and sense of civic responsibility, effectively encouraging volunteerism in both the public and private sectors. Each of these tacks was bulwarked by a pervasive dose of pro-war government propaganda. In the end, in terms of raising an army, mobilizing the economy and influencing the outcome of the war, the administrations mobilization efforts were largely successful. However, there were significant consequences to the governments actions, most acutely in the realm of civil liberties, both during and in the moment of the war. One of the earliest examples of federal muscle in wartime mobilization was the passage of the Lever Act in August 1917. The act gave the president the power to regulate s upplies and prices of food and fuel by creating two new government agencies the United States Food Administration and the United States Fuel Administration, headed by Herbert make clean and Harry Garfield, respectively. Hoover and Garfield operated with virtually unlimited power and used the implicit threat of federal nationalization to regulate prices and cajole producers into increased production and conservation (Zeiger, 72).