The first U.S. President to issue an emergency proclamation was Woodrow Wilson. On Feb. 5th, 1917 he said:
“I have found that there exists a national emergency arising from the insufficiency of maritime tonnage to carry the products of the farms, forests, mines and manufacturing industries of the United States, to their consumers abroad and within the United States.”
Herbert Hoover (1874 – 1964), who was later to be the 31st President of the United States, was invited to the 1919 Versailles Peace Conference to be an adviser to President Woodrow Wilson. At the time Hoover was the head of the American Relief Administration, providing food and medical assistance to European countries excepting the former Central Powers, since a state of war still existed. Although not a delegate, Hoover was closely involved in the discussions and deliberations. In 1958 he wrote of his experience and you can read about it here .
At the February 7th meeting of The National Capitol Planning Commission, preliminary approval was given for the current design for this project. Final approval is expected in about three months. The U.S. World War One Centennial Commission still needs to raise about $20 million towards the estimated cost to build. You can learn more at this link.
In the Great War, the unprecedented and widespread use of telephones and rudimentary radio telephone transmitters for command and control brought forth the problem of misunderstanding what the person on the other end was trying to yell into his primitive device, especially during the noise and confusion of combat, and thus led to the practice of spelling out words and substituting codes for letters of the alphabet. This continues to the present day, although the code set has changed several times, and the current version was first promulgated in 1956. Here’s the 1914-18 table:
In previous posts we’ve discussed the American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC) (see link here), but there is another organization dedicated to serving the memory of Americans who fought and died in foreign wars.
Founded by Major Lillian A. Pfluke in July 2006, American War Memorials Overseas, Inc. (AWMO) is a private non-profit organized under Sec. 501 (c) (3) of the Internal Revenue Code. There are over 1,000 American war memorials and monuments overseas (including the Missouri Memorial depicted above) and nearly 1,000 American war dead buried in cemeteries that are not under the care of the ABMC or the Department of Defense. The AWMO’s mission objectives are these:
Shortly after declaring war in 1917, the Wilson Administration was faced with the reality of having to pay for the massive military build-up required. Tax increases and monetary expansion were ruled out, leaving only borrowing as an option.
All of the bonds were sold directly to the public by banks. In order to stimulate sales Bond Rallies were held, featuring parades, speeches and free performances by movie stars. The Four Minute Man campaign featured short speeches in public assemblies where prominent local persons urged the purchase of bonds. There was an installment purchase plan whereby persons could buy 25 cent War Savings Stamps and when 200 had been acquired the stamp books could be exchanged for a $50 bond.
This table lists data about the four most common tanks used by both sides in WW1. You can read more about the FT-17 here.
The entry ‘Marks’ encompasses all the British Heavy Tanks, variously designated as Mark I,II,III, IV and V.
The largest number of surviving examples are at The Tank Museum in Bovington, Dorset U.K. There are eight FT-17’s, one Mark IV, one Mark V and one Whippet on display in the U.S.
Echoes of the Great War – American Experiences of World War I is an outstanding exhibit at the Library of Congress. It has been running since April 4th, 2017 and is closing on Monday. However, you can visit it online.
A good starting point is to list all of the nations that were represented at the peace conference in 1919.
These were 32 allied and associated powers, either as voting members or as observers. This number consisted of:
The five defeated nations were also allowed to be represented but were excluded from all of the deliberations.
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