USA > Pennsylvania > York County > York > York County and the World War: Being a war history of York and York County > Part 2
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33
In carrying out the measures by which these things are to be accomplished we should keep con- stantly in mind the wisdom of interfering as little as possible in our own preparation and in the equip- ment of our own military forces with the duty-for it will be a very practical duty-of supplying the nations already at war with Germany with the materials which they can obtain only from us by our assistance. They are in the field and we should help them in every way to be effective there.
I shall take the liberty of suggesting, through the several executive departments of the Government, for the consideration of your committees, measures for the accomplishment of the several objects I have mentioned. I hope that it will be your pleasure to deal with them as having been framed after very careful thought by the branch of the Government upon which the responsibility of conducting the war and safeguarding the nation will most directly fall.
While we do these things-these deeply momentous things-let us be very clear, and make very clear to all the world, what our motives and our objects are. My own thought has not been driven from its habitual and normal course by the unhappy events of the last two months, and I do not believe that the thought of the nation has been altered or clouded by them.
I have exactly the same things in mind now that I had in mind when I addressed the Senate on the twenty-second of January last; the same that I had in mind when I addressed the Congress on the third of February and on the twenty-sixth of February. Our object now, as then, is to vindicate the principles of peace and justice in the life of the world against selfish and autocratic power and to set up among the really free and self-governed peoples of the world such a concert of purpose and action as will henceforth insure the observance of those principles.
Neutrality is no longer feasible or desirable where the peace of the world is involved and the freedom of its people, and the menace to that peace and freedom lies in the existence of autrocratic governments backed by organized force which is controlled wholly by their will, not by the will of their people. We have seen the last of neutrality in such circumstances.
We are at the beginning of an age in which it will be insisted that the same standards of conduct and of responsibility for wrong-doing shall be observed among nations and their Governments that are observed among the individual citizens of civilized States.
[ 13 ]
We have no quarrel with the German people. We have no feeling toward them but one of sympathy and friendship. It was not upon their impulse that their Government acted in entering this war. It was not with their previous knowledge or approval.
It was a war determined upon as wars used to be determined upon in the old, unhappy days when peoples were nowhere consulted by their rulers and wars were provoked and waged in the interest of dynasties or of little groups of ambitious men who were accustomed to use their fellow-men as pawns and tools.
Self-governed nations do not fill their neighbor States with spies, or set the course of intrigue to hring about some critical posture of affairs which will give them an opportunity to strike and make conquest. Such designs can be successfully worked out only under cover and where no one has the right to ask questions.
Cunningly contrived plans of deception or aggression carried, it may be, from generation to gene- ration can be worked out and kept from the light only within the privacy of courts or behind the carefully guarded confidence of a narrow, privileged class. They are happily impossible where public opinion commands and insists upon full information concerning all the nation's affairs.
A steadfast concert for peace can never be maintained except by a partnership of democratic nations. No autocratic Government could be trusted to keep faith within it or observe its covenants. It must be a league of honor, a partnership of opinion. Intrigue would cat its vitals away: the plotting of inner circles who could plan what they would and render account to no one would be a corruption seated at its very heart. Only free peoples can hold their purpose and their honor steady to a common end and prefer the interests of mankind to any narrow interest of their own.
Does not every American feel that assurance has been added to our hope for the future peace of the world by the wonderful and heartening things that have been happening within the last few weeks in Russia? Russia was known by those who know it best to have been always in fact democratic at heart in all the vital habits of her thought, in all the intimate relationships of her people that spoke their natural instinct, their habitual attitude toward life.
The autocracy that crowned the summit of her political structure, long as it had stood and terrible as was the reality of its power, was not, in fact, Russia in origin, character or purpose; and now it has been shaken off and the great, generous Russian people have been added in all their native majesty and might to the forces that are fighting for freedom in the world, for justice and for peace. Here is a fit partner for a league of honor.
One of the things that have served to convince us that the Prussian autocracy was not and could never be our friend is that from the very ontset of the present war it has filled our unsuspecting com- munities and even our offices of Government with spies and set criminal intrigues everywhere afoot against our national unity and counsel, our peace within and without, our industries and our commerce.
