<P> Firmly maintaining neutrality when World War I began in Europe in 1914, the United States helped supply the Allies, but could not ship anything to Germany because of the British blockade . Sympathies among many politically and culturally influential Americans had favored the British cause from the start of the war, as typified by industrialist Samuel Insull, born in London, who helped young Americans enlist in British or Canadian forces . On the other hand, especially in the Midwest, many Irish Americans and German Americans opposed any American involvement and were anti-British . The suffragist movement included many pacifists, and most churches opposed the war . </P> <P> German efforts to use its submarines ("U-boats") to blockade Britain resulted in the deaths of American travelers and sailors, and attacks on passenger liners caused public outrage . Most notable was the torpedoing without warning the passenger liner Lusitania in 1915 . Germany promised not to repeat, but it reversed its position in early 1917, believing that unrestricted U-boat warfare against all ships headed to Britain would win the war even at the cost of American entry . When Americans read the text of the German offer to Mexico, known as the Zimmermann Telegram, they saw an offer for Mexico to go to war with Germany against the United States, with German funding, with the promise of the return of the lost territories of Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas . On Apr 1, 1917, Wilson called for war, emphasizing that the U.S. had to fight to maintain its honor and to have a decisive voice in shaping the new postwar world . Congress voted on April 6, 1917 to declare war, but it was far from unanimous . </P> <P> Congress authorized President Woodrow Wilson to create a bureaucracy of 500,000 to 1 million new jobs in five thousand new federal agencies . To solve the labor crisis, the Employment Service of the Department of Labor attracted workers from the South and Midwest to war industries in the East . </P> <P> In April 1917, the Wilson Administration created the Committee on Public Information (CPI), known as the Creel Committee, to control war information and provide pro-war propaganda . Employing talented writers and scholars, it issued anti-German pamphlets and films . It organized thousands of "Four - Minute Men" to deliver brief speeches at movie theaters, schools and churches to promote patriotism and participation in the war effort . </P>

What kinds of domestic investments did the government make as a result of the cold war