by Richard van Pelt, WWI Correspondent

From the front page of the Capital Journal:

CLOSE YOUR FAUCETS DON’T WASTE WATER
Letting Water Run Creates Dearth – South Salem Goes Utterly Dry

Through a combination of circumstances, which could not have been foreseen by the company officials, culminated by the visitation of the cold snap which caused the people all over the city to turn on their faucets to save freezing and a possible plumber’s bill, the entire city of Salem found itself practical without water this morning, the water company’s big reservoir was drained of the last drop and the filtering crib in the river bar refused to give up any water. Had a fire occurred in the down-town district this morning, the fire department would have been absolutely helpless beyond the use of the chemical apparatus, and the city would have been at the mercy of the fire element.

CRUISERS RAID THE BRITISH COAST
German Warships Appear at Daylight and Shell Three Towns
MANY BUILDINGS STRUCK ARE BURNED
Unofficial Reports Say There Were Six Cruisers in Attacking Squadron
British Destroyers Rush to Scene and Begin Battle With Germans
TWO GERMAN CRUISERS ARE REPORTED SUNK
Naval Battle Reported in Progress but Censorship Makes Details Unobtainable

In the Oregon Statesman an editorial praises “3800 Miles of Permanent Peace:”

Ordinarily it’s hard to get up much enthusiasm over the celebration of a treaty. But the centennial anniversary of the treaty of Ghent, coming at this particular time, is different. That treaty, which ended our second war with Great Britain, represented more than the inauguration of a hundred years of peace. (May it be a thousand!) It carried the provision that the boundary between Canada and the United States should be forever undefended.

It was an amazing innovation. The jingoes of the time pooh-poohed it. Of course it wouldn’t work! Nations had to be fenced apart with forts. That was the way of Europe.

Well, look at Europe now. There is the fortified Belgian frontier, broken and obliterated. There is the embattled line between France and Germany. There is the carnage of the Russo-German border. There are the thundering guns on the Danube, the shattered defenses of Galicia, the entrenchments where Austria faces Servia and Italy, and the interminable lines of idle sentinels that guard the limits of Switzerland, Holland, Denmark, Greece, Bulgaria and Rumania.

And stretched across the continent, between two great negations is the longest continuous international frontier in the world – 3800 miles in extent – without a single fort, blockhouse, gun or soldier.

Most assuredly that is worth celebrating. And the two nations are going to celebrate it with fitting enthusiasm on December 24, with ceremonies in many cities of England, Canada and the United States. Virginia has ordered the cessation of all traffic, labor and business throughout the state for five minutes at noon on that day. It would be a fine thing if similar recognition were given in every state of the Union, touring home to every man, woman and child the significance of this blessed anniversary.

A second editorial, “The Christmas Crew” describes the reception of “The Santa Claus ship” in England:

The sailors of the U. S. S. Jason, alias the Santa Claus ship, are having the time of their nautical lives. Never has an American crew been treated with such honor.

When the Jason reached England, with its cargo of Christmas gifts for the war orphans, every ship in the crowded harbor dipped its colors, and for the first time in history the stars and stripes fluttered from the flagstaffs of the British government buildings. In every port there has been a similar welcome. Nothing is too good for the men who carry this substantial message of sympathy and good will to nations in distress.

In Marseilles the French inhabitants have been especially warm in their appreciation. A common sailor from the Jason is teated like a king. He has the freedom of the city in as real a sense as any visiting monarch. He goes here he pleases and in theater, restaurant, cafe or anywhere else, “his money is no good.” Not a native will take a cent from him. It is enough to know that he represents the beneficence of a great, generous nation.

Genuine charity is its own reward. The American people had no thought of compensatory gratitude when by tens of thousands they shared their own Christmas money with unknown aliens. But it is pleasant just the same to feel the glow of grateful hearts across the Atlantic, and to know that nothing ever accomplished by American diplomacy has done more to strengthen the ties of international friendship than has this voluntary private enterprise undertaken with no thought of advantage.

The paper describes the character of the people then that contrasts with today when it wrote of “. . . the beneficence of a great, generous nation. Genuine charity is its own reward . . .”