Indeed, it is now evident that its spies were here even before the war began; and it is unhappily not a matter of conjecture, but a fact proved in our courts of justice, that the intrigues which have more than once come perilously near to disturbing the peace and dislocating the industries of the country have been carried on at the instigation, with the support, and even under the personal direction of official agents of the Imperial Government accredited to the Government of the United States.
Even in checking these things and trying to extirpate them, we have sought to put the most generous interpretation possible upon them because we know that their source lay, not in any hostile feeling or purpose of the German people toward us (who were, no doubt, as ignorant of them as we ourselves were), but only in the selfish designs of a Government that did what it pleased and told its people nothing. But they have played their part in serving to convince us at least that that Government
[ 14 ]
entertains no real friendship for us and means to aet against our peace and security at its convenience. That it means to stir up enemies against us at our very doors the intercepted note to the German Minister at Mexico City is eloquent evidence.
We are accepting this challenge of hostile purpose because we know that in such a Government, following such methods, we can never have a friend; and that in the presence of its organized power, always lying in wait to accomplish we know not what purpose, there can be no assured security of the democratic Governments of the world.
We are now about to accept gage of battle with this natural foe to liberty, and shall, if necessary, spend the whole force of the nation to check and nullify its pretensions and its power. We are glad, now that we see the facts with no veil of false pretense about them, to fight thus for the ultimate peace of the world and for the liberation of its peoples, the German peoples included; for the rights of nations great and small and the privilege of men everywhere to choose their way of life and of obedience. The world must be made safe for democracy. Its peace must be planted upon the tested foundations of political liberty.
We have no selfish ends to serve. We desire no conquest, no dominion. We seek no indemnities for ourselves, no material compensation for the sacrifices we shall freely make. We are hut one of the champions of the rights of mankind. We shall be satisfied when those rights have been as secure as the freedom of the nations can make them.
Just because we fight without rancor and without selfish object, seeking nothing for ourselves but what we shall wish to share with all free people, we shall, I feel confident, conduct our operations as belligerents without passion and ourselves observe with proud punctilio the principles of right and of fair play we profess to be fighting for.
I have said nothing of the Governments allied with the Imperial Government of Germany because they have not made war upon us or challenged us to defend our right and our honor. The Austro- Hungarian Government has, indeed, avowed its unqualified indorsement and acceptance of the reckless and lawless submarine warfare adopted now without disguise by the Imperial German Government, and it has, therefore, not been possible for this Government to receive Count Tarnowski, the Am- bassador recently accredited to this Government by the Imperial and Royal Government of Austria- Hungary; but that Government has not actually engaged in warfare against citizens of the United States on the seas, and I take the liberty, for the present at least, of postponing a discussion of our relations with the authorities at Vienna. We enter this war only where we are clearly forced into it because there are no other means of defending our rights.
It will be all the easier for us to conduct ourselves as belligerents in a high spirit of right and fairness because we act without animus, not in enmity toward a people or with the desire to bring any injury or disadvantage upon them, but only in armed opposition to an irresponsible Government which has thrown aside all considerations of humanity and of right and is running amuck.
We are, let me say again, the sincere friends of the German people, and shall desire nothing so much as the early re-establishment of intimate relations of mutual advantage between us, however hard it may be for them, for the time being, to believe that this is spoken from our hearts.
.
We have borne with their present Government through all these bitter months because of that friendship, exercising a patience and forbearance which would otherwise have been impossible. We shall, happily, still have an opportunity to prove that friendship in our daily attitude and action toward the millions of men and women of German birth and native sympathy who live among us and share our life, and we shall be proud to prove it toward all who are in fact loyal to their neighbors and to the Government in the hour of test.
[ 15 ]
They are, most of them, as true and loyal Americans as if they had never known any other fealty or allegiance. They will be prompt to stand with us in rebuking and restraining the few who may be of a different mind and purpose.
