State Historical Society of Iowa
When the major powers of Europe went to war in 1914, few people expected the United States to be drawn into the conflict. American soldiers had never fought on European soil nor did the United States seem to be in danger. The United States shared a common language with the British, but Germans supplied more immigrants to Iowa than any other group. As the war progressed, however, President Woodrow Wilson insisted on America's right to trade. The British Royal Navy cut off most of U.S. trade with Germany, and German submarines began sinking any American ships bound for Britain or France. In April 1917, Congress declared war on Germany and Austria and became an ally of Britain, France and Russia.
Most Iowans enthusiastically supported the war effort. Over 500,000 Iowans between the ages of 18 and 45 registered for the draft, and Iowa sent 114,242 men and women to serve during this war. Many new inductees reported to Camp Dodge just north of Des Moines for basic training. To finance war efforts, the U.S. government sold war bonds. Local committees across the state conducted five drives. The American Red Cross was a private organization established to provide extra services to American soldiers. Women knitted scarves and socks, rolled bandages and assisted with other support services. Like war bonds, Iowans contributed to Red Cross efforts. Feeding the Allied armies and their civilian populations placed pressure on farmers to boost production. "Food Will Win the War" posters promoted patriotism while guaranteed price support provided a financial incentive. The result was a huge boost in corn and livestock production. To make even more food available, rationing restricted the amounts of sugar, flour and meat that Iowans could buy.
Many German families had migrated to Iowa in the 19th century. In river towns like Davenport, Clinton and Dubuque, there were strong communities of Germans who continued to practice German customs. When the war broke out, Germans came under suspicion of not supporting the U.S. war effort but secretly supporting the Germans. Sometimes local committees harassed German families and others with strong ties to their native lands in Europe and insisted that they become "full Americans." The Iowa governor, William Harding, even issued a proclamation, known as the Babel Proclamation, forbidding the use of any language other than English. It was probably an unconstitutional use of the governor's authority, and it caused problems for many ethnic Iowans, including Dutch, Danish and Norwegians, particularly in church services.
The war effort demanded an intense military, economic and financial commitment - and also came with a personal cost to many Americans. Iowa claimed two unfortunate "firsts." Merle Hay from Glidden was among the first three U.S. soldiers killed on the battlefield. Marion Crandell, once a French teacher at St. Katharine's School in Davenport, became the first U.S. woman to die of injuries sustained in a combat zone. She was serving in a canteen when she was injured from the explosion of an artillery shell.
Armistice Day marking German surrender on November 11, 1918, brought wild celebrations across the state. However, problems created by the war did not immediately disappear. The national was in the grip of a deadly flu epidemic that killed more Americans than the battlefield. When the demand for farm products began to decline as European farmers began production again and with the removal of government price supports, farm surplus sent prices plunging.
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From the beginning of World War I, the U.S. government was concerned that European immigrants would be loyal to their former nations, causing conflicts in the United States. As the war progressed, German immigrants and German Americans were seen as more o...
The war song, "Don't Bite the Hand That's Feeding You," was aimed at convincing immigrants of the importance of staying loyal to the United States during World War I. The song was composed by Jimmie Morgan and the lyrics were written by ...
The Espionage Act of 1917 was passed two months after America's entrance into World War I. It was, "An act to punish acts of interference with the foreign relations, the neutrality and the foreign commerce of the United States, to punish espionag...
After the Sedition Act, passed on May 16, 1918, augmented the already stringent Espionage Act of 1917, the New York Herald ran this cartoon by William Allen Rogers touting Uncle Sam's expanded authority to "round up" those that would oppose ...
This letter from President Woodrow Wilson, the 28th president of the United States, was calling for the enforcement of law and order to put an end to the "mob spirit" beginning to appear across the country. The letter, published July 26, 1918, a...
The Babel Proclamation was issued by Iowa's Governor William L. Harding. He took the anti-German sentiment in the wake of World War I further than any other state. The proclamation said, "Only English was legal in public or private schools, in pu...
Senator Warren G. Harding, Republican candidate for president, spoke about the rights of American citizens in this 1920 speech. Warren said the responsibility of government is to protect and sustain those same liberties and said it is the "committal ...
This political cartoon shows a woman labeled "Liberty" being chased down the steps of the U.S. Capitol by a man labeled "Congress" with a whip labeled "Espionage Bill." The image was published before the passage of the Espion...
At a contentious 1915 American Federation of Labor (AFL) trade union convention, labor leader Samuel Gompers proclaimed to a fractious audience, "I am a pacifist . . . and I had hoped that we would get away from the war idea." Yet from 1915 forw...
The speech by Ambassador James W. Gerard is a warning to German Americans that "Every citizen must declare himself American -- or traitor!" Gerard, who was the U.S. ambassador to Germany, wrote this in 1918 during World War I to encourage German...
Approximately 20,800 of the 24 million men who registered for the draft were called up for military duty, and over 64,000 of them claimed Conscientious Objector (CO) status. Of these, 56,830 had their claims verified by local draft boards. About 80 percen...
World War I altered the American economy, after three years of neutrality the US had to mobilize not only its armed forces but its economy. Production shifted from civilian goods to what was needed for the war effort. While the war progressed the War In...
Socialists Elizabeth Baer and Charles Schenck circulated pamphlets during World War I claiming that the draft went against the Thirteenth Amendment's ban on forced labor. The pamphlets recommended only nonviolent action but pushed people to defy the d...
The article below appeared shortly after the passage of the Babel Proclamation in Iowa by Governor Harding on May 23, 1918. Governor Harding's Proclamation was in keeping with the overall anti-German sediment perpetuated by the sense of those in the ...
The NAACP wrote this memorandum to contradict rumors of German agents agitating African American society. The authors—probably W.E.B. Du Bois and James Weldon Johnson—enumerate the ample reasons for unrest and dissatisfaction among African Americ...
In an attempt to gain support for the war effort, some suffrage groups moderated their calls for the right to vote. However, throughout the conflict, the National Woman's Party (NWP) continued to place securing women's voting rights at the top of ...
Nearly 370,000 African Americans had contributed in some way to the war effort by the end of World War I. The branches of the military and services available to enrolled African Americans were impacted by discriminatory tactics including segregation. Afri...
This 1918 letter from the Sioux City Missouri Synod Lutheran Church to Iowa Governor William Harding is requesting permission to conduct services in Swedish. The letter was sent in response to the Babel Proclamation, which prohibited all languages other t...
The Bisbee Deportation was a vigilante action, not one undertaken by the U.S. government. Due to the war the demand for and prices of cooper had increased. The mine was open 24/7 in conditions the workers charged were not safe. Two weeks prior to the de...
A look at the implementation of the Sedition Act of 1918 and the multiple U.S. Supreme Court cases to challenge the law and support the First Amendment.
A review of the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case, Schenck v. U.S., which led to the famous "clear and present danger" test to determine when a state could constitutionally limit an individual's free speech rights.
This website contains some brief information on the Babel Proclamation and the Iowan governor that signed the bill, William Harding.
This article contains information on attempts by various state governments to prohibit any language other than English being spoken.
This website includes a speech excerpt and modern-day reading of Debs' anti-war speech that was delivered on June 16, 1918.
