Articles from Pamphlet Produced by the National Park Service
A couple of years prior to the sinking of Titanic the president of the International Seaman’s Union of America presented a petition before the U.S. Congress declaring that the issue of safety at sea is widely ignored on all levels. In his address he remarked:
There is not sailing today on any ocean any passenger vessel carrying the number of boats needed to take care of the passengers and crew…
The following is a very short opinion piece that more than likely served as an accurate reflection the of the opinions held by the Titanic‘s mourning loved ones. In their grief and incomprehension, some of the surviving family members of Titanic‘s victims, no doubt, did lay much of the blame on those who ply their trade at sea:
The Titanic‘s loss has made it clear that things are not going well among seamen. Despite the calmness of many of the crew, some of the facts that are coming out do not redound to the credit of the men of the sea. Like the captains of those near-by steamers that could have saved all but refused, they have made us all ask weather the old ideal of the sailor as a man brave to rashness, ready at any time to risk his life for others, and characterized by many other noble attributes of character, has faded from the sea…
The Jewish National Council of Palestine has issued a second manifesto to the Arabs, the text of which follows in it’s original translated form.
Semetic nations: our regeneration is your regeneration and our freedom is your freedom.
A few choice words concerning the Treaty of Versailles by the German anti-socialist author S. Miles Bouton (born 1876):
Such a treaty could not bring real peace to the world even if the conditions were less critical and complex. As they are, it will hasten and aggravate what the world will soon discover to be the most serious, vital, and revolutionary consequences of the war.
The quote above is an excerpt from THE NATION’s review of Bouton’s 1922 book, And The Kaiser Abdicates: The German Revolution, November, 1918.
Literacy tests were used to exclude immigrants even during the uncertain period of war with Germany and Austria. Rather than rely on immigrant labor from Italy or Mexico, steps were taken to reduce the number of available foreign workers. So great was the need for labor in agriculture and industry that the daily wage rose quickly in the month following Wilson’s call to arms.
When only a few wet months were left before all alcohol was banned from the United States, THE NATION reviewed the 1918 Anti-Prohibition Manual and the Year Book of the United States Brewers Association (1917) and came away with this brief, but amusing and informative history of drinking.
One of the most curious aspects of the Great War that generated a good deal of conversation among the civilian populations was camouflage. Many people believed that camouflage was one of many elements that made that war so terribly different from all other wars. One well-read reader from a respectable American magazine would have non of it: she composed a well researched letter explaining that the need for camouflage preceded the era of industrial warfare and was practiced by the ancient combatants of Greece and Rome as well.
Here is the brief text to President Lincoln‘s very eloquent second inaugural address, that was delivered during the closing weeks of the Civil War.
Ten years ago the American people reversed its national tradition against entangling alliances and participation in the political struggles of Europe in order, as it is fondly believed, to make the world safe for democracy, safeguard the rights of small nations and the principle of self-determination… If the causes and justifications for our intervention were based on facts, some evidence of their truth ought now, after ten years, to be apparent.
Shortly after Abraham Lincoln’s assassination, William H. Herndon (1816 – 1891), Lincoln’s law partner, devoted much of his life to collecting as much original source material on the man as he could possibly find. Indeed, scholars have pointed out that there never would have been an accurate word written about Lincoln if not for the efforts of Herndon. The following description of Lincoln is from a lecture delivered by Herndon in 1865.
A dispatch from the old China watcher Lewis S. Gannett was printed in the left-leaning American magazine, THE NATION:
All China has been won to half the Nationalist program – that which is directed to the reestablishment of national independence. The fundamental conflict between ‘moderates’ and ‘extremists’ is, I think, between short-sighted men who think that the Nationalist passion can subside without causing fundamental changes in China’s social fabric, and those who recognize the inevitability of industrialization in China and are determined that their country shall not pass through all the miserable phases of capitalistic industrialism which created a disinherited proletariat in the West.
Stephen Douglas (1813 – 1861), Lincoln’s Democratic rival in the contest for the U.S. Senate seat from Illinois, was a popular figure with a great deal of political capitol who enjoyed wide spread fame throughout much of the fruited plain; this all contributed to a robust ego which would not suffer anything less than traveling to the debates in a grand style. By contrast, Honest Abe traveled in economy class, packed among the masses (although as a railroad lawyer, he certainly could have afforded better).
This short paragraph (accompanied by a photograph of both men) was written by a friend of Lincoln who recalled his train ride with the (losing) candidate as he made his way to Ottawa, Illinois, the site of the first debate.
An excerpt from a longer article written by an eyewitness concerning the atrocities that took place in 1927 Nanking as the victorious Nationalists forces entered the city. Reference is made to the bombarding of that city by both British and American gunboats.
Click here to read about the 1937 sacking of Nanking.
