by Richard van Pelt, WWI Correspondent

Prohibition was the local issue. The editor, acknowledging that closing taverns and saloons adversely affected the local economy, and that the economic downturn affecting the entire country, slowed economic growth, nonetheless was optimistic about Salem’s future.

SALEM AND ITS FUTURE
SALEM has been quiet this year because it has been a quiet year throughout the country. Many Pacific coast towns especially have expanded so rapidly during the past five years that it is but natural that they should slow down and await the further growth and development of the territory from which they derive their trade and business. Salem is one of these communities which is taking a little breathing spell, as it were.

We have suffered somewhat, also, from the readjustment made necessary by the closing of the saloons, a condition which came in at a most inopportune time, and which can be minimized if all the people will put the interests of the community ahead of all else, and accept the verdict of the majority vote as all good Americans should.

Salem is a good town, solid and substantial, with a large area of the finest country in the world around it. It is one of the prettiest, best improved capital cities in the country, and excels as a city of homes, with the best of educational facilities to attract home-builders. It has good transportation facilities, and more railroads are coming just as soon as the financial clouds roll by.

We have everything here to make a bigger and a better city, and all that is needed now is a little more of local pride, of disinterested for the good of the community. Faction fights should be forgotten, and the wet and dry question be settled at the polls, and not injected into the business and commercial affairs of the city.

It must be borne in mind that cities do not grow up – they are built up by the energy, enterprise and perseverance of the people who live in them. Salem will be just what its people make it, and that should be one of the most progressive, substantial and attractive cities of the Pacific coast.

In a letter to the editor, John Stix, comes to the defense of his former homeland:

Dear Sir: As a reader of your valuable paper and in the name of sound common sense, I would like to give a few true statements about your editorial which said that the present war was not claimed to “be made in Germany,” which is nothing but the truth. You must kindly understand me. I was born and raised in Austria and am a citizen of the United States for more than 25 years, and know what I am speaking about.

The present war was made in England, or, as the European’s call it, the old woman of Threadneedle street, England has watched with jealous eye the progress and advance of Germany, but lacking the open courage to oppose Germany, it made friends with darkest Russia, who in turn hired the Servian murderers, and after the dastard crime was committed defended their action, and of course England, the “old granny she is,” had to step in and uphold crime and murder.

If I am not mistaken, it was England, the “Illustrious” who, when the American colonist defended their rights, brought hired troops and armed the Indians against the Americans.

It was England the most “liberal” who took from little Transvaal all that she could take; she took their liberty and, of course the mines, which last named article was the bone of contention. It was “England the Advanced: who forced the degrading mean opium treaty on old heathen China. And coming to the present time when the white nations of Europe and America work against the yellow peril, England, the past grand master of meanness and hypocrisy, invites the yellow peril to annoy his white cousin. Such is England, in all its glory. But what makes me wonder in disgust, is that a good many of the native-born people will swallow with a certain relish everything England sees fit to throw to them; just as we are reading every day of the checking, crushing annihilating defeat the German army is getting right along, the execution of the German socialists, and the eating of raw potatoes by German officers.

Now, Mr. Editor, you will greatly obligate my humble self, and other readers of your paper, by giving us straight, honest news, and give honor to whom honor is due.

In the Oregon Statesman the paper reported the efforts of Salem socialists to oppose the war:

THEY OPPOSE THE WAR
Salem Socialists Wire President –
Colonel Wood to Come Here

The Socialists of Salem, busy in the present crisis to prevent the American people becoming involved in the European war, held a special meeting of the local on the 19th inst. and decided on a house to house distribution of anti-war literature. They have also called for a mass meeting to be held Tuesday, the 26th inst., at 8 p.m., the State and Liberty streets. Col. C. E. S. Wood of Portland will be one of the speakers and it is stated uncensored news from the warring countries, which has not appeared in the public press, will then be presented.

They have also drafted a resolution, which was wired to President Wilson on Sunday, which reads:

“We most earnestly represent, that if instead of increasing shipping facilities, the export of foodstuffs and war supplies be prohibited. It would protect our own people from war prices and preserve the spirit as well as the letter of neutrality.

Signed:

G. F. Sherwood, Chairman,
Luther E. Hall, Secretary.

A core premise of pre-war socialism was the principle that workers were a class transcending nationality. In defense of the rights of workers and of labor, war did but one thing: pit workers against each other. Many socialists thought that a unified worker movement could prevent war. This was a fear in European chancellories – that war could bring about revolution. This did not occur. Social democratic parties placed their loyalty to their nation above loyalty to fellow workers they would now be going to war against.

GERMANS IGNORE RUSSIAN ADVANCE IN EAST PRUSSIA

If the Anglo-French allies imagine that the present Russian invasion of east Prussia will complete an early withdrawal of the fatherland’s troops from the French frontier, they are badly mistaken, it was stated on high German authority here today.

German strategy implicit in the Schlieffen Plan contemplated a two front war and that the primary focus should be a quick defeat of France in the west. The strategy assumed that Russian mobilization would be sufficiently slow to permit German forces to quickly move to the eastern front. As readers of the paper would soon note, reality quickly overwhelms theory. In 1914, the reality was that Belgium would stall the German advance long enough for France and Great Britain to marshall sufficient troops to bog down the German advance, though at an appalling cost that would continue on for four long years.