1918 – Page 2 – Old Magazine Articles

Yanks on the Marne: The Battle of Chateau-Thierry
(The Stars and Stripes, 1918)

The American performance at the battle of Chateau-Thierry proved to General Foche that the Americans had the necessary stuff, and it was widely recognized that the Doughboys played the key roll in keeping the Germans out of Paris.

The attached STARS AND STRIPES article is extremely detailed as to the individual units (both French and American) that participated in rolling back the Germans along the Marne.

On June 4, the best information available indicated that the enemy was employing not less than 33 divisions, about 3000,000 men…But like the defenders of Verdun, the American machine gunners set their teeth and said, ‘They shall not pass.’

Paris, 1918: La Guerre Fini!
(The Stars and Stripes, 1918)

Yank and Aussie and Jock, Italian, Portuguese, Greek, Pole, Checko-Slovak, Tommy, Indian, all from the newly arrived Brazilians to the wizened and and weather-beaten poilus wearing the seven brisques denoting four years in the furnace, knew no nationality, no difference of tongues or even of uniform.

Click here to read another article about the 1918 Armistice.

– from Amazon:

The War That Ended Peace: The Road to 1914

The Atmosphere of W.W. I Paris
(Atlantic Monthly, 1918)

William Beebe is best remembered for his exploration of the oceans in a submersible craft called a Bathysphere, however, as a younger man his study of nature brought him to war-weary Paris.

Four devastating years of war had altered the city and made quite an affect on the young naturalist. His astute and very moving observations were recorded in this essay, A Naturalist in Paris.

This link displays the first six pages; the remaining seven pages are available upon request.

Click here to read about the day when the Nazis took Paris.

The U.S. Marines Land ”Over There”
(The Spectator, 1918)

A British journalist encountered the United States Marine Corps and found them to be an impressive curiosity that spoke an odd, nautical language. One Marine in particular was singled out and, although anonymous some of you will recognize right away that he could only be one man: Sergeant Dan Daily of the Fifth Marines.

Click here to read about the high desertion rate within the U.S. Army of 1910.

‘Tell That To The Marines”
(Sea Power Magazine, 1918)

The W.W. I poster campaign was a vast undertaking that was new in the annals of warfare. Never before had government locked arms with the newly created forces of mass-media (such as it was) in an effort to instill some sense of patriotism in the hearts of so many. The old salts who edited Sea Power Magazine recognized this and so they documented as many of the posters dealing with the US. Navy as they could find.

The attached single page article explains the origins and development of the famed Tell That To The Marines poster that was painted by James Montgomery Flagg in 1918.

‘Black Mammy”
(Confederate Veteran Magazine, 1918)

Those sensitive beta-males in the editorial offices of Confederate Veteran were teary-eyed and waxing winsome that day in 1918 when they saw fit to recall one particular long-standing Southern institution that was gone with the wind:

The most unique character connected with the days of slavery was the old black mammy, who held a position of and confidence in nearly every white family of importance in the South… She was an important member of the household, and for her faithfulness and devotion she has been immortalized in the literature of the South.

The Hastening of Prohibition
(The Literary Digest, 1918)

The Dry forces in Washington, who vigorously patted themselves on the back for having been able to get the Eighteenth Amendment through Congress in December of 1917, wanted the law to take effect sooner than the amendment had mandated. Shortly after the signing of the Armistice, they rallied their members on the Hill and launched a piece of legislation through Congress called the Emergency Agricultural Appropriations Bill:

President Wilson signs the Emergency Agricultural Appropriations Bill, whose rider provides for national prohibition from July 1 next until the American Army is demobilized.

The 1918 New York Elections
(The Stars and Stripes, 1918)

By the time this short notice was seen on page one of THE STARS and STRIPES during the Spring of 1918, the political momentum was clearly on the side of the Prohibition advocates and the voters of many states had elected to go dry long before the Congress had decided to amend the Constitution. The 1918 election in New York between Wets and Drys was a close one and the eyes of the nation were watching. The headline read:

PROHIBITION RACE NOW NECK AND NECK: TWENTY NEW YORK CITIES DRY AND NINETEEN WET…

The deciding and unknown factor was the women of New York, who were permitted to vote in municipal elections.

Christianity vs. Prohibition
(The North American Review, 1918)

Seeing that much of the momentum to prohibit the national sale, distribution and consumption of wine and spirits originated with a hardy chunk of the observant Christian community, the Reverend John Cole McKim decided to weigh in on the topic. McKim tended to believe that:

Christ, being divine and consequently infallible, could not have erred. Since it is well known that Christ used wine Himself and gave it to others…

He further opined:

But to vote what one regards as a natural right shall be declared forever illegal, is cowardly, un-American, and un-Christian.

