Iowa in 1915: I guess it can & did happen here

[CornField]

I came across this information last night in a book on Iowa history. It struck me so that I wanted to share it here. What makes it really seem out of place is the context. This book is not a scathing report of Iowa's past. If anything, it is a fluff piece meant more to entertain than to inform. Then I came to this section:

"Between Two Rivers" by Allan Carpenter and Randy Lyon, pp 141-142

"When the Luisitania was sunk in 1915 with a loss of almost 100 American lives, Iowa woke up to the fact that a war was raging in Europe. The state was not so easily brought up to feverish war excitement as some of the less solid eastern states. Many Iowans proclaimed the stupidity of mixing in Europe's affairs.

"However, after the country made the plunge April 6, 1917, Iowa went out to win, as she had in former wars. When easterners complained about lack of enthusiasm in the Middle West during the early part of World War I, Iowa pointed to her growing record against the Germans.

"With 2 percent of the population of the country, Iowa had suffered 5 percent of America's deaths in action in the first year of the war. Merle Hay, an Iowa boy, had been one of the first three Americans killed in the war.

...

"While Iowa soldiers were making records on the field of battle, her civilians were fighting the war at home. Prices had gone up by hundreds of percent; rents sky-rocketed. Many personal rights were taken away. There were meatless, sugarless and wheatless days.

"Superpatriots ripped pictures of Kaiser Wilhelm from frames; the study of German was stopped in schools and Iowa's German population was poorly treated.

"Freedom of speech was almost entirely gone. At Davenport, Daniel W. Wallace, president of the League of Humanity, made a speech against the war. He has been terribly wounded as a British soldier and knew war at its worst. For this speech he was sentenced to 20 years in the federal prison at Leavenworth; where he died a broken man.

...

"Before the end of the war, Iowans were mourning the state's 3,576 war dead. This was not the great adventure of the Mexican War; it was not a fight to save the union; it was not the volunteer affair of the Spanish-American conflict. Only peace can save democracy, but this was called a war to "make the world safe for democracy."

...

-----

This book is in it's second edition, but this particular passage was written as a part of the first edition, copyright 1940.

[fasttense]

1. Didn't Congress declare war for the civil war, WWI and WWII?

Congress has yet to declare war on Iraq. So we have a useless congress and a war that has been declared by the executive branch only.

During war time the US sometimes forgets it's democratic principals. But we eventual correct our mistakes. Just because we made mistakes in the past does not mean we should continue to make those mistakes. If the Germans thought like that, we would have another Hitler.

[CornField]

2. I'm just curious to what happened to all the intelligent people here?

This piece was written prior to 1940. (1938 or 1939?) At that time people had the ability to look back on WWI and remove themselves from the emotion of the situation for a long enough period of time to send out warnings. I've seen it again and again and again in reading passages from that time. Where are those people now?

If WWI was billed as "a war to make the world safe for democracy" and people understood that logic to be a crock then... why aren't those same people speaking up now? Where are the brave among us who are willing to point to our nation's past and say, "this didn't work then and it's not working now."

Edited for one more thought: Time and again the Bush Administration has told the public how this is a new war and, indeed, even a new world since 9-11. If that is the case, why do they continue to toss out the same tired rhetoric of the first world war?

[enigma000]

3. I wonder what the author thought

of the war being waged in Europe at the time (1939-40)? Many Americans saw it as pointless and too costly to get involved. Perhaps that was in intent of the author.

[CornField]

4. True

1939 was when the Germans and the Soviets invaded Poland... also when Hitler began his first euthanasia campaign (children, elderly & the disabled)...

I think The Night of Broken Glass was in 1938.

While news of all of these events may or may not have entered Iowa quickly, the populous would have been curious, if not alarmed, at the possibility of another "European" war.

Thank you for reminding me to read with the context of the writer's time in mind. It does make a huge difference when I think back on the things I've been reading.

[enigma000]

5. Context is important

Looking at events 20 years after the fact allows better perspective, of course. But, no matter how we try, our perspective of historical events is effected by current events.

Look at it this way (and don't misinterpret this as a pro-war argument), this could be written today:

"Before the end of the Vietnamwar, Americanswere mourning the country's 60,000war dead. This was not the great adventure of the Gulf War; it was not a fight to save the world in WWII; it was not the volunteer affair of Korean conflict. Only peace can save democracy, but this was called a war to "make the world safe for democracy."

The author saw the futility and meaninglessness of war from WWI just as we see it from Vietnam. Those in the late 1930 were on the cusp of, and actively avoiding, a war we see as "the last good war" but they could not recognize it as such. How could they? They were no more able to predict the future than we are.

[politicat]

8. Most, if not all, are dead.

Those writing histories in the 30s and 40s and 50s would have themselves been in their 30s through 60s. Thus, most (fortunately for them, if not for us) have left this world by now.

[tanyev]

6. That is interesting.

I got goosebumps when I read It Can't Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis, which was written in 1935. Goosebumps because it so accurately foreshadowed things that are happening now, down to the quirky little detail about sauerkraut being renamed Liberty Cabbage. (Is there some secret fascist textbook out there that makes suggestions on how to patriotically rename food???) I wondered what was going on to make him even come up with some of the plot details, and I'll bet this is the root of some of it.

If you've never read the book, check it out. The private militia that guarded the border into Canada were called the Minutemen.

[TheCentepedeShoes]

7. My most treasured book

He based it on something. Was it the plot to overthrow FDR? Who will be our Smedley Butler?