History of Fresno County, California, with biographical sketches of the leading men and women of the county who have been identified with its growth and development from the early days to the present, Volume I, Part 86

Author: Vandor, Paul E., 1858-
Publication date: 1919
Publisher: Los Angeles, Calif., Historic Record Company
Number of Pages: 1362

USA > California > Fresno County > History of Fresno County, California, with biographical sketches of the leading men and women of the county who have been identified with its growth and development from the early days to the present, Volume I > Part 86

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Martyred Armenia's agonizing appeal for aid was made even before the United States' entry into the world's war. America answered these appeals and since the organization of the central committee in New York in 1915

577

HISTORY OF FRESNO COUNTY

over $8,000,000 has been the response distributed in money or in kind. In no part of the west probably is there a larger Armenian population centered than in Fresno County. For years there has been relief going on from here to the old country. The influx of emigrants also has been steady to find here a haven of refuge and safety among relatives and friends who have prospered following agricultural occupations in a climate not unlike that of the home land. An executive and general committee as a part of the national relief movement was not organized here until December, 1917, before which there were two other independent agencies interested in the work of gather- ing money relief for the Armenians and Syrians, one a branch of the national fund for Armenian and Syrian relief and the other an independent committee of Armenian citizens working to the same end. The executive committee for the local campaign was constituted of E. A. Williams, chairman: K. Ara- kelian, vice chairman ; E. S. Ardzrooni, secretary ; E. E. Manheim, treasurer ; G. L. Aynesworth, George Ohannesian and Rev. T. T. Giffen, besides a gen- eral committee of twenty-six largely of Armenians. Following the launch of the campaign December 10, 1917. a great meeting at the city auditorium ad- dressed by Dr. Riggs, an American missionary from Armenia, resulted in a collection of $4,500 mainly the contribution of the Armenian race while an- other and similar meeting at Turlock, attended by Rev. M. G. Papazian of the Pilgrim Congregational Church of Fresno, added $2,000 to the fund. Local records show a total of almost $27,000 subscribed with $19,700 for- warded to the national treasurer in New York. Individual service stands pre-eminent in the undertaking. Rev. Mr. Papazian was asked by the na- tional committee to tour the United States and speak in behalf of the fund and left Fresno September 18 and returned December 15, 1917, speaking en tour 111 times in thirty-eight days and traveling 13,400 miles. He is. one of the ablest exponents in this country of the cause.

Coalinga had a District War Fund Association organized January 21, 1918, to divide equally between all people in the territory the calls upon the community for war funds, the association to be kept intact until peace terms were signed and the war declared officially ended. Since organization the agency paid in $38,576.49 for various funds and had a balance of $2,975.40 after having met every quota call on Coalinga, with expenses less than seven per cent. of the money handled. C. A. Hiveley was the president; R. H. Stickel and P. A. Hussey, the vice presidents ; A. H. Good Jr., secretary and G. S. Hughes, treasurer of the association.

The Jewish Welfare Board also was included in the government's recog- nized United War Work. It organized in the spring of 1917. Fresno County had a committee of the board and it did its work unostentatiously, collecting and forwarding contributions to national headquarters. No race is more given to works of charity than the Hebrew. The Fresno officers are Ben Epstein, chairman ; L. I. Diamond, secretary ; L. M. Mendelsohn, Saul Sam- uels and Harry Ziedell. The committee never made a so-called "drive" until its inclusion in the United War Work. The money raised by the Jewish Relief Committee was expended for the benefit of Jews in all the countries engaged in the war. The contributions have been from the members of the race, every cent going to the sufferers and the cost of administration borne by the officials and workers. The Jews of Fresno County contributed $2,500 a year since the war to the fund and after the armistice have been called upon to raise $10,000 for the cause. The relief committee work was carried on since 1914 and contributions have been free will offerings. The commit- tee : M. L. Mendelsolin, chairman ; L. I. Diamond, secretary ; Ben Epstein, Saul Samuels, Harry Ziedell and Sigismund Wormser.

