USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Worcester county; a narrative history, Volume II > Part 36
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Woodrow Wilson was inaugurated for the second time on March 4, 1917, and after a month of hesitancy delivered a message to Congress requesting a recognition of a state of war existing between the United States and Ger- many. It may be of interest and limn a picture of the activity of Worcester during this thirty days of Federal delay, to note the events of these days as compiled from the Worcester newspapers :
March 3-Sixty-two students and faculty of Clark College and Univer- sity organized the Clark Volunteer Guard, Captain H. Wright, of Brook- field, becoming drillmaster.
March 10-Mayor Holmes, of Worcester, at a meeting of the Mayors' Club in Boston, appealed for legislation that would give municipalities power to seize foodstuffs, and act in other emergencies of wartime.
March 19-Captain Thomas F. Foley, custodian of Worcester Armory, was asked by the Adjutant-General of Massachusetts as to possible sites for training camps in the Worcester district. On the same day the Worcester Public Safety Committee was organized as a Home Guard, at a meeting held in the office of Mayor Holmes and presided over by Professor Ira N. Hollis.
March 21-Captain Burr, of the Worcester unit of Massachusetts National Guard, called for volunteers. Mountain View Park was offered as mobilization camp site. On same day Worcester physicians, dentists and veterinarians were urged to apply for commissions in the Medical Depart- ment of the Officers' Reserve Corps, U. S. Army.
March 21-Company C, Sharpshooters' Guard, composed of French- speaking people of Worcester, offered their services as Home Guard, through their commander, Captain Harry T. Renauld.
March 22-The Worcester Special Aid Society, Mrs. Charles Baker, chairman, voted to cooperate with the Worcester Public Safety Committee.
March 24-The Public Safety Committee conferred with representatives of Worcester's industries and railroads, on measures of protection. The general manager of Crompton & Knowles loom works received from the Secretary of War a commission as major in Ordnance Reserve Corps.
March 25-Four hundred National Guardsmen of Worcester mobilized at the Armory, the companies being the Emmet Guards of the 9th Regiment, the Worcester Light Infantry, Wellington Rifles, and Worcester City Guard of the 2d Regiment.
March 26-Mayor Holmes appointed one hundred and thirty-seven spe- cial policemen, for protection of Worcester property. Captain John F. J. Herbert received authority to enroll two hundred and fifty recruits for Bat- tery B; the Red Cross Automobile Class reported at the Armory for duty ; and Young Men's Christian Association workers began a campaign for funds to continue work among soldiers in Europe.
March 27-The Worcester Chapter American Red Cross planned con- siderable expansion of its operations.
March 28-Sixty Worcester women met, in response to call by Mayor Holmes, for war work.
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March 30-Movement was begun to establish war gardens, nearly five hundred applications being received ; the Worcester military companies were Federalized, and next day came the Federal call for 7,000 guardsmen.
April 1, 1917-Companies A, C, and H, of the Ist Battalion, 2d. Regi- ment, Massachusetts National Guard, left Worcester for guard duty, and Worcester manufacturers doubled their guards at plants.
April 2-President Wilson asked Congress to recognize that a state of war existed, and asked for army of 500,000 men. Flag raisings became gen- eral, and in Worcester women became active in connection with war-relief measures.
April 3-Saw departure of Emmet Guards for police duty.
April 4-United States passed resolution declaring that a state of war exists. On same day in Worcester Mayor Holmes issued proclamation to effect that Germans in Worcester were safe if laws were observed. A stir- ring memorable event of that day was the flag-raising on Worcester Common at 5:00 p. m., in the presence of 75,000 persons, it was estimated.
Without attempting a chronological account of Worcester activities dur- ing the war, certain outstanding events of the following few months may be noted. April, 1917, stood out in city affairs for the organizing of students in training and military for service. On April 10, the Worcester Polytechnic Institute formed a military company of one hundred, and by the 23d there were two hundred and fifty members of the institution in training. On March IO, also, the first Clark College boy enlisted in the United States Army, and Worcester Academy purchased an ambulance for war service in France. On April 20 six hundred students of Holy Cross College announced their inten- tion of entering the Holy Cross Officers' Training Corps, and by the 24th more than four hundred of these had begun training. Meanwhile, on April 19, a Worcester man, Lieutenant Bruce R. Ware, from the deck of the U. S. S. Magnolia fired what was probably the first shot of the war.
