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| A century ago residents of our area were faced with the impact of World War I and faced shortages, cold weather and influenza. This is a collection of World War I posters that appeal to the general public for support. |
“We are facing conditions which are unique for this generation in these days of war.”
Harry E. Parker, Editor, The United Opinion
Between April 1917 and November 1918, the United States sent
2 million men to fight “the war to end all wars.” Ultimately, 16,000 Vermonters
and over 20,000 from New Hampshire, including hundreds of locals, joined that
force. In April 2017, this blog featured an article on that fighting force
entitled “Locals Over There.” It can be accessed at larrycoffin.blogspot.com.
This essay deals with impact of the war on the civilian
population of the two states a century ago.
As Parker suggested, the impacts
were significant and affected every aspect of daily life.
Even before America entered the war, demands from European
combatants for American goods helped fuel an economic boom in the nation, a
boom that was felt in Northern New England. This included a demand for machine
tools, textiles, armaments, lumber, shipping and agricultural products.
The national government reversed the traditional policies of
laissez-fair. Special boards were given unprecedented control over both the
economy and personal life. The federal government took control of telephone and
telegraph systems as well as merchant shipping and railroads. Other boards
included Fuel Administration, War Industries Board, War Labor Board and Food
Administration. Every attempt was made to operate the economy more effectively
to meet the demands of “total war.”
In 1917, the federal government established the Committee on
Public Information to cultivate public support for the war and “guard secrets
of value.” Thousands of so-called
Four-Minute Men appeared at public gatherings with prepared brief speeches,
“every one having the carry of shrapnel.” Posters and bulletins and newspaper
columns advanced the patriotic fervor.
As with citizens nationwide, local residents embraced the
war effort, viewing it as both a moral crusade and a matter of national
self-defense. In June 1917, the film “Stand By the President” was shown at the
Fairlee Opera House. “Win-the-War” meetings were held locally.
Support for the war was necessary, it was explained,
“because if the Germans should win they will take everything away from the
people of America.” Newspapers carried news of German atrocities against
neutral nations. It was later determined that British propaganda exaggerated
both the threats and the atrocities in order to incite America’s participation
in the war.
Both New Hampshire and Vermont passed legislation to
mobilize their citizens and defend against possible saboteurs. The New Hampshire
Legislature led by Governor Henry Keyes of Haverhill set a record for martial
legislation, including the registration of aliens, regulation of firearms and
explosives and conservation of resources.
An espionage act was passed in Vermont permitting the warrantless arrest
of individuals suspected of plotting against the government or giving aid and
comfort to the enemy.
Across the nation, the vigilante American Protective League,
claiming members in most towns, set out “to run down slackers and seditious
aliens.” It was difficult and dangerous to oppose the war. There were few
actual cases of antiwar prosecutions in the two states. As in other states,
there were efforts to reduce German influence. This led the Berlin (NH) Mills to change its name to Brown.
Newspapers referred to German measles as
liberty measles.
Anti-war songs such
as “I Didn’t Raise My Boy to Be A Soldier” were replaced with songs such as
“Over There” in support of the war efforts.
There was a certain degree of paranoia with accidents or
fires sometimes blamed on German saboteurs. Troops were stationed at valley
railroad bridges including the ones in Bradford and between Wells River and
Woodsville. These bridges were of significance as they were used by troops
traveling to Quebec before shipping to Europe.
Two-thirds of the American cost of the war was financed by
loans. A series of Liberty Loan Drives were held. Additionally, these bond
drives helped to fight inflation by taking excess money out of
circulation.
Full-page advertisements for these drives appeared in The
United Opinion. Vermont raised over $55 million for the five drives. Local
communities met the goals set. In 1917,
Bradford raised an oversubscription of $88,000.
War savings stamps were sold with special emphasis on school
sales. Vermonters raised $13.90 per capita and New Hampshire followed with
$11.78. Fairlee was one of the top three Vermont communities raising $27.43 per
capita. As in other communities, locals in Orfordville proudly displayed their
Liberty Loan Flag.
The needs of the American armed forces as well as the Allies
in Europe led to shortages at home. There were shortages of wheat, sugar, fats
and meat. Using the slogan “Food Wins the War,” the government attempted to
meet the shortages by altering the diet of the American public.
Americans were
encouraged by food boards at all levels to observe wheatless, meatless and
sugarless days. Tremendous quantities of meat and wheat were voluntarily saved
for shipment to American forces and their allies overseas. Sugar saved by
rationing was used in the manufacture of munitions. In 1918, 50-50 regulations
were adopted requiring customers to purchase half their flour from alternate
grains such as corn meal, oats or barley flour.
The public was
encouraged to buy local produce to reduce the pressure on the transportation
system. Newspapers discouraged hoarding and encouraged families to stretch food
supplies and “practice the gospel of the clean plate.” The bumper crop of
potatoes in 1918 led to a two-state campaign to use potatoes in place of other
foods. One poster encouraged residents to “Be A Potatriot.”
War gardens were created throughout the two-state area.
Parks and front lawns were sometimes plowed up and planted with vegetables.
Grange organizations gave canning lessons. In Vermont, the Green Mountain Guard
recruited 30,000 boys and girls to assist on farms and gardens. Camp Veil in
Lyndonville was established to train older boys in farm work. The U.S. School
Garden Army motto was “We Eat Because We Work.”
Coal, used as a
primary fuel in both homes and businesses, was in especially short supply. Reserved
for other war efforts, railroad cars were unavailable for shipping coal to Northern New England created the situation. The especially severe
winter of 1917-18 setting records for sustained low temperatures compounded the
problem.
According to Haskins’ History
of Bradford, starting in late December and continuing to early February
there were 40 consecutive days when the thermometer recorded temperatures below
zero. On 30 of those days it never got above zero.