The Smileage book sale campaign of January, 1918, by the Rotary Clubs of the state resulted in the disposal of about 4,500 such books in Fresno city. When Servia was invaded after the declaration of war against it by Austria, the Serbs gathered and organized in Fresno a branch of the Serbian

578

HISTORY OF FRESNO COUNTY

National Defense League of America, a body that originated during the Bal- kan War. The Serbs generally in the valley became members and several thousands of dollars were subscribed to the Servian Red Cross fund. The local organization was officered by Charles Jovanovich as president; Veljko Radojevich secretary and Milan Vucovich treasurer, John Miscovich under- taking a tour of the valley to call on compatriots for funds in the appeal to save the Servians from extinction as a nation. In this county the Servians sent on $10,000 to the Serbian Red Cross and War Orphan funds. Some 100 young men from the valley enlisted for service early in the war and the fares of not a few of these to Servia were prepaid. The local Servians have con- tributed to the home cause independent of the funds, and for American Liberty bonds they are said to have invested as much as $75,000. Among the active local workers were Lazar Popovich and the most prominent, Dusan Tripcevich, who was head accountant for H. Graff & Company and placed himself at the disposal of the home government. The supreme president in New York of the Servian Federation chose him as his personal representa- tive to go Servia and consult with the government regarding the disposal of the American collected funds. Through this agency shiploads of food and medical stores were sent from New York and this relief came at opportune time during the typhus epidemic that ravaged the people when the army lost almost everything in the retreat over the Albanian Mountains. The Fresno man was called upon to render important work in London and Paris, was decorated with the Servian Cross of Honor, on his return to America was made supreme secretary of the federation and joining the American army became a lieutenant.

The appeal to Fresno for relief in behalf of poor little outraged Belgium was not in vain, drained as she was of resources and population during the four years of occupation by the soulless and pitiless Hunnish hounds. Her- bert Hoover of the food administration bureau was in charge of the Belgium Relief Commission and the local aid given to it was largely again in the sympathetic work of the women. It was in November, 1917, that field secre- taries of the relief movement made survey of Fresno to arouse interest, and other visitors told the harrowing tales to maintain that interest. A drive for funds followed and pledge cards were signed up as a result of which the local relief was enabled for the first few months after organization to send monthly $500 for the cause and after that $700. Funds and subscriptions then began to run low and to replenish them another "drive" was the project for the year 1919. The shoe-drive in November, 1917, was a great success with four tons of footwear as the result. So again in March, 1918, the appeal for clothing filling thirty-nine packing boxes weighing five tons, and again in September when it required a furniture car to ship the twelve and one- half tons of clothing that came in response to appeals. Benefit teas and concerts were given to add to the fund and Belgian children were adopted and cared for by the French class of the Fresno high school, the Student Body of the school, the Parlier Country Club and the Misses Marian and Dorothy Payne. The Ladies' Relief Society has had for its officers: Mrs. L. L. Cory, chairman ; Mrs. Anna Newman, vice; Mrs. Milo Rowell, sec- retary-treasurer ; Miss Adeline Thornton, secretary, with E. E. Manheim, treasurer, besides a board of directors and auxiliary committees at Clovis, Fowler, Kingsburg, Laton, Reedley, Tranquillity and Corcoran in Tulare County. Milk bottles were placed about town to catch the pennies and small change for the milk fund for Belgian babes. There was probably not a war time activity not represented in the county. There was a Red Cross auxiliary of the colored women of Fresno city and it sponsored an ambitious public entertainment on the occasion of the draft contingent departure of the col- ored youths to join the service. The Japanese more than the Chinese took a large part in the patriotic and Liberty loan parades, though both races were liberal contributors to war funds and bonds.