May, 1917, was particularly given over to the strengthening of the local military organizations to war strength, or getting them ready for active duty. On the 7th some of the Emmet Guards were chosen for training at Platts- burg as officers. On May 12, Battery E of the 2d Field Artillery was mus- tered into service under Captain Arthur P. Twombly. On May 19, Worces- ter units of the 2d Regiment, Massachusetts National Guard, began to fill their ranks to full war requirements, and a week later the Emmet Guards had done so, the first in Federal service to accomplish this result. On May 24, the Motor Truck Company, recruited by Captain Franklin Burnham, was sworn into Federal service. On May 30 the B and E batteries of the 2d Field Artillery had reached their war footing.
June was a money and humanitarian organization month in the city and county, although the 5th marked the enrollment of 20,255 under the Selective Service Law. On June 8, Worcester "leads the Nation" in the Red Cross
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membership drive, gathering in 62,491 members thereby passing its quota by more than 12,000. On June 16 figures showed that Worcester had sub- scribed to the First Liberty Loan, $11,543,600, or nearly $2,000,000 above its quota. Later it was announced by Frank A. Drury, chairman of the Wor- cester Liberty Loan Committee that Worcester had led all the cities in New England in the purchase of bonds, finishing in first division in two classes. On June 22, the Worcester Red Cross Chapter reported subscriptions for the county to the American body, of $638,451.35. Worcester was sixth in per capita contributions among the cities of the United States.
July and August were too crammed with events to be summarized in a few sentences. The first stages of preparing for war were passing; summer months witnessed the call to arms of thousands from the cities and towns of the county, and their installation in training cantonments. The organiza- tion of civilians went on apace, industries were regimented and production increased to unbelievable limits. In October the Yankee Division arrived in France with its numerous men from Worcester. Thereafter "the war" was not something one followed with pins upon a map of Europe; the stark aspects of the terrible conflict was thrust home to the hearts of all. From that time it was impossible to forget the boys over there, or the difficulties in daily civilian life of working miracles in the raising of funds, production and saving of essentials required abroad amid heatless days, meatless days, and the eventual daily reports of the missing, the wounded and the dead among our soldiers, at the front and in the camps.
The civilian side of Worcester's war work is the broadest and includes more people-if the estimate be correct that it takes four people at home to provide for the needs of one in military or naval service. Between fourteen and fifteen thousand of Worcester men went into the army and navy, or other military units, and a similar proportion departed from the other cities, towns and villages of the county. Sixty thousand in Worcester, and more than double that number in the county as a whole were busy sustaining the boys under arms. Statistics fail to disclose all the facts, for almost the whole adult population of the county were mobilized and organized for the prose- cution of the war ; the children and youth were by no means exempted. Says Brigadier-General John H. Sherburne, of the Commonwealth, and equally of its parts :
"To Massachusetts the war was a crusade to end tyranny and militarism and to establish in the world the right of self-determination of its people. Day by day, built upon the patriotism of the people, a vast and efficient organ- ization was developed, reaching from Washington into every town and every home in the State. Children worked cheerfully in the fields to increase the crop yield. Women organized everywhere for the service they could give.
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Bankers gave their help to the great war-loan drives. Professional and busi- ness men closed their desks, joined the Army or Navy staffs, or the many committees and agencies working out the industrial problem. The people who remained at home were keyed up to great and effectual effort. Subjected to much privation, they cheerfully submitted to every regulation which could in any way further the success of our armies. Altogether it was a most inspiring proof of the unity of the people of the State and of the Nation, a demonstration of the basic soundness of our institutions and government."
The initial and inclusive Massachusetts Committee on Public Safety in actual practice carried on its work of coordination, concentration and utiliza- tion, by means of subsidiary organizations in the counties, cities and towns. The Worcester County municipalities almost wholly answered the first call to act in full accord, sympathy and cooperation with the purposes and requests of the State Committee, and to this end ninety-five per cent. of the people of the county were represented in the local bodies. One of the first duties of the Worcester Public Safety Committee was to "see that existing military organi- zations should be fully equipped to the last detail for a possible call to serv- ice." How promptly this had been done has already been indicated, and how a further step had been taken in the forming of a Home Guard to replace the National Guard units as they were withdrawn. The preliminary committees, particularly those of the non-military order, had to do with finances, the coordination of aid societies, industrial surveys, transportation, legislation, and mobilization. Later came the preliminary committees on State protection, naval forces, military equipment and supplies, recruiting, and a dozen others. The press was enlisted and played their parts as "moulders of thought and directors of action." There were "Four-Minute Men," quick-fire educators of public opinion. Councils were formed for conservation using every prac- tical method of increasing and saving supplies of every nature. The list might be extended into the hundreds and pages written of the important activities of each.
