Reading Questions - Chapter 19

Question 1

What happened to federal spending as a percentage of Government between 1916 and 1918?

Answer 1

There was a tremendous spending increase by the federal government from 1.5% to 24.2%.

Question 2

What happened to real earnings of workers in the United States between 1914 and 1920 (Start, Middle, End)?

Answer 2

1914 $555

1917 $586

1920 $619

Question 3

What means of finance supplied the largest fraction of total federal spending during World War I? (Give source and Percentage)

Answer 3

Borrowing from the public (Bonds) - 61.4% of funds.

Question 4

Who was Samuel Gompers? What did he do during the war?

Answer 4

• President of the American Federation of Labbor
• Served on Wilson’s Council of National Defense
  
  • Attended dthe negotiations over the Treaty of Versailles, where he organized the International Labour Organization.

Question 5

What was Charlie Chaplain doing in this image?

Answer 5

He is selling war bonds.

Question 6

Who is this man? Why is he important?

Answer 6

Bernard Mannes Baruch

• Placed as Head of The War Industries Board
• Personally negotiated prices of key industrial raw materials.
• Bulkline Pricing - negotiations by his Price Fixing Committee to generate 80% of total possible output by analyzing costs.
• Was used as a model for The New Deal’s Naitonal Recovery Administration.

Question 7

What lesson about the appropriate role of government in the economy did prominent war leaders such as Bernard Baruch draw from the American experience in World War I?

Answer 7

If governments played a larger role in coordinating economic activity, the economy would work more efficiently.

Question 8

Why was organized labor optimistic in the immediate aftermath of World War I?

Answer 8

• Labor union membership was up, as was the public’s view of the conservative movement.
• Samuel Gompers was the president of the American Federation of Labor.