Christianity Versus Prohibition
(The North American Review, 1918)

Christ, being divine and consequently infallible, could not have erred. Since it is well known that Christ used wine Himself and gave it to others…

He further opined:

But to vote what one regards as a natural right shall be declared forever illegal, is cowardly, un-American, and un-Christian.

Out of the Mouths of Babes: Girl Evangelists in the Flapper Era

Lynching Record For The Year 1918
(The Crises, 1918)

Attached is a two page account of the sixty-four lynchings that took place during 1918; the names of the victims, dates, locations, and their alleged violations. There is no mention made concerning how the data was collected.

According to THE CRISES records there were 64 Negroes, 5 of whom were Negro women, and four white men, lynched in the United States during the year 1918, as compared with 224 persons lynched and killed in mob violence during 1917, 44 of whom were lynchings of Negroes…

The Rebel Conscription Problem
(Confederate Veteran Magazine, 1918)

It has been said that the Confederate States passed the most drastic conscript law on record, which may be true; but it is a mistake to suppose that this law was successfully executed.

The [Conscription] act, April 16, 1862, embraced men between eighteen and thirty-five years; the second, of September 27 1862, men between eighteen and forty-five; the third and last, of February 17, 1864, men between seventeen and fifty.

Click here to read about the American South during the Great Depression.

Corn and the 1st Arkansas Regiment
(Confederate Veteran Magazine, 1918)

Appearing in the pages of Confederate Veteran Magazine some forty-three years after the bloody end of the American Civil War was this reminiscence by a Confederate veteran recalling the important roll that corn played during the war and throughout American history:

I am an old Southern planter, past eighty-five years of age, in perfect condition as to mind and health, have lived on cornbread all my life, and feel that I can speak intelligently on the much-mooted cornbread question.

During the war I commanded the 1st Arkansas Regiment, consisting of twelve hundred men, and during the four years we never saw a piece of bread that contained a grain of wheat flower. We lived entirely on plain corn bread, and my men were strong and kept the best of health…

Lincoln and Lee in 1918
(The Nation, 1918)

On the first anniversary marking the American intervention into the First World War Charles Payne of Grenell College, Iowa, wrote to the editors at The Nation and cautioned his fellow-Americans to remember the conduct and humility of Civil War General Robert E. Lee.

Click here to read about the heavy influence religion had in the Rebel states during the American Civil War.

Face Masks Will Fight Influenza
(The Stars and Stripes, 1918)

The influenza of 1918 took a large bite out of the American Army, both at home and abroad. The military and civilian medical authorities were at a loss as to what actions should be taken to contain the disease, and as they paused to plan, thousands died. The attached article describes one step that provided some measure of success in the short term.

A more thorough article about Influenza can be read here.

Click here to read more about Influenza.

A Wartime Footing for the USMC
(Sea Power Magazine, 1918)

The ranks of the United States Marine Corps began to swell in the early March of 1917, shortly after the Kaiser launched his campaign of unrestricted submarine warfare. When Congress declared war the following April, the expansion began is earnest:

The Act of Congress making naval appropriations for the present fiscal year carries a proviso increasing the Marine Corps from its permanent legal enlisted strength of seventeen thousand and four hundred to a temporary war strength of seventy-five thousand and five hundred with a proportional increase in commissioned and warrant officers and the addition of two major generals and six brigadier generals.

This article is illustrated with 12 photographs.

Click here to read about the African-American soldiers who served in France.

Over There’ by Albert Sterner
(Sea Power Magazine, 1918)

An American sailor in white uniform stands in the center bearing the Stars and Stripes, and at his side stands Columbia, in shining armor and with a drawn sword, pointing across the sea to direct the gaze of the sailor Over There to the battlefield of the nations, where he must carry his flag to victory for the sake of the free country whose uniform he wears. In the background beneath the flag is shown the battle fleet steaming out to sea.

– so wrote the editors of Sea Power Magazine who were so moved by the W.W. I U.S. Navy recruiting poster Over There by Albert Sterner (1863 – 1946) that all they could do was describe it’s powerful lines and overall design.

Baseball as Metaphor for War
(The Stars and Stripes, 1918)

In one of the first issues of the Stars & Stripes, it was decided to mark the historic occasion of the American arrival on the World War One front line with the always reliable baseball comparison. Printed beneath a headline that clearly implied that the war itself was actually the World Series sat one of the worst poems to ever appear on the front page of any newspaper:

The Boches claim the Umpire is a sidin’ with their nine,

But we are not the boobs to fall for such a phony line;

We know the game is fair and square, decision on the level;

The only boost the Kaiser gets is from his pal the Devil…