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HISTORY OF FRESNO COUNTY

The United War Fund Drive had behind it perhaps one of the most comprehensive organizations of workers in any of the war fund raising campaigns. It continued November 11-18, 1918. It was not opened under the most auspicious conditions for its success, yet again the county "went over the top." The seven war service organizations which the fund was to help out were the Y. M. C. A. and the Y. W. C. A., the Knights of Colum- bus, the Jewish Welfare League, the Salvation Army, the War Community Service and the American Library Association. The national quota was $170,500,000 and the percentage apportionments to the services the follow- ing : 58.65, 8.80, 17.60, 2.05, 2.05. 8.80 and 2.05. The time for the campaign was made a late one that it would not interfere with the Red Cross war relief effort, the welfare organizations having been alloted the winter season. the relief efforts the spring time, and the Liberty loans between times as far as practical. With the last campaign started, things looked bad for the German armies and while there was general belief that the end was near it was not believed it would come so soon. The end was not expected until the spring of 1919. This big war drive had by reason of local conditions to be continued until after the cessation of hostilities. It opened on the very day of the signing of the armistice with suspension of hostilities. Fresno was in the midst of the influenza epidemic, there had been no great meetings and in the street corner gatherings the speakers wore masks. Lastly there was indifference to subscribe, now that for all practical purposes the war had ended. The greatest indifference was shown on the two first days of the campaign. The preparations for it were elaborate, and it was no time to abandon the effort, as the argument was made that with hostilities ended the work of the war service would be greater than ever until the soldiers came home to be demobilized, and how long they might be kept over as the army of occupation and reconstruction and for what ever else the future might have in store no one could tell. The work went on despite the inter- ruptions and adverse conditions. Well it was that the efforts had been con- centrated. The newspapers were the only means of publicity, and as with everything connected with the war efforts that publicity was not spared. In Liberty loan publicity the newspapers of the land gave the government column space, the value of which cannot be estimated in dollars. The news- papers with rare exceptions were 100 per cent. American. At the close of the alloted time the subscriptions came in and on the last day the report was that Fresno had exceeded its quota of $146,250 by $9,361, and state re- turns showed that Fresno ranked fourth for the amount subscribed and third among those that had exceeded their quotas. For the nation the total was $203,179,038 or $32,679,038 in excess of what had been asked for the demobilization period. The sum subscribed is said to have been the largest ever raised as an unqualified donation or gift in the history of the world. It was the answer whether the people at home were backing the American soldier abroad. The Fresno County Executive Committee in charge of this splendid campaign was of the following named: F. D. Prescott, chairman ; H. E. Patterson, campaign manager ; H. F. Allardt, John A. Neu. Ben Ep- stein, Miss' Julia Sayre, Miss Sarah McCardle, E. W. Lindsay, Raymond Quigley and George A. Forbes. It had as assistants the Fresno city and county general committees, the school district committees, a Japanese com- mittee, a women's committee, rating and preliminary gifts committees, and specials with Wick W. Parsons as the campaign treasurer and Mrs. A. S. Baker cashier.

One of the monumental achievements of the war times was the virtual breaking up of the I. W. W. organization with its reign of terror as the result of investigation and plot disclosures centering out of Fresno. For nearly ten years this organization had been a menace. In the winter of 1917 there were probably about 2,500 of these plotters in the state. California's "arson squad" operated over the west coast and in the northwestern states.

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HISTORY OF FRESNO COUNTY

Its activities went back to pre-war days. Its first positive overt acts in the San Joaquin Valley came early after the country entered the war. They ante- dated by nearly one year the arson fires in Fresno. The "Reign of Terror" at Modesto was precipitated on the night of October 6-7 when the confeder- ates of one of the agitators that had been jailed set nine fires in Modesto, terrorized the inhabitants but made for other parts after the population had organized 1,000 men to apprehend and deal justice to the arsonists. Space will not permit following up all the activities of the plotters. The invasion of Fresno was in August, 1917, followed September 3 by the setting fire with phosphorus of barn and seven haystacks north of Fresno. This was on the eve of the raid on I. W. W. headquarters in many parts of the United States by the federal authorities September 5, 1917. United States Deputy Marshal S. J. Shannon conducted a noon day raid on the Fresno local headquarters at 816 I Street, catching nineteen fellows. and among them the local secre- tary, one Glenn A. Roberts. The round up lasted an afternoon and 125 fellows were searched and questioned. A wagon load of "literature" was confiscated. The J. W. W.'s claimed to have at the time a membership of half a thousand in the county. Fred Little, who was hanged at Butte, Mont., was a Fresno product. The raiding was authorized by federal search war- rants for inciting insubordination, disloyalty and mutiny and refusal to per- form duty in the army and navy while the country was at war. The raid sweep continued throughout the district and the jail colony in the end numbered thirty-five. The federal grand jury indicted locally twenty-five of the number. Notable is the fact that three, James Elliott, C. McWhirt and G. A. Roberts, secretaries of the local. were later indicted at Chicago and imprisoned after conviction. Most of the twenty-five were dismissed at the time. but eleven of them were one year later indicted at Sacramento for complicity in a conspiracy to burn fifteen million dollars worth of property in the state, millions of which were actually destroyed. Eleven of the eighteen indicted at Sacramento were siftings of the 1917 local catch. The 1917 raid climax was followed October 6-7 by about a score of incendiary fires simul- taneously at Stockton, Modesto and at Manteca, according to a pre-arranged plan. Followed then a lull for about eighteen months but the arsonists were busy plotting in a jungle in the neighborhood of Knights Landing and the secret service had its operatives in the councils in July. A defective ship- ment of phosphorus delayed the game and the springing of the traps. The mistake was rectified, in August began the trapping in various parts of the state, and by October 14 there were fourteen of the leading firebugs of the west in the jails of half a dozen counties. In the technical language of the I. W. W.'s the arsonist is a "cat." At least four "cats" were busy in Fresno and vicinity. The Madary and Hollenbeck-Bush mill fire was one piece of work of the "cats :" loss about $500.000. On the same night there was a $3,000 haystack fire at Rolinda. About the same time, August 15, a $750,000 canning plant fire at Hanford in Kings County and so on at various places in near by valley counties. Following that fire was that on August 17 of the Fresno hay market and of the Kutner-Goldstein fire in Fresno city, five in- effectual attempts to fire the Griffin-Skelley packing house in Fresno, and the previous fire of the California Products Company with loss of nearly a million in buildings, machinery, food and other products. That the "cats" did not destroy more was because of the swift and secret action in round- ing them up. The federal trial at Chicago and at Sacramento resulted in wholesale convictions. The work of the assisting U. S. Secret Service and the U. S. Army Intelligence Bureau was an invaluable aid and how well pursued was made manifest in the disclosures at the two trials with the mass of incriminating evidence adduced.