Among the larger groups were the Liberty Loan and allied committees, and the Food and Fuel administrations, unpopular but necessary. Worcester is one of the largest agricultural counties in Massachusetts, but despite its best efforts to increase production, could not feed itself, and was particularly short of wheat and some of the staple grains. "No-white-bread" weeks were tried out, meatless days and drastic reductions of sugar. Worcester and other large cities and towns in the county were tremendously important industrially. In the chapter on industries in this work a section has been given to manufacturers and their contributions to the effective carrying on of the war. The winter of 1917-18 was unusually severe and the coal supply which had to be shipped from mines outside the territory soon proved to be
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inadequate. The Worcester Fuel Committee had the unpleasant task of dis- tributing the inadequate supplies so that essential manufacturing might go on and the people kept from freezing.
As illuminating the pages of what is of necessity a dull outline of the work of devoted and often unappreciated committees and the no less patient devotion of a patriotic citizenry, one may repeat from the newspapers of the day the events of the month, January, 1918, as they have to do with the use of fuel in Worcester. The New Year was celebrated by the unprecedented closing down of most of the Worcester plants to conserve coal. On the second the lighting of streets was cut down drastically. On the third schools were ordered closed for the month and the coal in their bins sold to the pub- lic, business hours were reduced, religious organizations met only in their chapels or smaller rooms, dealers were ordered to deliver only sufficient coal to preserve health in homes and hospitals, and manufacturers pooled their diminished supplies of fuel. Throughout the first week practically all public gatherings were frowned upon, and on the ninth the order went out from the Fuel Committee, ordering six lightless nights a week, no elevator service, and the consolidation of church and similar meetings. On the day after, the Administrator was empowered to seize soft coal for distribution to indus- trial concerns and homes. On January 16 the Fuel Administrator ordered all manufacturing plants which made perishable products to close, and on the next day a general exodus into the forests was underway to chop wood for immediate needs. On January 17 Worcester bore as well as she could the first heatless Monday. Every industrial establishment in the city was shut down and forty thousand workers were idle. Many of the plants were pre- vented for some time from starting up. On January 9 the Worcester Fuel Committee telegraphed to the Director of Railroads, William G. McAdoo: "Send us coal. Substitute coal cars for Pullmans and discontinue all non- essential travel until the crisis is past." On the last day of the month coal dealers were forbidden to furnish coal to office buildings, stores and factories for forty-eight hours. Not all the heroics of the war are to be found abroad. To add one last touch to the picture-February 5, 1918, was the coldest day ever suffered by Worcester in fifty-seven years!
A special tribute is due to the magnificent parts played by the women of Worcester city and county. They rallied with the men to the call of their country, and while sharing the burdens of the males, had also deeds to per- form beyond the masculine ken. Many worked in the munitions plants replacing men called into the army. Upon the women devolved the problem of making things to eat from substitutes, keeping the home fires burning without fuel, while in the Red Cross and varied activities, in deeds of mercy and as members of the Worcester Committee of the Massachusetts Division
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of the Council of National Defense they were outstanding factors. The latter named organization dated from May, 1917, and had able chairmen in every city, village and town in the county, who brought about a cooperation of the numerous women's societies which made for efficiency during the eighteen months that the committee functioned. The work of the Council was done by a set of committees, the most important of which were those on Child Welfare whose valuable services gave rise to similar societies which continue to the present day ; the Committee on Women in Agriculture that originated, incidentally, the word "farmerette"; Committee on Health and Recreation, Committee on the Maintenance of Existing Social Agencies, and others, all of which served well their designed purposes.
The Worcester Committee on Red Cross Nursing Service was founded in 19II, and during the period of the war, 1914 to 1918, enrolled two hundred and twenty-seven nurses. This committee, although bearing the name of the Red Cross was really independent of it, and was part of the Northeastern Division-one of the thirteen such in the United States. The first of its members to enter war service was Lexina J. Hadley, who was sent to the Post Hospital at Plattsburg, New York. She was soon followed at home and abroad by one hundred and forty more before the Armistice. Then there is the career of Miss Julia C. Stimson, daughter of a former Worcester min- ister, and a native of the city. After graduating from Vassar College, she became a nurse and volunteered her services when the Nation went to war. Ordered to France as Chief Nurse of the St. Louis Unit of No. 65 General Hospital, British Expeditionary Forces, she was promoted later to the office of Chief of Nurses of the American Expeditionary Forces, having the direc- tion of the nursing system of the American army abroad, than which there could be no higher responsibility in her profession.