Correspondents for The United Opinion from neighboring towns
wrote of unofficial temperatures of 35 to 60 degrees below zero. In Newbury, there were five days when it
never rose above nine below zero. Pipes froze and then froze again.
To deal with the fuel shortages, fuel committees were
appointed to deal with distribution in each Vermont community. Rationed coal
was “dribbled out to consumers.” It was said “A weekly supply was cause for
congratulations; a month’s supply, Heaven-sent relief.” Consumers were
encouraged to “save that shovelful of coal a day for Uncle Sam.”
In Dec 1917, the Hanover Gazette reported on the situation
in Orford. “A shortage of coal and very little wood for sale has caused
considerable anxiety among all classes of people here.” The anxiety was shared
by other area residents.
A state program, entitled Cut-A-Cord, encouraged men and
boys to seek surplus fuel from Vermont forests. It was so successful that the
amount of firewood was doubled during the winter of 1917-18.
Other efforts to conserve fuel included restricting the
number of days nonessential plants and places of entertainment could be open.
Churches were encouraged to hold union services with other churches. In January, 1918, school vacations were
extended. For a 10-week period there was
even an attempt to have “heatless Mondays.”
To add to the burdens facing locals, influenza struck the
area in 1918. The epidemic was part of a pandemic that killed over 100 million.
Over one-quarter of Americans became ill and 675,000 died directly or
indirectly from the disease. It was known as “Spanish flu.” Local notices in
Bradford and Orford claimed that the disease originated in the German army and
was “a Kaiser’s contribution to this country.”
The United Opinion
of September 27, 1918 reported that local health officials were warned by the
State Board of Health that, “the apparent seriousness of the disease makes it
necessary that some precautions be taken to limit its spread….patients should
be isolated in the home.” Affected
families were told to keep their children from school and family members from
public gatherings.
As the disease spread, schools were closed in all area towns
and some businesses closed for lack of adequate staff. By October, the State Board of Health ordered
the closing of all public meeting places and prohibiting public assemblies
throughout the state.
The disease had an
especially high toll along younger residents. Health workers were overwhelmed
by the case load and often fell ill themselves.
Before the epidemic faded there were over 1,772 flu-related
deaths in Vermont and about 3,000 in New Hampshire. Caskets were in very short
supply.
There was also a major shortage of available laborers to
work on farms, in factories, mines and forests and in the shipyards of southern
New Hampshire. Vermont lost up to one-third of its male workers. This shortage
was caused by the number of men who joined the service or sought employment
elsewhere.
Many of those places of work were vital to the war effort.
Some factories began round-the-clock production. The government introduced
daylight saving time to give additional time for outdoor labor. In Vermont, over 7,000 women and 1,300
children were part of the labor force, many for the first time.
One example of the impact of the war on the local economy
was the reopening of Corinth’s Pike Hill copper mines. Farmers were able to
sell their crops, often at very high prices.
During the severe wool shortage, Orson Clements of Corinth
refused to sell his wool to the government at the offered price. It was
confiscated at what the government considered a fair price. After Clements’
death, wool he had hidden from government agents was found around his
farm.
As much as possible, volunteers attempted to share the
burdens the war brought to the home front.
Virtually every non-profit organization stepped up their work. In
addition to the churches of the two states, organizations such as the Boys
Scouts, Camp Fire Girls, YMCA, YWCA, Knights of Columbus, Masonic groups, Granges and the Salvation
Army assisted the war effort.
Primary among those groups was the Red Cross. Local Red
Cross units were established in area towns where they had not been previously.
Red Cross membership campaigns in Vermont resulted in membership increasing
from 1,200 to 80,703. The Red Cross provided services ranging from canteens for
servicemen at railroad centers such as White River, Jct. to assisting with the
wounded in France.
The funds for those activities were raised through Red Cross
fund drives and by programs sponsored by the other organizations mentioned
above. Throughout the valley, plays,
suppers and concerts benefited the Red Cross.
The Red Cross also organized shipment of bandages, knitted
items and personal care items to the servicemen. They encouraged others to join
in this effort.
During 1918, 16-year old Catherine Murphy of Bradford kept a
diary entitled “In the Service.” It chronicled her family and school’s support
for her brother Pat who was stationed in France. Pat Murphy and his best friend Fred Louanis
enlisted in the service in 1917 near the end of their sophomore year at
Bradford Academy.
Catherine’s diary listed the dates when boxes were sent to
Pat and Fred, the contents and the postal cost. For example, on Dec. 12, 1918,
a 25-pound box containing mittens, stockings, fruit cake, candies, writing
supplies and reading materials was shipped at a cost of 55 cents. In the
spring, the family send two pounds of maple sugar along with boxes for other
Bradford soldiers.
Her Bradford Academy class sent boxes with similar items as
well as shoe laces, toothpaste, soap and handkerchiefs. Listed in the diary were items the soldiers
mailed in return, including French coins, handmade hankies and buttons from
German uniforms.
One of the most poignant impacts of the war was the absence
of so many young men and women. Families yearned for news of those overseas,
even when letters were censored or conditions were redacted. Blue star flags
were displayed in the windows of the homes of absent servicemen. Tragically,
sometimes those blue stars were replaced by gold indicating a service
casualty.
The conditions borne by the citizens of the two states
during the Great War are reflected in the following review of Vermont’s role published in 1928. “The spirit
shown by her inhabitants in days long gone by, still lived in 1917 and 1918 in
the breasts of all her stalwart men and women and now, as then and always,
Vermonters bear their full burden with an unfaltering and grim determination.”
Little did they know that in just a few years they would be
called upon to again bear the burdens of a total war at home and abroad.
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