The Boy Scouts of America consisting of three troops in Fresno city organized in March, 1918, with thirty-five boys helped to make the city's war work a success. They sold $9,500 of the War Savings and Thrift Stamps.

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HISTORY OF FRESNO COUNTY

In the third Liberty loan they turned in $1,650 in sold bonds. For that loan campaign and also the fourth they distributed all the campaign literature and placards, several times placarding the city in a night. They also acted as the messengers at subscription loan meetings, were in attendance at loan campaign headquarters and the three troops increased in membership to ninety. When the aviation and ordnance branches of the army and navy sent out call through the forestry department for "black walnut wood" for air-ship propellers, blades and rifle-stocks, the Boy Scouts made the census of the trees. When the gas defense league through the Red Cross appealed for fruit pits to make charcoal for the gas masks, the Scouts gave their aid. In the fourth Liberty loan with a membership of about seventy, the Scouts started out to establish a record in the last eight days and turned in a total of 363 bonds sold valued at $31,250.

Fresno sent its men into national war work and also to enter the service of the state in carrying out the national emergency food and war material policies under Herbert Hoover, who is a California man. In the dried fruit and fuel oil lines, California and Fresno men were of signal service in safe- guarding the rights of consumers as well as of producers. In the U. S. Food service was J. F. Niswander, manager of the California Peach Company, who was made director of the division of dried fruit of the U. S. Food Adminis- tration, May 9, 1918. He was one of your dollar-a-year men. Niswander took up his duties at Washington with Charles Bentley, also a Californian. Their work was to encourage maximum production and prevent hoarding, speculation and unreasonable profiteering. W. B. Nichols, a Dinuba banker, went in July to Washington on appointment to be Niswander's assistant. H. H. Welsh, attorney, oilman and rancher, abandoned his work with the county exemption board to go to Washington as a dollar-a-year man to join the staff as a member of the fuel oil board and became assistant to Mark L. Requa in shaping government policies regarding the California oil fields. George C. Roeding did not take up his residence at the national capital but he was a member of the original Agricultural Producers' Advis- ory Committee to the Hoover administration and made frequent journeys east to advise on national and regional agricultural policies. He was of the district board of appeals in the draft exemption work at home. He also took up the contract to buy up the peach and apricot pits in California for the war department to prevent their passing into the hands of enemy agencies in the gas mask making service. Thomas H. Lynch became a captain in the army quartermaster corps for the New York department to avail itself of his business capacities. Connected also with the food department adminis- tration were Charles A. Hill, formerly with the law firm of Barbour & Cashin, and H. W. Stammers, who was with L. L. Cory, the lawyer. S. P. Frisselle, superintendent of the Kearney Farm for the state university, was called to San Francisco to become an assistant of Ralph P. Merritt as food adminis- trator for California, and was in charge more particularly of the feed and coarse grain department. L. A. Nares of the canal and irrigation company was live stock commissioner to avert the feed shortage that enabled the state to produce its quota of stock. Milo F. Rowell had charge of the perish- able department in a consolidation of the cold storage interests to save and cheapen foods and in the distribution of vegetables, cheese, eggs and milk and to bring berry and fruit canners together. Aside from his work in the live stock line, L. A. Nares as president of the highway association and of the California Automobile Association served the government and the army in organizing western transportation service as director for three states. Lieut. Lester H. Eastin was first assistant to Milo F. Rowell, assisting to supply and distribute sugar in California and encourage the production of more beets, and became head of the manufacture and purchase of gas service supplies. F. M. Hill, as a member of the Highways Transport Committee of the National Council of Defense was director of traffic in California with

