North Platte, Nebraska
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The Chautauqua Reader NORTH PLATTE, NEBRASKA ★ ★ ★ JUNE 8-12, 2016 ★ ★ ★ xSPECIAL EDITIONx WORLD WAR ONE: LINCOLN COUNTY RALLIES THROUGH HARD TIMES By Jim Griffin, Chautauqua Co-Chair Lincoln County Historical Museum For nearly three years nies of ten workers each to the United States held to man the canteen. the policy of neutrality In addition, every ef- as the world ripped itself fort was made to get all apart in “the Great War”. Lincoln County residents However, German sab- involved. Though their otage, unrestricted sub- work in agriculture and marine warfare, the sink- railroading was a major ing of the British ship war effort residents wanted Lusitania with Americans something more and that on board, and the Zim- manifested itself in war merman Telegram forced gardens, a Home Guards President Woodrow Wil- unit, and Liberty Loan son to ask for a declaration drives. of war. Congress agreed War gardens eased the food short- age and gave many ordinary persons a tangible way to con- tribute. As The original North Platte Canteen served more than 100,000 World War I servicemen. an extra incentive, Canteen Record Officials were ready. came to Lincoln County in September 1919, having a local con- While citizens grew Dr. Redfield, head of the the middle of the night. served 113,190 troops. test for the gardens and bought bonds, local health board, shut By 4:30 a.m. Arthur The legacy of the seven- best garden the Canteen continued to down all indoor meet- Hoagland, using 40 pounds ty-two women who served was orga- grow, serving thousands ings including schools of dynamite, woke the in the Canteen and the and churches during each whole town with a cele- countless donations by A political cartoon depicted the United States’ nized. The of soldiers each month. - bratory explosion in the Lincoln County citizens outrage at the the sinking of the Lusitania. first prize The need for larger fa- flare up. The Red Cross re winner was cilities led the railroad to sponded with an emergen- city park. Thus informed, eventually served as the and on April 6, 1917 the given a silver cup. give the entire dispatch- cy hospital. The Canteen the town went wild. The seed for the greatest vol- United States entered the er’s building to the ladies. supplied food to both the boys would be coming unteer effort of World War war against the Germans. “Let No Man Escape!” With the help of local con- hospital and to people too home soon. Two, the famous North In Lincoln County, The formation of the tractors, they converted sick to cook. By January, a welcome Platte Canteen. citizens rallied to the Home Guards was nom- the old roundhouse into a Because of these efforts home arch at the north World War One cause in many ways and inally for defense but in shower facility for travel- the epidemic was checked end of Dewey Street wel- became a turning point for through them the char- reality they mostly helped ling soldiers. and less than 60 people comed returning soldiers. the United States. Though acter of the people came with the Liberty Loan The Canteen even set a died over the fall, winter, It had the name of every it embraced isolationism forward: generous, caring, drives the U. S. govern- record by serving 120 men and spring of 1918-1919. soldier serving from Lin- after the war, the world coln County on it and was now wanted American zealous, and hardworking. ment issued. in just 12 minutes. And, Armistice At Last In a word, American. Once the number of true to the area’s patrio- crowned by the “Monarch products and money. The bonds was set for the tism, all the supplies need- News of the Armistice of the Plains”, the bison. “Roaring Twenties” were Doing Their Part county, each citizen was ed for this traffic were met (November 11, 1918) The Canteen closed in about to begin. Like the rest of the expected to purchase their by generous donations in- country, Lincoln County share of bonds. If they did cluding watermelons and was ready to do their part not the loan committee turkeys from two farmers. in the war effort. On April visited them. Thanksgiving and 19, 1917, the women of If bonds were still not Christmas stood out at the North Platte organized a purchased, the offender’s Canteen. The rooms were Red Cross chapter and be- name was printed in the decorated and turkey, pies, gin making bandages and newspaper and the Guards and candy were given to creating care packages. visited them. The Guards every soldier. These ef- By the summer, local ensured the purchase even forts inevitably led to let- Red Cross members Mrs. if it meant parading the ters of thanks and knowl- Charles Bogue and Mrs. person in front of the lo- edge of the Canteen spread Hosler organized a canteen cal judge who ordered the throughout the Army and for troops passing through bonds bought and required Navy until it was known North Platte. Situated in a declaration of allegiance nationwide. the old dispatcher’s build- to the United States. They Epidemic in Check ing donated by the Union