By Richard van Pelt, WWI Correspondent

Peter H. D'Arcy. Willamette Heritage Center Collections, 2007.001.2055.

Peter H. D’Arcy. Willamette Heritage Center Collections, 2007.001.2055.

The Fourth fell on a Saturday and assassination in Sarajevo was now old news.

In Berlin, though, the Kaiser, through his Chancellor, Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg, cabled his counterpart in Vienna, Leopold von Berchtold to advise that “The Emperor Francis Joseph may, however, rest assured that His Majesty will faithfully stand by Austria-Hungary, as is required by the obligations of his alliance and of his ancient friendship.”This cable has come to be known as the “blank cheque”assuring Austria-Hungary that Germany would back her ally to the fullest in any action Vienna might employ with respect to Serbia.

At home, the paper reported:

Fourteen Killed Thirty Injured In Auto Accidents

Price American Autoists in a Hurry Paid for Their Speed Yesterday

Fourteen persons met death throughout the country yesterday in automobile accidents. Thirty others were seriously injured, several probably fatally.” In the West, three were killed in California and five injured.

In Falls City, 2500 turned out to hear Judge Peter H. D’Arcy, “One of Oregon’s noted ‘silvertongues’” delivered the Fourth of July oration. Many from Salem attended, traveling to Falls City by automobile and by train.

In “Crossing the Street,” the editor commented on a court decision by a judge in Pennsylvania sentencing the driver of a motor car which ran down and killed a woman crossing the street. “A few more such examples,” the editor wrote, “inexorably applied would go far toward making the streets of the city safe and would remove the terrible menace which threatens the life of every citizen who venture abroad.” Further evidence that nothing changes, the editor noted that “automobile drivers too often imagine that the earth and its fullness is theirs; that the foot passenger, whether at a crossing or elsewhere, is offensively disputing their full ownership of the highways. A blast of the horn is an imperative order to ‘get out of the way.’ If the unhappy individual fails to hear or heed, the worse for him.”