If there should be disloyalty it will be dealt with with a firm hand of stern repression; but if it lifts its head at all it will lift it only here and there, and without countenance except from a lawless and malignant few.
It is a distressing and oppressive duty, gentlemen of the Congress, which I have before me in thus addressing you. There are, it may be, many months of fiery trial and sacrifice ahead of us. It is a fearful thing to lead this great, peaceful people into war-into the most terrible and disastrous of all wars, civilization itself seeming to be in the balance.
But the right is more precious than peace, and we shall fight for the things which we have always carried nearest our hearts-for democracy, for the right of those who submit to authority to have a voice in their own government, for the rights and liberties of small nations, for a universal dominion of right by such a concert of free peoples as shall bring peace and safety to all nations and make the world itself at last free.
To such a task we can dedicate our lives and our fortunes, everything that we are and everything that we have, with the pride of those who know that the day has come when America is privileged to spend her blood and her might for the principles that gave her birth and happiness and the peace which she has treasured. God helping her, she can do no other.
[ 16]
IN MEMORIAM
here routes a moment in the lives of men and women when their thoughts hold a picture and an expression of a man and his worldly deeds, but in words ran be found to romney that vision of a modern hern to the world as it should be donr. These heroes dien in line of duty. Nn utan ran do more in serving his country.
-Clifford J. Tall.
[ 17 ]
TWO OF THE MOST BEAUTIFUL POEMS OF THE WAR
IN FLANDERS FIELDS By LIEUTENANT-COLONEL JOHN MeCREA (Died on the Field of Honor)
N Flanders fields the poppies grow Between the crosses, row on row, That mark our place; and in the sky The larks, still bravely singing, fly, Scarce heard amid the guns below. I
We are the dead. Short days ago We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, Loved and were loved; and now we lie In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe! To you from falling hands, we throw The torch. Be yours to hold it high! If ye break faith with us who die We shall not sleep, though poppies blow In Flanders fields.
FROM OTHER FIELDS A Reply to " In Flanders Fields " By JOHN MITCHELL
O SLEEP in peace where poppies grow. The torch your falling hands let go Was caught by us; again held high. A beacon light in Flanders' sky, That dims the stars to those below. You are our dead. You held the foe, And ere the poppies cease to hlow We'll prove our faith in you who lie In Flanders' fields.
O rest in peace, we quickly go To you who bravely died, and know In other fields was heard the cry, For freedom's cause, of you who lie So still, asleep, where poppies grow, In Flanders' fields.
As in rumbling sound, to and fro The lightning flashes; sky aglow; So mighty hosts appear. And high Above the din of battle cry, "Scarce heard amid the guns below," Are fearless hearts who fight the foe And guard the place where poppies grow. O sleep in peace all you who lie In Flanders' fields.
And still the poppies gently blow "Between the crosses, row on row." The larks still bravely soaring high, Are singing now their lullaby To you who sleep where the poppies grow In Flanders' fields.
[ 18]
.
