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VIII. IMPERIALIST WAR &<br />
THE NEW AMERIKAN<br />
ORDER<br />
1. G.I. Joe Defends His Supermarket<br />
FULL COOPERATION of organized labor in efforts to win World War I1 was<br />
enlisted by President Roosevelt. Roosevelt insisted that labor be represented on<br />
the War Labor Board as equals with business to help maintain both production<br />
and labor standards and to settle disputes. Labor's drive to sell revenue-raising<br />
war bonds was symbolized in this poster presentation to Roosevelt at the White<br />
House by then AFL President William Green and Sec.-Treas. George Meany.<br />
"The Saturday Evening Post ran a series by G.1.s<br />
on 'What I Am Fighting For.' One characteristic article<br />
began: 'I am fighting for that Big House with the bright<br />
green roof and the big front lawn. " (I)<br />
World War I1 was the answer to every settler's<br />
prayer - renewed conquest and renewed prosperity. The<br />
New Deal's domestic reforms alone could not get<br />
capitalism going again. And even though the CIO had won<br />
large wage increases in basic industry, the peace-time<br />
economy was incapable of providing enough jobs and profits.<br />
As late as early 1940, the unemployment rate for<br />
Euro-Amerikan workers was still almost 18%. (2) Expansion<br />
of the Empire was the necessary basis of new prosperity.<br />
Although wars are made of mass tragedy and<br />
sacrifice, this most successful of all Amerikan wars was a<br />
happy time for most settlers. That's why they look back on<br />
it with so much nostalgia and fondness (even with a<br />
pathological TV comedy about "fun" in a Nazi P.O.W.<br />
camp). We could say that this was their last big frontier.<br />
Historian James Stokesbury notes in his summation of the<br />
war:<br />
"One of the great ironies of the American war effort<br />
was the way it was born disproportionately by a<br />
relatively few people. In spite of the huge numbers of men<br />
in service, second only to Russia among the Allies, only a<br />
90 limited number of them saw combat ... For the vast majori-