By Sarah Becker ©2017 WWI: The Centennial “Woodrow Wilson may well have witnessed more dramatic changes in national and global affairs than any other president since [George] Washington,” Carter Smith wrote. “He entered Presidential office [on March 4, 1913] a highly regarded reformer.” His foreign policy was not nearly as aggressive as his domestic. Then talk of war in Europe divided America. On August 1, 1914 Germany declared war on Russia; on France two days later. President Wilson, a Democrat elected on an anti-war platform, responded by ordering wireless telegraph stations to remain neutral. Neutrality was policy with a presidential pedigree. “The United States must be neutral in fact, as well as in name, during these days that are to try men’s souls,” Wilson explained on August 19, 1914. Europe’s continental war expanded when Germany raided Great Britain in January 1915. On May 7, 1915 Alexandria resident, British national and second cabin passenger John Booth lost his life while cruising aboard the RMS Lusitania. The 32,500 ton RMS Lusitania was traveling from New York to Liverpool. Booth, age 35, was sunk; German U-boat Captain Walther Schwieger—with the blast of a submerged torpedo—buried him at sea. London, May 7, 1915…“The giant Cunarder, Lusitania, was torpedoed and sunk off Old head, Kinsale at 3:38 o’clock this morning,” the Alexandria Gazette related. “All details are lacking but, it is reported the passengers and crew have taken to the boats and were saved.” In fact 1,198 passengers died including 128 Americans. Philadelphia, May 10, 1915…“The example of America must be a special example, not merely of peace because it will not fight, but of peace because peace is the healing and elevating influence of the world,” President Wilson said. “There is such a thing as a man being too proud to fight. There is…
On May 7, 1915 Alexandria resident, British national and second cabin passenger John Booth lost his life off the Irish Coast while cruising aboard the RMS Lusitania. Booth, age 35, was sunk; German U-boat Captain Walther Schwieger—with the blast of a submerged torpedo—buried him at sea. The 32,500 ton RMS Lusitania was traveling from New York to Liverpool. London, May 7, 1915…“The giant Cunarder, Lusitania, was torpedoed and sunk off Old head, Kinsale at 3:38 o’clock this morning. All details are lacking but, it is reported the passengers and crew have taken to the boats and were saved,” the Alexandria Gazette reported. In fact 1,198 passengers died including 128 Americans. London, May 8, 1915…“Yesterday’s dispatches stated that no lives had been lost by the sinking of the Cunard steamer Lusitania by a German submarine,” the Alexandria Gazette re-counted. “Late advices, however, dissipated all hope that torpedoing of the steamer had been accomplished without fatalities, and now it is feared that the loss of life will equal that of the Titanic disaster three years ago…” The Germans alleged the British flagged ship had entered a war zone armed. On August 1, 1914 Germany declared war on Russia, on France two days later. Europe’s continental war expanded when Germany raided Great Britain in January 1915. The British claimed the attack on the RMS Lusitania was without warning. “The attack came as a surprise,” The Washington Post said. “Passengers were lunching when water rushed through the vessel’s side.” American minister, the Reverend John Henry Jowett described the German action “as premeditated murder.” The United States as of August 19, 1914 was neutral. Washington, May 10, 1915…“With the full proportions of the Lusitania horror known and with evidences that the [United States] is stirred to its depths over it, all eyes now are turned…
Thomas Woodrow Wilson, the 28th President of the United States, was a child of the Civil War; a pacifist who led his country into WWI, a domestic reformer who failed to fully implement the post-war League of Nations. Tommy was born December 28, 1856 in Staunton, Virginia, the Scotch-Irish son of Presbyterian minister Joseph Ruggles Wilson and Janet Woodrow Wilson. He remembered the family’s black servants; secession and the Civil War, Confederate President Jefferson Davis’ prison trek, Reconstruction and its 1877 end. The Civil War, Woodrow said, is “but a memory of a short day.” Yet it was Wilson who segregated the federal government in 1913. His Texas-born Postmaster General, former US Congressman Albert S. Burleson disliked “racial mingling in federal offices, particularly in the case of black supervisors overseeing white clerks.” Despite W.E.B. DuBois’ Presidential endorsement, Wilson “had made no promises to negroes.” The problem was different when dealing with his daughters, two of whom were suffragists. The social tensions, some dating from the 19th century, were many. “Woodrow Wilson may well have witnessed more dramatic changes in national and global affairs than any other president since Washington,” Carter Smith wrote. “He entered Presidential office as a highly regarded reformer.” Wilson served as Governor of New Jersey from 1910 until 1913. Woodrow Wilson was first inaugurated President on March 4, 1913. In his speech he said: “There has been a change of government…What does the change mean?…No one can mistake the purpose for which the Nation now seeks to use the Democratic Party. It seeks to use it to interpret change.” “We have itemized [what] ought to be altered,” Wilson’s 1913 speech continued. “Here are some of the chief items: A tariff which cuts us off from our proper part in the commerce of the world…; a banking and currency system…