-
--
-
FLANDERS FIELD
WHEW
YORK COUNTY PATRIOTS WHO
LIVES FOR WORLD FENCE
YORK COUNTY COURT HOUSE-SHOWING HONOR ROLL
YORK COUNTY'S HONOR ROLL
APRIL 7, 1917-NOVEMBER 11, 1919
HAROLD H. BAIR
HARRY E. STRAYER
MONROE R. HUNTER
EDWARD B. ROSER JOHN H. FERREE
FRANK A. SIPE
NORMAN E. SHAFFER
EDWIN C. REBERT
HOWARD GOODLING
NEVIN O. HOFFMAN
GEORGE FRED THOMAN
JOHN UREY
WALTER LEROY FITZGERALD
VALENTINE K. LUTZ
WILLIAM F. GEESEY
WILLIAM HENRY MECKLEY
JOSEPH H. HENDRICKSON WALTER S. GARRETT
CLETUS F. REBERT JAMES F. SMALL
PARKER WILLIAM WEAVER
WARREN B. DIETZ
GEORGE E. BURGESS
VICTOR ALLEN MECKLEY
WILLIAM J. FELDMAN
JOSEPH M. MILLER
MELVIN NATHAN JAMISON
CHARLES J. SLONAKER PAUL E. LAU
WILLIAM M. NEFF
CHARLES W. BUIE
LANDIS L. TRIMMER
ALBERT J. KINSELL
STERLING W. SEITZ
RODNEY W. POLACK JOHN F. MORTON
WILBERT REEVER
QUINTON MONROE GERBRICK
ALLEN MECKLEY
ROBERT G. HAYS
DAVID W. MUNDIS
DAVID F. MILLER
RAYMOND A. LOWE
SHERMAN WILLIAM LEIFER
CHARLES R. BURKHOLDER
HOWARD H. GILBERT
CHARLES H. SIPE
ERNEST C. TIPTON
WILFORD RUBRECHT
HARRY WILLIAM WITHERS WALTER E. GROVE
WILBUR D. BUCHMEYER RALPH E. WEILER
ROBERT H. WEAVER
FRANK O. SHAUCK
ERWIN O. SHEFFER
CLATON D. WARNER
JOHN DANIEL WITHERS
JAMES E. FOLKEMER
RAYMOND F. KNIGHTON
CHESTER HANNIGAN
WILLIAM T. RINGLAND
WILLIAM MI. SHIVE
HARRY CLEVELAND AHRENS
CLARENCE E. LEASH
WESLEY HEFFER JAMES F. SHUMAN
OSCAR FRY
SAMUEL M. MARKLEY GEORGE M. LIGHTNER HORATIO SMITH
WALTER E. MYERS
GEORGE WOODS
WARREN L. THOMAS
STEWART W. KRIDER
GEORGE B. HOFFMAN
GEORGE E. EVANS
CURVIN H. HEISS
CHESTER H. BAIR
SHERMAN C. SCOTT
JOHN M. WISE
AUGUSTUS V. STRAWBRIDGE
CHARLES G. FETROW
MELVIN A. ROHRBAUGH
SHERMAN C. LEONARD
CHARLES R. KOHLER
HARRY C. STOVER
LUTHER P. SHIVE
HARRY E. LOOSE
AARON D. NEFF
JOHN L. MAYER HAROLD C. NOBLE
E. RUSSELL MARKEY
HARRY W. BROWN
JOHN AUSTIN MCKEE
JOSEPH E. KLINEDINST
HARRY P. FOLKOMER
CHARLES E. KOHR
LLOYD S. BECKER
CHANCEFORD STAMBAUGH CHARLES B. HESS
WILLIAM ARNOLD
MICHAEL GARLAND GRANVILLE SMITH
PAUL H. UTZ
ALBERT M. HUNT
CLARENCE KOPP
EURIAS C. HAYES
BERNARD P. ALTHOFF
CALVIN A. CARBAUGH
JOHN E. LILLICH
CLARENCE W. MARCH
WILLIAM F. GEHRING DAVID RUPP, 3rd MARTIN S. WEISER HARRY B. STOUGH WALTER B. HERRMAN ROY R. WORLEY LATIMER SAYERS GEORGE L. STAUFFER
EDWARD SWARTZBAUGH GEORGE H. BRENNER J. WALTER ELY GEORGE E. STRAUSBAUGH GEORGE R. MONROE
NORMAN E. SMITH
ERWIN E. SAYERS
EDWARD D. HEISS
PAUL J. ALTHOFF
CHARLES S. SNYDEMAN
HOWARD B. OLEWILER
HERMAN PAUL TRESSELT
[ 21 ]
ELMER H. GEMMILL CECIL CRONE WILLIAM ROY REISINGER
PETER J. SMITH
HARRY BARNHART
GEORGE H. LEITHEISER
CHARLES T. CASSETT
ELIAS M. BAUGHER
WALTER B. DICK
GEORGE H. SECHRIST
CHARLES E. KAIN, JR.
