Within weeks of Wilson's victory over Hughes, the problem
of the Great War became even more pressing. Although the Entente
powers were now slightly more willing to discuss President Wilson's offer
to arbitrate the dispute, the Central powers, led by Germany, were
not willing to negotiate. In fact, Germany increased its war effort
in February 1917 when it announced that German U-boats would attack every ship
in the waters around Europe, regardless of purpose, nationality,
or destination. In response, Wilson ended diplomatic relations
with Germany several days after the announcement. His goal was
not to fight, but rather to inform the German emperor in the sternest
way possible short of war that Germany's actions were unacceptable
and risked a confrontation. Germany ignored the threat. At this
point, many in the United States began clamoring for war.
Wilson and the public were even more outraged when American intelligence
services intercepted a secret communiqué to Mexico from German
Foreign Secretary Arthur Zimmerman, which requested that Mexico
declare war on the U.S. if the U.S. declared war on Germany. The
communiqué, known as the Zimmerman Note, promised Mexico the area
of Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico at the end of the war if Mexico
invaded the U.S. Finally, on March 18, 1917, German U-boats sank
three American merchant ships without warning. The next day, President
Wilson decided to enter the war alongside the Allied forces.
On April 2, 1917, Wilson requested that Congress declare
war on Germany, stating that the "The world must be made safe for democracy."
Congress declared war on April 6, and Wilson signed the war declaration
on April 7. Wilson wanted to make it clear, however, that the U.S.
was not fighting as an Allied power, but merely as, what he called,
an associate power. The difference rested in each power's war aims:
whereas the Entente Allies clearly wanted war spoils such as land,
money, and the subjugation of the German people, Wilson declared
that the United States was fighting only for moral reasons, namely
to protect democracy from tyranny and promote peace throughout
the world. After the war's end, Wilson also wanted to establish
a council that would ensure the collective security of all of Europe.
Wilson first prepared the military. Although the U.S. Navy was
prepared to fight under the leadership of Secretary of the Navy
Josephus Daniels and Assistant Secretary of the Navy Franklin Delano
Roosevelt, the U.S. Army needed bolstering. In May 1917, Congress
enacted a Selective Service bill at Wilson's urging, with the purpose
of drafting young men into the armed forces. During the course
of the war, nearly 3,000,000 men were drafted to bring the total
size of the military to 4,800,000. Wilson expected the public to
despise the draft, but he was pleasantly surprised to learn that
many supported it, especially in the North. Wilson appointed General
John J. Pershing as commander of U.S. forces in Europe, and sent
him to France to assist the Allied troops. Reportedly, Pershing
had only two orders from the President, the first being to go to
France to fight and the second being to return home. Wilson left
the business of tactics and fighting completely under Pershing's
jurisdiction. By war's end, 1,200,000 American troops were stationed
in France; also by that time, 112,000 American servicemen had died.
Wilson also tackled the task of organizing and coordinating
production of American war materials and foodstuffs. He appointed future
U.S. President Herbert Hoover to direct a Food Administration to
increase U.S. agricultural production and reduce consumption. Hoover
proved amazingly adept at the task; by war's end, he had more than
tripled agricultural production in the country. Wilson then appointed
Harry A. Garfield to run the Fuel Administration to increase domestic
fuel production. The President also placed his son-in-law, Secretary
of the Treasury William G. McAdoo, as the head of the new Railroad
Administration to optimize transportation.
Many businessmen and Republicans denounced Wilson as a socialist
for these programs and attempted to regain control of production
plans to take over the American war effort. Wilson fought back
with political violence. To ensure his future leadership, Wilson drafted
the Overman Act in March 1918 and pushed it through Congress. The
act gave Wilson unprecedented control over the war effort, from
governmental powers down to production powers. After Congress passed
the act, Wilson was not only the nation's military commander-in-chief,
but also its chief in nearly every other aspect of the war.
As had many Presidents before him in times of war–including
the esteemed Abraham Lincoln–Wilson believed that antiwar sentiment
would only disrupt or potentially damage the war effort. In 1917,
he signed Congress's Espionage Act, which outlawed draft dodging
and gave the federal government the power to censor printed material,
including mail. A year later, with Wilson's approval, Congress
passed the Sedition Act of 1918 to prohibit citizens from speaking
out against the federal government or its political leadership.
The government prosecuted many under these two laws. The most famous
dissenter was Eugene V. Debs, former Socialist Party candidate
for President in 1912, who was handed a ten-year prison sentence
for opposing the government's decision to enter the war.
Wilson also created the Committee on Public Information
under the leadership of journalist George Creel of Denver. The
Committee was created for the sole purpose of distributing propaganda throughout
the U.S. to convince the less enthusiastic Americans in the country
that declaring war had been the right decision. It was the largest
propaganda campaign in American history up to that time. The committee
overstepped its bounds somewhat, encouraging anti-German sentiments
and engendering a deep loathing for Germany and its people. Wilson
tried to stem the wave of hatred by reminding the people that the
United States had entered the war against the German leadership,
not the German people.
To fund the war effort, the Wilson Administration encouraged Congress
to pass the War Revenue Act of 1917, which established the highest
taxes the country had ever seen. Ever the progressive, Wilson made
sure that these taxes struck the nation's wealthiest hardest. The
act initially set the highest tax bracket at an unheard of sixty-seven
percent of an individual's income; a year later, Congress increased
the percentage to seventy-seven percent. At the same time, Wilson
also promoted labor rights. He worked with organized labor unions
such as the American Federation of Labor to strive towards an eight-hour
working day and eliminate child labor. Wilson wanted the workers
of America to understand that they were just as essential to victory
as the soldiers.