were true to their motto, Sadly, amidst all this ac- Pacific Railroad, three “Let no man escape!” As a rooms were converted into result, Lincoln County al- tivity the flu struck. It first a kitchen, serving room, ways went “Over the Top” appeared in North Platte in and hospital. Mrs. Bogue with their purchase of October 1918 and quickly claimed its first victim, a then organized seventy Liberty Loan bonds. The name of every Lincoln County man who served during World War One was inscribed Mrs. H. P. Hansen. women into seven compa- on a Welcome Home arch on the north end of Dewey Street. Making the World Safe for Democracy? INSIDE By Dr. Lloyd Ambrosius, University of Nebraska Emeritus Professor of History, with Kristi Hayek Carley Woodrow Wilson ................................................3 “The Great War” as it Though thousands of empires, while others message, to “make the William Jennings Bryan ......................................4 was called at the time had fresh American soldiers struggled to establish world safe for democracy.” Jane Addams........................................................5 started in the summer of were arriving daily, World their national identities in That vision proved far W.E.B. Du Bois................................. ....................6 1914 and not only contin- War I did not end until new states. The Great War easier for the president to Edith Wharton .....................................................7 ued horrifically for years, November 1918. Germany, continued to influence articulate in theory than but had also expanded exhausted and alone, gave domestic politics and to accomplish in practice. Workshop Previews .............................................8 beyond Europe to become up after other Central international relations in The world was deeply History of Chautauqua in Nebraska...............8 a true world war. Powers capitulated. the coming years. divided by competing Youth Chautauqua Camp ..................................8 By April 1917, the U.S. The large-scale fighting ideologies and by imperial, North Platte: Centerpiece of America ..............9 Congress agreed with may have ceased that New World Order national, racial, ethnic, and Humanities Nebraska ..........................................9 President Woodrow Wil- November, but conflicts Wilson had hoped to economic interests. A new son that it was time for the continued in the postwar guide Europe and other democratic world order Schedule of Events ............................................ 10 United States to enter into era. Various powers on nations into a new world would prove elusive after Letter from the Mayor ..................................... 10 the war against Imperial the periphery sought to order. He wanted, as he the Great War. Support Our Contributors .............................. 10 Germany. preserve or extend their proclaimed in his war Continued on Page 2 PG 2 The Chautauqua Reader 2016 Making the World Safe for Democracy? Continued from page 1 THE CALL TO ARMS THAT CONTINUES TO SHAPE INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS Wilson’s own modern of nations, the League well as in travel and liberalism furnished the would replace the old cultural exchange. He ideological foundation for world order that relied wanted to guarantee free- his new foreign policy, on balances of power and dom of the seas and to which historians have military alliances. Each remove barriers to trade labeled as “liberal inter- of the League’s member and investment across nationalism,” or, “Wilso- nations could achieve na- borders. Wilson also called nianism”. He envisaged a tional security without for open diplomacy to new world order that em- having to maintain large make international trans- braced the fundamental armies or navies. actions more transparent. tenets of America’s own This kind of world order national identity. Self-Determination would facilitate the opera- A second tenet of tions of international cap- League of Nations Wilsonianism was the italism, just as Wilson’s Wilson hoped the Great notion of national self- New Freedom promoted it War would culminate in an determination, affirming at home. international community both state sovereignty and of liberal democracies democracy. Progressive History with capitalist economies. Just as Americans had The final undergird- WIKIMEDIA COMMONS SOURCE: He saw nation-states as claimed this right during ing tenet of Wilsonianism Council of Four at the WWI Paris peace conference: U.K. Prime Minister David Lloyd George, the building blocks of this their revolution against was a belief in progressive Italian Premier Vittorio Orlando, French Premier Georges Clemenceau, U.S. President Woodrow new world order. the British Empire, some history. In Wilson’s view, Wilson. China, Germany and Russia protested these nations’ domination of the peace treaty. Pivotal was his idea for new nations would emerge world history revealed the League of Nations, from the dissolution of a progressive pattern of Ideological Framework government.