1C
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, APRIL 28, 2017
CONTACT US
Erick Bengel | Weekend Editor
ebengel@dailyastorian.com
WEEKEND
BREAK
FOLLOW US
facebook.com/
DailyAstorian
Local innocence collided with
World War I’s harsh realities
By MATT WINTERS
The Daily Astorian
W
hen the U.S. entered World War
I a century ago this month, local
news was dominated by — what
else? — the spring salmon season.
One of the many fascinations of run-
ning a newspaper is the easy ability to
travel in time by diving into archives and
seeing what our journalistic ancestors were
thinking about at any point. While most
larger publications, including The Daily
Astorian and the Oregonian, have long-
since donated their old stacks to museums
and libraries, at least for now the Chinook
Observer’s historical volumes still reside
within easy reach of my desk. They are,
to me, an almost-living presence — a con-
science and inspiration that prod me toward
trying to comprehend how our lives mesh
together across the decades.
W riter’s
N otebook
The war had been raging for nearly
three years by the time the U.S. became
directly involved. Beforehand, local papers
carried ample news about it and U.S.
defense policy, much of it initially skepti-
cal. In September 1915, for example, the
Observer and many other papers carried a
front-page story about the “soaring” annual
cost of military spending. The U.S. Army
and Navy cost a combined annual total of
about $50 million in the 15 years before the
Spanish-American War in 1898, compared
to $240 million in 1915. This prompted the
headline, “High cost of militarism in Amer-
ica reaches enormous fi gures.”
“In this connection, it is legitimate to
ask to what extent the awful increase in
cost is due to the systematic agitating of
the possibility of war by those who profi t
fi nancially from the ever-increasing expen-
ditures on the military branches of our gov-
ernment,” the article’s author said.
A century later in 2015, U.S. military
spending was estimated at $597 billion —
about 2,500 times more than in 1915. Even
accounting for infl ation, this seems like a
heck of a leap — even to a proud military
family like mine.
Immigrants to Americans
I’m not here to re-fi ght old battles, but
to recount a few local news items from just
before and after the U.S. Congress issued a
declaration of war on April 6, 1917, back
in those quaint days when Congress still
insisted on its constitutional prerogative to
be the declarer of wars.
A majority of citizens in our area, like
the nation as a whole, turned on a dime to
support the war effort — partly on account
of heavy-handed German blunders that
made themselves into easy-to-hate ene-
mies. We saw our role as providing men,
fi sh and spruce lumber.
In terms of manpower, it’s interesting
to note what an immigrant-heavy place the
Columbia River was a century ago.
“Astoria, a small fi shing town on the
mouth of the Columbia River, has never
attained much importance to anyone except
Finns. During the fi rst part of the [20th]
century approximately 4,000 Finns, com-
prising between one third and one half the
population of the town, occupied Asto-
ria, making it the largest Finnish com-
munity west of the Mississippi River and
earning it the nickname of ‘the Helsinki of
the West,’” historian P. George Hummasti
wrote in a 1977 analysis of WWI’s impacts
here.
Other articles correctly note the strong
infl uence of Norwegians and other Scan-
dinavians in the estuary area, many who
came for fi shing and logging jobs.
In an April 20, 1917, editorial, the Chi-
nook Observer commented, “When it is
realized that three-fourths of the popula-
tion of Chinook are foreign-born or for-
eign-extraction, the patriotic American
spirit shown since the declaration of war
with Germany is a thing to be proud of.”
The crowd attending the “moving picture
fi lms” at the Chinook Theater often broke
into “deafening and continuous” applause
during showings of war speeches by Presi-
dent Wilson and others. “Our foreign-born
population is principally composed of Nor-
wegians and Swedes, who are loyal Amer-
ican citizens and proud of the Stars and
Stripes.”
Although hundreds of local men ulti-
mately enlisted to fi ght or were drafted
— 21 were killed in action from Clatsop
A news clipping from the Chinook Ob-
server reports one of many interesting
recruiting efforts for the U.S. military,
which rapidly mobilized at the outset
of American involvement in World War I.
An ad in the Chinook Observer touted Astoria’s July 4, 1917, celebration, the first
during World War I. More clippings available online at DailyAstorian.com.
A majority of citizens in our area,
like the nation as a whole, turned
on a dime to support the war effort.
... We saw our role as providing
men, fi sh and spruce lumber.
