Month: December 2017
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Where Women Supplant Men Because of War
Among the jobs which were women were filling in for men in larger numbers as a result of World War I: streetcar conductors, subway guards, elevator runners, firefighters, munition works, the felt hat industry, radium plating, and wagon drivers. As a man, I would gladly volunteer for even the most unjust war to avoid an […]
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Mars and Santa Claus Meet Here
In what is probably the single best piece of writing I’ve seen during my time running SundayMagazine.org, this article describes the fewer toys, barren shop windows, and a new somewhat lonelier holiday celebration for Americans in the throes of World War I. It is a changed Santa Claus that will visit New York on this, […]
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Ebb of Pacifism in America
Prior to American entry in World War I, there was a not-insubstantial and vocal contingent of opposition. Eight months later, that had shriveled up to nearly nothing: “But today the great majority of the altruists are out of the peace party; they recognized the reality of a war of justice, and quit idealism for humanity. […]
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“Keep Jolly!” Somme Veteran Tells Our Men
How does a soldier keep from going insane in wartime? Maintain your sense of humor. That was the advice in this 1917 article. Among the examples they gave were: “They give absurd names to everything. The Tommies call the ‘R.I.P.’ that is put on a soldier’s grave ‘Rise If Possible.’ When the rats were bad […]
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Troublous Times for the Theatre Business
“In fact, the last week has been about the worst week in the history of the American theater.” That was the worry gripping Broadway in December 1917. What was causing this? “Pro Bono Publico writes to his favorite paper that it is because the plays presented nowadays are so inferior that intelligent people won’t tolerate […]
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War Gifts and Taxes Threaten Home Charity
Domestic charitable organizations were facing a challenge in 1917. Because most charitable donations were suddenly going overseas as a result of American involvement in World War I that year, domestic charities found their donations drying up, according to Charity Organization Society of the City of New York President Robert W. de Forest” “The need in […]
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Trade Pact of Nations as Bar to Future Wars
This article argued that the optimal way to deter warfare was economic sanctions, a policy that was used far less at the time of its 1917 publication than today. “Germany might not have gone to war if she could have conceived that the world would rise to defend the signatures on a scrap of paper. […]
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Foreign Medals for American Soldier Heroes
Although America officially entered WWI in April 1917, the war began more than two and a half years earlier in July 1914. Some American soldiers had been serving in foreign armies since 1914, 1915, or 1916, fighting for nations that the U.S. would later officially ally with. Under the bill, any American soldier would now […]
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Nation More United Than in Past Crises
During the Revolutionary War, an estimated 20 percent of colonists were loyalists to the Crown, 45 percent wanted independence, and the remaining 35 percent were undecided or somewhere in between. During subsequent wars declared by Congress, the Senate only voted for the War of 1812 by 59 percent and voted for the Spanish-American War by 54 percent. […]
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War’s Subtle Changes in New York Life
How did World War I change daily life in New York City, even for those who weren’t fighting in the trenches? Women weren’t wearing as fashionable clothing. “Fashionable social life expressed its lyric genius in a cumulative series of events designed to reveal feminine Spring in its most ardent mood. Not in 1917.” People were […]
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