State Intervention Flashcards
Military service act
January 1916 single men aged 18 to 41
Conscription summer 1916
Following the Battle of the Somme married men could be conscripted
Conscription February 1918
Age extended to 50 after Russia pulled out of the war
Effects of conscription
Limited freedom of the individual and change relationship between state and individual
Men who are fuse could be court-martialed and shot
Dilution agreements
Made between government and trade unions to train workers thought of as unskilled for example women
they were needed to maximise the output
Effect on workers
Expected to work with employers to avoid strikes in turn they demanded state control on profits and rents and safeguards so workers could return to work after war
highly skilled workers were exempt from conscription
How many working days were lost to strikes in 1913 to 1916
10 million in 1913
3 million in 1916
Changes in the electoral system
Right to vote originally based on property residence and gender Between 25 to 40% of men didn’t qualify and some even have plural votes
Parties recognise the contribution of women in the war effort and extended the vote to some of them
The defence of the realm act
Press censorship the government could dictate what one use was published
identity cards
income tax increased from 2.5p to 30p in the pound
food was rationed
alcohol and tobacco heavily taxed
employers were told what to produce and wages to pay
employees were not allowed to strike and could be made to move jobs
Why was conscription introduced?
Deaths on the Western front meant voluntarism was insufficient in January 1916
Asquith gave support to the military service act
50 Liberal MPs rebelled against it but the majority voted for it
Voluntarism
Used until 1916 was relatively successful the army increased from 250,000 men in 1914 to 2,000,000 in 1916 because of recruitment posters which played on pride and fear of embarrassment