County and 16 from Pacifi c — it’s import-
ant to note that attitudes here were com-
plex. Some went to prison in opposition
to war they regarded as staged for capital-
ist profi ts. Thousands more stayed home to
provide food and wood for the war effort.
Vignettes from the home front
Here are a few news items I fi nd inter-
esting from the fi rst weeks of the war, while
its costs and realities were still hypothetical.
• “With the clearing and brightening of
the weather the fi shermen are getting busy
with their web and putting it in shape for
the opening day of the [fi sh trapping] sea-
son. Some pile-driving has been done. The
married women are taking hold of their
gardens and planting spuds, which have
now reached $4 per sack and still climb-
ing. The rising prices of sugar and fl our has
given an impetus to buying, as a further rise
is expected.” April 20, 1917
• “The crab fi shermen took to the sea
Tuesday, three boats from Chinook and
two from Ilwaco, and returned with good
catches. … They sell for 75c to $1.15 a
dozen.” April 20, 1917
• “Mayor Harley of Astoria will return
home from the East and Washington, D.C.
on May 2nd. He has secured a submarine
base on the Columbia river, and has inter-
ested the government so deeply in a naval
base here that surveys will be made….”
April 27, 1917
• “Six bottles of beer, discovered in a
suspicious-looking grip, on board a launch
which landed at the Ilwaco dock recently
with a party of ‘jolly good fellows,’ male
and female, bent on having a social dance,
threw the town into a paroxysm of righ-
teous wrath and woe. … Six bottles of beer!
… When that game old sport, Jack Wilson,
ran his liquor emporium in Ilwaco, we’ve
seen six bottles of real beer disappear down
the gullets of Ilwacoites in six minutes, and
nobody had the horrors.” May 11, 1917
• “Colonel Ellis, commanding offi cer at
Fort Stevens, announces that target practice
with the large guns at Forts Columbia and
Stevens will be engaged in, but every effort
will be made not to interfere with fi shing
operations or the movement of steamers.”
May 18, 1917
• “Old account books hold interest-
ing matter. One recently found in the old
Bureau saloon, which went out of busi-
ness in the Dry Cyclone, laid its pages
open, showing the patrons who went on the
books for installments of liquids in large
and small packages. Some of these names
show many of our prominent citizens now
identifi ed with the Drys, were formerly
numbered among the extreme Wets….”
May 18, 1917
• “War has been knocking at our doors
this week. We have felt the pulse of the
Kaiser, and the throb of Freedom. We have
been reading about the horrors of war for
the past three years, with little more effect
than that produced by a moving picture
fi lm, but this week we have been brought
in contact with the real thing. Our boys
are moving closer to the fi ring line, and
vacant chairs will soon be found at fam-
ily tables. Millions have been killed, and
no one knows what the toll will be before
the German lust for world domination and
utter annihilation is suppressed or satis-
fi ed.” June 8, 1917
• “All of the Chinamen employed at the
Chinook Packing Co.’s cannery were will-
ing to fulfi ll the requirements of the con-
scription law, but an examination revealed
the fact that none of them came within the
specifi ed ages.” June 8, 1917
• “The United States is a great nation.
It has been fl ooded with immigrants from
every old nation on earth, and those who
entered it came here to better under their
material condition, be protected by its laws,
and enjoy the institutions erected under
those laws. To these blessings it adds free-
dom and personal security, such as is not
guaranteed under monarchies and autocra-
cies. From these causes it has become the
greatest nation on the face of the earth.”
June 22, 1917
• “The young Finn, Elmer Kratsm, who
1917 was still an era of steamships
and intense commercial fishing on the
Lower Columbia River, as these news-
paper advertisements indicate.
was previously arrested at Knappton and
brought to Chinook, and later let loose,
was picked up Sunday morning wander-
ing around the Wallicut. Saturday night he
awakened Mrs. Coleman at the hotel and
asked for a boat to go trolling.” June 22,
1917
• “Astoria is going to have a glorious
celebration on the 4th of July. Her leading
men and sports have gathered up a large
sum of money by popular subscription,
much of which will go for prizes for the
leading events. The parades will be grand
and picturesque. Areoplane fl ights will be
pulled off every day. One of the big events
will be a log-bucking contest. … All the
towns on the Columbia and surrounding
country are invited to participate. Music,
dancing, hilarity and festivity galore. Get
there, and you’ll have a good time.” June
22, 1917