Political - PowerPoint Presentation

Slide1

Political

The government took over more control of people’s lives. For example they passed the Smith Act(1940) which made it illegal to threaten to overthrow the government. Originally aimed at fascists it became associated with attacks on communists.Slide2

Political

The 1940 Selective Service Act introduced conscription and the War Management Commission had to recruit workers where they were needed most (not through conscription though). The National

Labor

Board set wages.Slide3

Political

The Office of Scientific

Rsearch

and Development mobilised thousands of scientists to develop new methods of death; from bazookas to the atomic bomb.Slide4

Political

The Office of Price Administration and Civilian Supply was set up in 1941 to control inflation and keep prices at a reasonable level. In April 1942 it issued a General Maximum Price regulation which froze prices at March 1942 levels to prevent inflation.Slide5

Political

Eventually all key or scarce items were put on rationing, such as petrol, tyres, coffee, sugar and other foodstuffs. Almost 90% of food items were subject to price controls.Slide6

Economic

In 1940 the unemployment figures were 14.6% and in 1941 there were 9 million people out of work. By 1944 there was just 1.2% of the population classed as unemployed.Slide7

Economic

Farm income grew by 250%.Slide8

Economic

In 1944 alone, 6.5 million women entered the

labor

force and by the end of the war 60% of women were employed.Slide9

Economic

The number of African Americans working in government rose from 50,000 in 1939 to 200,000 by 1944.

In the years between 1940-44, 5 million

African Americans moved to the cities where a million found jobs in defence plants.Slide10

Economic

Gross National Product (GNP) rose from $91.3billion in 1939 to $166.6 billion by 1945.Slide11

Economic

Production of cars for ordinary motorists was strictly rationed, as were petrol supplies.Slide12

Economic

The US national debt rose from $41 billion in 1941 to $260 billion by 1945. The federal government spent twice as much between 1941-45 as it had done in the previous 150 years and Roosevelt paid for this through increased taxation. The highest earners paid 94% tax. Prices rose 28% on average but wages rose 40% on average. The poor grew wealthier during the war and the rich got a smaller share of the prosperity. Slide13

Social

2000 Japanese immigrants along with 14000 Germans and Italians were rounded up and kept in prison camps - labelled as subversives.

In the end over 100,000 American-Japanese were forcibly sent to ‘relocation centres’. They had to leave their property unguarded and much looting went on in their absence. One source estimated the Japanese-American community lost around $400 million.Slide14

Social

The relocation centres for those considered ‘subversives’ were akin to concentration camps with razor wire and guards. In a riot in one camp named

Manzanar

, two inmates were killed. By 1944, with the threat of Japanese invasion all but over, the Supreme Court forbid the internment of immigrants or Americans of Italians, Germans and Japanese descent. Still, resentment and animosity was to last for years.Slide15

Social

There were 19 million female war workers by 1944. One in three aircraft workers and half of those working in electronics and munitions were women.

Some states made equal pay compulsory.

However, African-American women were discriminated against and usually first-fired, last-hired.

At the end of the war the majority of women gave up their top, well-paid jobs.

On average women earned 50-60% of the wage that men earned for the same job.

A woman could still be dismissed from her job when she married.