Mrs. Homer Gage has written in her Worcester Women's Part in the World War, that "in no city in our country have the women worked harder or more efficiently than in the beloved heart of the Commonwealth. The insignia of our city seems to have been an auspicious emblem, and our hearts were opened early to the cry of the suffering." In her comprehensive account of Worcester County's women's activities of this period one finds full details of organized work rising out of immediate and war needs, many of which were not included within the scope of the Red Cross.
"The British-born women in Worcester were gathered together in Octo- ber, 1914, for active work in aid of the Belgian refugees, Mrs. Donald Tul- loch being one of the initiators of the movement. In 1915 Mrs. Homer Gage and others took charge of the formative work in Worcester for the American Fund for French Wounded. Mrs. Gage was chairman throughout, and dur- ing the war period no less than 1,553 Worcester County women worked in
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the rooms of the Fund, producing 1,116,855 articles for the wounded-hos- pital supplies, surgical dressings, knitted goods, and so forth. The Worcester Branch of the National Civic Federation organized a Surgical Dressings Committee of thirty members in October, 1915, under the direction of Mrs. Alfred L. Aiken, as chairman. This body of 500 workers had important part later in bringing into efficient operation the Surgical Dressings Section of the Red Cross in 1917, though they did not close their own workrooms until August, 1918, after almost three years of work. Mrs. Henry Cross was treasurer, and Mrs. Randolph Crompton secretary. Another useful women's organization was the Worcester Branch of the Special Aid Society for Amer- ican Preparedness. The local body was organized in January, 1916, and did considerable work in making hospital supplies, also in conservation measures. In April, 1918, when white flour was scarce, they opened the Liberty Bread Shop in Worcester. Later they entered into reconstruction work. The officers were: Mrs. Homer Gage, chairman, Mrs. Charles Baker, vice-chair- man ; Mrs. Charles T. Tatman, secretary ; Mrs. George F. Booth, treasurer. The Italian War Relief Fund sent out more than 10,000 garments, and many thousands of surgical dressings. The Women's Liberty Loan Committee gave a 'wonderful demonstration of the true patriotism of our Worcester women,' wrote Miss Catherine Olney, who was acting-chairman for the Fourth Liberty Loan. Mrs. Homer Gage was at the head of the organiza- tion. Through the Worcester work for the fatherless children of France six hundred and fifty of these waifs of a war-cursed world were provided with the means of life during the period when they could not be cared for by their own country; and Worcester County workers provided for another three hundred orphans. Mrs. W. Irving Clark, Jr., was at the head of the Worcester body, Mrs. A. C. Higgins being secretary, and Mrs. Roger Kinnecutt treasurer. The Women's Committee of the United War Work Campaign had Mrs. Milton P. Higgins and Mrs. Austin P. Cristy, associate chairmen. The Worcester Society for District Nursing, with Miss Rosabelle Jacobus as superintendent, did especially notable work during the epidemic of Spanish Influenza. The Women's Club of Worcester, Mrs. Charles F. Marble president, did very active work during the war, aiming at cooperation, not duplication, of effort; hence their help was appreciated. Miss Elizabeth M. Tulloch in September, 1917, organized the Red Cross Auxiliary of the Metal Trades and Employers' Association, banding together one hundred women of those trades for Red Cross work during their spare moments of each day. The Catholic Women's War Council, Worcester County branch, was organized by Mrs. John J. Cummings ; the Smileage Campaign Commit- tee was headed by Mrs. John L. Linehan ; the Mayor's Honor Roll Committee
Wor. 47
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chairman was Mrs. Arthur W. Marsh; Mrs. John W. Maher was chairman of the Chaplain's Aid Association; Mrs. W. T. Brennan was president of the united branches of the L. C. B. A. in Worcester ; Miss Rose E. Trainor was in charge of the Blind Relief Corps, planning particularly to provide occupa- tions for blinded soldiers; and the regimental units of Worcester will ever be grateful for the work organized by Worcester women of the many regi- mental auxiliaries. The Worcester Women's Motor Corps Service, initiated in 1917, by Mrs. William Marcy and others, brought into operation a very useful home organization. In the same class comes the Military Girls, two companies of the Junior Red Cross, Auxiliary of the I O. R. M., com- manded by Major Ethel Hemenway. Certainly, the work of the women of Worcester County during that critical period gives them honored place beside their men folk in the history of the supreme effort to right the world."
