ic role and gaining some advantages such as collective bargaining. The war may have had a leveling effect in many ways, but it also sharpened some social differences and conflicts. Soldiers were revolting just like workers: They [soldiers] were no longer willing to sacrifice their lives when shirkers at home were earning all the money, tkaing, the women around in cars, cornering all the best jobs, and while so many profiteers were waxing rich. The draft was not completely fair since ot all men were sent to thetrenches. Skilled workers were more important to industry and some could secure safe assignments at home. Unskilled young males and junior officers paid with their lives the most. The generation conflict was also widened by the war as Veterens' disillusionment fed off of anger towards the older generation for sending them to the trenches.. Governments took on many new powers in order to fight the total war. War governments fought opposition by increasing police power. Authoritatian regimes like tsarist Russia had always depended on the threat of force, but now even parliamentary governments felt the necessity to expand police powers and control public opinion. Britain gave police powers wide scope in August 1914 by the Defence of the Realm Act which authorized the public authorities to arrest and punish dissidents under martial law if necessary. Through later acts polices powers grew to include suspending newspapers and the ability to intervene in a citizen's private life in the use of lights at home, food consumption, and bar hours. Police powers tended to grow as the war went on and public opposition increased as well. In France a sharp rise of strikes, mutinies, and talk of a negotiated peace raised doubts about whether France could really carry on the war in 1917. A group of French political leaders decided to carry out the war at the cost of less internal liberty. The government c...