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HISTORY OF FRESNO COUNTY

general supervision over the highways of three states organizing traffic in the state and arranging to co-ordinate the three branches of railroads, water- ways and highways. Miss Maud L. Mast, in charge of the children's depart- ment of the free library and formerly with the Madera library, went to Washington to do classification work; likewise Miss Norah Sullivan and Miss Jeanette Morgan, formerly in the cataloguing department to do clerical work, and Miss Sarah F. Rabourn of the high school faculty to take up clerical and statistical work for the war department. Chester H. Rowell, was in the state council of defense.

The speaking bureau for publicity work at the theaters of the country was known as the "Four Minute Men" as their talks to audiences were lim- ited to four minutes. M. B. Harris was appointed Fresno County chairman in September, 1917, and named as his executive committee Floyd W. Cowan, Arthur Allyn and Robert J. West. The first Four-minute speeches were made on Saturday night, September 15, 1917, and the subject was; "What Our Enemy Really Is," speaking for the second Liberty loan then and also for all the governmental activities thereafter at the theaters and the school houses in the county in the war drives. In December, 1917, Cowan enlisted in the navy, and later was commissioned an ensign, Allyn enlisted in the in- fantry, and West took up Y. M. C. A. work at San Francisco and the execu- tive work was carried out to the end by Frank A. Willey, he having been named to succeed Cowan as secretary. One of the most effective pieces of work of the Four Minute Men was in response to the appeal, "Eyes for the Navy," for powerful glasses which were absolutely necessary for the work of the enlarged navy, the stock in the hands of dealers exhausted and the urgency of the need of them precluding the waiting of the long process of manufacture. In response to the appeal the assistant secretary of the navy calculated that 23,852 glasses were turned in and probably the 13,000 more that came in later could also have been traced to the same effort. Fresno County loaned to the navy some 200 such glasses. The Four Minute Men's organization was discontinued December 24, 1918. It is stated that approxi- mately 1,000 speeches were made in the county and the speakers were the lawyers, the preachers and almost every young man of note before the public.

Fresno County has every reason to be proud of its achievements in go- ing well over the top on every subscription in the four Liberty loans. They demonstrated the patriotic spirit of the citizenry. The responses were hearty and every town in the county made good. The first and fourth loans were carried through against heavy handicaps. The best obtainable returns at this writing are given in the following tabulation :

Over

Subscription Subscription

First loan

Maximum Quota $ 2,000,000

$ 2,300,000

$ 300,000

Second loan

4,016,982

4,117,000

100,018

Third loan

2,545,175

3,949,050

1,403,875

Fourth loan

4,501,000

5,946,550

1,445,550

Total

$13,063,157

$16,312,600

$3,249,343

The following figures of individual subscribers may be illuminating as showing the steady growth of the "war consciousness :"

First loan

7,200

Second loan

14,800

Third loan

20,284

Fourth loan

32,213

The "Liberty Loan of 1917" was launched in May and was for two billions. The bonds of this first issue will probably always be regarded with more sentiment than the others. They are held by some 3,300 subscribers.

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History of Fresno County, California, with biographical sketches of the leading men and women of the county who have been identified with its growth and development from the early days to the present, Volume I, Part 86

Author: Vandor, Paul E., 1858- Publication date: 1919 Publisher: Los Angeles, Calif., Historic Record Company Number of Pages: 1362

Author: Vandor, Paul E., 1858-
Publication date: 1919
Publisher: Los Angeles, Calif., Historic Record Company
Number of Pages: 1362