The name of Clara Barton, of Oxford, Worcester County, is interna- tionally famous as one of the organizers of the precursors of the Red Cross Society, and the president of the American Red Cross Society from 1881 to 1904. Even her experience and imagination could not envision the stupen- dous modern achievements of this humanitarian organization even in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, or even those of the Worcester Chapter, during two years of war. The local chapter had the then large membership of less than 2,000, in April, 1917. Six weeks later a membership campaign had increased the number in the county to 70,499. A Christmas drive of that same year added to the enrollment another 40,000. Both campaigns were under the leadership of David W. Armstrong, and at the beginning of 1918, the Worcester County members of the Red Cross Society, numbered above 118,000. Add to this the enrollment of the Junior Red Cross, and nearly half of the people of the county were enlisted under the banner of this one organization. Membership meant more than a subscription and the signing of one's name. Stupendous quantities of knitted articles, surgical dressings, hospital supplies and refugee garments were made in the various workshops. More than a million and a quarter of surgical dressings made up one item. There were nearly one hundred and fifty thousand articles knitted by willing hands. Miscellaneous hospital supplies ranging from surgical shirts and pajamas to trench candles, totaled nearly one hundred thousand. And there were some twenty-eight thousand children's garments, not to mention thou- sands of garments for men, women and children. The most of these things were produced by generously given labor and materials, and the cost thereof did not come out of the large sums subscribed by Worcester citizens.
In the early activities of the Worcester Red Cross there was no elab- orately concerted effort to raise funds. The chapters were supported liberally but the future requirements were unrealized. The first of the two great Red
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Cross "drives" was completed in June, 1917. Worcester County as a whole subscribed nearly $640,000. Worcester stood sixth in per capita contributions in the Nation. The second campaign, closing in May, 1918, brought into the coffers of the chapter, $950,000 and more. Both campaigns were directed by George A. Gaskill and Harry G. Stoddard. At this time the work of the Red Cross in Worcester had expanded into the realm of "big business" and required executive abilities of the best. That the honor may be given where honor is due, we reprint a paragraph from Crane's History of Worcester County :
This was a gigantic business, and called for executives of the highest grade. When war came the Worcester Chapter had as chairman the Hon. Charles G. Washburn, with Frank H. Marshall as vice-chairman, Alfred R. Brigham as treasurer; Mrs. Lizzie L. Bullock as secretary; Mrs. Alfred L. Aiken, Mrs. Lizzie L. Bullock, George F. Booth, Louis H. Buckley, Mrs. Homer Gage, Mrs. William Harrington, Mrs. C. F. Marble, Frank H. Mar- shall, and Maurice F. Reidy, as Executive Committee. In 1918 Mr. Marshall left Worcester, and was succeeded by Halleck Bartlett, as vice-chairman. Treasurer Brigham asked to be relieved, and handed over the care of the funds to Frederic B. Washburn, Charles A. Barton becoming treasurer in the spring of 1919. The Red Cross Administration Committee, organized in September, 1917, and expanded later, included the following gentlemen : William C. Radcliffe, Dr. Charles L. Nichols, Harlan T. Pierpont, George Sumner Barton, Louis H. Buckley, Carl Bonney, Thomas E. O'Connell, Charles L. Allen, Frederic B. Washburn, George A. Gaskill, Hon. Charles G. Washburn, Halleck Bartlett, George F. Booth, Henry E. Whitcomb. Civilian Relief Department was early organized, with Carl Bonney as chair- man, and Miss Edith Billings as supervisor ; Canteen Service came into exist- ence in May, 1918, under the direction of Mrs. J. Lester Perry ; the Bureau of Nursing was largely responsible for the enlistment of one hundred nurses from Worcester County in the Army and Navy, the Bureau being under the direction of Miss Rubie L. Cameron ; Educational Committee had Dr. Nichols as chairman, and was especially helpful during the epidemic of influenza in Worcester ; the Membership Department was under the chairmanship of George W. Child; the Junior Red Cross was organized and headed by Mrs. Edith L. Kinsley, and had 40,501 members; auxiliary Red Cross chapters were organized in all towns of Worcester County, each under its leader. This work enthusiastic and long-sustaining eventually earned for about 1,000 women places on the Red Cross Honor Roll, the list including the names of those who had given from eight hundred to 2,400 hours of labor to the Red Cross during the war.
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