THOMAS W. HAUBERT
KERWIN E. JACOBY
ERVIN C. MILLER
QUINTON A. HOSE
AUSTIN L. GROVE
GEORGE AUDREY BILLMEYER JEANETTE ZINN
JOHN T. LANE HARRY MILLER
ROY A. MCCLANE
RUSSELL DANIEL SMITH
JACOB MARKLINE
JAMES WILSON GAILEY
HOMER N. ROTH
JOHN ALBERT DOLL
HARRY B. RODES
WILBUR C. SUITER
OWEN D. SPRENKLE
LEMON STUMP
DAVID E. POFF JAMES DANNER
DANIEL SCHROLL CHESTER TRONE
EARL G. HARMAN
WILLIAM H. BECK
ALLEN HAKE WINTER
CHARLES WITMER
CHARLES SCHROLL
HARRY R. YINGLING
CLARENCE E. KNAUB
HARRISON D. HEINDLE
ELMER DUNKLE
NOAH R. BISKER
MILLARD KEARNEY
EDWARD H. FLORY
ALVIN REIIMEYER
CLARENCE S. ABEL
HENRY KNAUB
[ 22]
MILTON M. RITTENHOUSE WILTON ABEL CLARK MCWILLIAMS ALBERT D. BELL HENRY KINSEY
WILLIAM A. MYERS
LAWRENCE W. SEIBERLICH
GEORGE H. FREY
THE FOLLOWING PAGES CON- TAIN A DETAILED ACCOUNT OF THE SERVICES OF THOSE WHOSE NAMES APPEAR ON THE HONOR ROLL.
[ 23 ]
MISS JEANNETTE ZINN
M ISS JEANNETTE ZINN, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. William Zinn of 452 West College Ave .. York, Pa., was the first woman from this city to give her life for the great cause of freedom. She was graduated with honors from the York High School in the class of 1910, being the valedictorian of her class and the class poet. Miss Zinn was also well known in amateur theatrical work, having taken part in several benefit plays given by the Girls' Club.
From the very beginning of the war. Miss Zinn was an enthusiastic war worker. She was cap- tain of the winning team of the War Thrift Stamp contest, and active in the Girls' Club of York. Later, desiring to enter a larger field, she enlisted in the Business Women's Unit of the Y. M. C. A., and, after about a week in New York, she sailed for England, enroute to the Paris headquarters of the Y. M. C. A., where she was to have filled an executive position.
Miss Zinn died in a hospital in Liverpool, England, a victim of pneumonia. She made the supreme sacrifice as did so many of our brave comrades. The memory of her actions and the record of her work will always be remembered by the people of York. C. H. Bear & Co., her former employers. furnished a room in her memory in the Girls' Club of York.
[24 ]
AMBULANCE DRIVER, JAMES WILSON GAILEY
Croix de Guerre
A MBULANCE DRIVER JAMES WILSON GAILEY, the son of Mr. and Mrs J. A. Gailey of New Park, Pa., was born July 20, 1895. He attended Fawn Township High School, and the Perkiomen Seminary at Pennsburg, Va., where he graduated in 1913, and entered Princeton University at Princeton, N. J., in the class of 1917.
Immediately upon graduation from college, Gailey enlisted in the American Ambulance Corps, and was soon in active service in France. His bravery and devotion to duty were so conspicuous that he was awarded the Croix de Guerre by the French Government.
On the night of July 28, 1917, Ambulance Driver Gailey, together with his regular driving partner, was bringing wounded back from the firing line. It was during a terrific bombardment, and he had been driving his ambulance all night in heroic relief work. He had just loaded his car with wounded when a German shell exploded near, and killed his companion outright. Gailey himself sustained wounds from which he died a few minutes later. He and his companion, T. R. Hamilton of Clinton. Mass., were buried at Meyer, France, near the spot where they fell.
[ 25 ]
CORPORAL JOHN ALBERT DOLL
Croix de Guerre
C ORPORAL JOHN ALBERT DOLL, son of Mrs. Lizzie Doll of 224 S. Newberry St., York, Pa., was employed in this city as a laborer before entering the service. He was one of the honor men of the American Expeditionary Force, having won official citations and a Croix de Guerre for his conspicuous heroism on several different occasions, while on active duty in the front lines.
