Preparedness Campaign

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Preparedness and War at Home 1940-1945 Preparedness Campaign – 1939. Industrial boom in war materials, steel, etc. Gearing up war machine. December 7, 1941, we were ready after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Huge decline in unemployment. There was a huge shortage of workers to meet all demands of war. By 1943, men were pulled away from jobs at home to fight at war. Were not enough workers during the war. Problems Waging the War A. Shortage of Workers- there were a lot of things that happened because of this i. Labor reforms- Laws that had previously strengthened unions, reforms, etc really began to get thrown by the gov't. They thought they were stopping the war efforts. ii. Women – more and more women came into the work force. They had…show more content…
African Americans – before the war, white men had held best blue collar jobs, etc because of racism/prejudice. African-American men began to fill the open jobs too and had more opportunities and pay. Their standard of living rose significantly. After war ended, they did keep as many increases as they could at home. Old racist attitudes began to fall by the wayside. Black/whites were working next to each other side by side, slowly beginning to come down. iv. National War Labor Board – est. 1942. Charged with managing nation's labor supply to make sure industrial production went smoothly. Capped wages and benefitted the gov't. Helped control cost of war. B. Shortage of Raw Materials – gov't needed large amounts of rubber, steel, etc Rationing/Conservation – instituted in end of 1941. Gasoline was rationed and other materials as well too. Rubber was rationed. Conservation and recycling began to become popular. Victory garden: everyone should plant one. Cartoons were created and used to make people feel like they were contributing to the war. Roosevelt admin. asserted stakes were too high to trust industry to stop producing consumer goods. Gov't had to step in and make sure they were transitioning from washers, etc to tanks, jeeps,…show more content…
FDR's 100% tax rate suggestion was too extreme. The number of Americans required to pay taxes increases significantly and they took extremely large amounts from people's money. Taxes rose dramatically. Very successful though, the gov't was making a huge giant increase. War bonds – promoted heavily using posters. Very popular during this time and 85 million people bought the war bonds. There was an inability of people able to spend their money, so they spent a lot of their free money on the war bonds. People had a lot of savings when the war ended with all savings and war bonds. Huge propoganda campaign to get people to accept sacrifices people must make. Govt's, businesses put out literature, pictures, posters. Called on patriotic feelings and told people to start being careful Hollywood scripts had to be approved by gov't and were not easily approved. Studios were producing shorts encouraging people to enlist, do their duties, etc Hollywood encouraged their big stars even to get into the military. Jimmy Stewart was a famous actor who made a career of being in the army. Disney and Warner Brothers produced cartoons even Mickey Mouse joined in the
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