Corporal Doll was wounded at the beginning of an attack, but showed the greatest courage and skill in assembling his squad and leading them in the assault, despite his several wounds. He charged with his men until he was exhausted from loss of blood, and was obliged to stop, but not until his example had so inspired his men that they ultimately reached their objective. He died on October 31, 1918, at Olsens, Belgium, as a result of the wounds received in this hattle.
French Citation Certificates, setting forth the bravery and skill with which this young soldier conducted himself while under fire, and his Croix de Guerre, have been received by his mother.
York people may well be proud of the splendid war record of Corporal Doll. "HE DIED TO MAKE MEN FREE."
[26 ]
LIEUTENANT WILBUR C. SUITER
Croix de Guerre.
IEUTENANT SUITER, of Shamokin, Pa., was born June 8, 1890. He attended the public schools of that city and was a graduate of the Shamokin High School. In 1913, he was graduated from the College of Civil Engineering at Cornell University, and immediately entered the employ of the York Manufacturing Company as an erecting engineer. While in York, he lived with his aunt, Mrs. Katherine A. Suiter.
In July, 1917, Lieutenant Suiter volunteered for the aviation corps, and on July 9th started ground training at Ithaca, N. Y. He finished the course in eight weeks and then went to Mineola, L. I. He was shortly sent abroad and landed in England, October 2, 1917. Here he received his commission of First Lieutenant. He was then sent to France and reached Paris, July 15, 1918. Less than a month later, on August 9, 1918, he made his first flight over the German lines. It was on September 21st, the dispatch from Paris stated, that he, with his observer, had been cited for gallantry at the Lorraine Front. Two weeks later came the telegram announcing that he had been killed in action, September 17. 1918.
Lieutenant Suiter was a young man of sterling Christian character, and loved by all who knew him. He was a member of the First Presbyterian Church, York. Pa.
[ 27 ]
PRIVATE RUSSELL DANIEL SMITH Croix de Guerre
P RIVATE RUSSELL DANIEL SMITH, the son of Mrs. E. A. Smith of No. 554 W. Princess St., York, Pa., was born at New Oxford, Pa., and attended the public schools in York. He enlisted from York in the Marine Corps, at the age of seventeen.
Soon after leaving home he was sent to France and took an active part at the front for over five months. He was awarded a Croix de Guerre and a citation for the heroism he displayed in keeping his machine gun in action under intense fire during the whole day of June 6, 1918. He later received a second star in a citation which read as follows: "On July 19, 1918, near Vuryz he gave proof of re- markable courage and devotion in serving his piece under intense artillery bombardment."
During the entire attack, Private Smith conducted himself with the most conspicuous gallantry, and his mother prizes very highly the honors won by her son.
He was killed in action on Oct. 6, 1918, somewhere in France.
[ 28 ]
-
-
PRIVATE WILLIAM A. MYERS
Distinguished Service Cross.
P RIVATE WILLIAM A. MYERS, the son of Mrs. Howard Shelly of 110212 West King Street, York, Pa., was one of the youngest soldiers, being but sixteen years old when he entered the service. He was rejected at the recruiting station when he first applied for enlistment, because of his youth, but with that never-give-up spirit which marked his whole army career, he kept trying until he was finally accepted, on his fifth attempt.
Private Myers served nearly a year and a half with Battery E, 10th Field Artillery at Fort Douglas, Arizona. He was then sent to Camp Merritt, N. J., and left Camp Merritt in April, 1918, for overseas duty. He saw two months active service in the front lines, taking part in the battle of the Marne. Private Myers was killed in action July 15, 1918, at Chateau Thierry, France.
Since his death, the United States Government has sent his mother, Mrs. Howard Shelly, a Dis- tinguished Service Cross, awarded Private Myers, posthumously, for extraordinary valor under fire. He was just a boy in years, but he played a man's part.
[29 ]
HAROLD HAINES BAIR Killed in Action
EDWARD B. ROSER Killed in Action
JOHN H. FERREE Killed by Land-slide
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.