750 - THIS CLEVELAND OF OURS graphing Company, without reservation, for munitions manufacture. This in the four days following the first of February. Three thousand citizens packed the Grays' Armory on March 12, on a call from the Chamber of Commerce, backed by every civic organization, and pledged support to the presi-dent. "We must prepare for war," said Chairman James R. Garfield, and the crowd roared approval. Cleveland was the first American city to take this stand formally. The martial spirit was heightened with the arrival of the Fifth Regiment from Mexico, and the tanned, business-like soldiers got a great reception. They were told to hold them-selves ready for further service. These fellows, with dust on their clothes and bullets in their belts, did not look a bit like parade soldiers, and the sight of them was comforting and inspiring. Ohio had begun to bring its National Guard to the full peace-time strength of 19,000 men, and in Cleveland there were to be two more cavalry troops in addition to the famous Troop A. The Dorothea's crew was up to strength and ready. Her paymaster, Lieutenant W. A. Carey, was the first officer of the Ohio naval militia to be placed on active duty. The Engineers were also up to strength, but the Fifth needed 800 men and, with the two new cavalry troops, under Major Dudley A. Hard, there was a call for about 2,000 recruits. With the aid of some imagination and more humor, justified by comparison with the tragic events of later times, Cleveland may be said to have gone to war on March 27, 1917. On that date four companies of the Fifth were called into national service to guard strategic points within the city against sabotage. With Colonel Zimerman in command the four were F, Captain Fred C. Valentine; L, Captain H. E. Eddy; C, Captain Clayton L. McNab, and K, Lieutenant Ross F. Crosby. Mounted sections, in addition, were under Captain L. J. Linn. These men were to guard "strategic points," whose locations were kept secret but were to include natural resources, bridges, railroads, manufacturing plants and farms. Cleve- THE CITY'S WEALTH AND POWER - 751 land's Newton D. Baker, whom President Wilson had called to be Secretary of War, issued the order. As illustrative of the speed with which Cleveland's habits of thinking were changed from peace to war, it is interesting to note that Mayor Harry L. Davis opposed this order on the ground that his police force was entirely adequate to care for whatever trouble might arise, only to reverse his opinion eight days later when he named his great "Advisory War Board" which included a department for home defense. And now we have the "first shot fired in Cleveland." On March 30, a sentry at a "centrally located post" saw a man with a package under his arm, approaching. The sentry shouted "Halt" three times, but the man paid no heed. The soldier fired, missed, and the man dropped the package and ran. History unfortunately, fails to record the contents of the package. Martial order was abroad and scores of recruits flocked to the Central Armory. There was no tolerance for pacifist talk and the trustees of the Grays' Armory refused to allow the Socialist party to hold an anti-war meeting there. On the day, April 2, when the President asked Congress to declare war and give him 500,000 men, the Department of Labor in Washington asked Cleveland women to help fight the war. Miss Kate Davis, writer and welfare worker, was asked to serve on a Federal board of directors for emergency service, mainly to mobilize 10,000,000 women throughout the land to do men's work while the latter bore arms. The work of these women deserves and shall have special treatment later. One of the highest points of the city's World war history came on April 4, with the appointment by Mayor Davis of his War Board. The results of his action demand that the names of all who served in that group shall be preserved. Here they are : Myron T. Herrick, chairman; Harry L. Vail, executive secretary; Fred H. Goff, treasurer. E. H. Baker K. Bernreiter Ben P. Bole Mrs. E. S. Burke 752 - THIS CLEVELAND OF OURS Edward Bushnell Fred H. Caley Charles W. Chesnutt Dr. George W. Crile V. Campanella Perry J. Darling Theodore M. Dluzynski F. Philip Dorn Bishop John P. Farrelly M. F. Fisher Charles L. GeBauer E. R. Grasselli Edward S. Griffiths S. M. Gross J. Kayganovitch Gross Dr. C. A. Hamann Frank S. Harmon Salem A. Hart Samuel H. Holding Paul Howland Dr. H. C. Kenyon Sherman C. Kingsley A. C. Klumph Theodor Kunz W. P. Leech August F. Leopold Robert E. Lewis H. P. McIntosh, Jr. Amasa Stone Mather W. G. Mather Rev. A. B. Meldrum A. L. Maresh Miss Georgia L. Norton Mrs. D. Z. Norton W. P. Palmer John Pankuch Mrs. Edna B. Perkins Louis J. Pirc W. J. Raddatz Alexander Rusynyk George A. Schneider Miss Belle Sherwin Captain H. P. Shupe Allard Smith F. W. Steffen Mrs. C. B. Tozier James P. Walsh Rabbi Louis Wolsey W. C. Wren The executive committee included Mayor Harry L. Davis, Charles A. Otis, Charles E. Adams, Paul L. Feiss, F. H. Goff, F. W. Treadway, M. P. Mooney, Warren S. Hayden, Colonel Otto Miller, W. A. Greenlund, Richard F. Grant, Andrew Squire and Myron T. Herrick. The broad functions of this commission were to watch over food supply in the city, guard the citizens and their property, provide relief for women and children whose menfolk were in their country's service—in general, to wage the war for Cleveland. There were committees for the maintenance of morale, women's activities, Americanization, entertainment of war visitors, housing, aerial mail, food, poor THE CITY'S WEALTH AND POWER - 753 relief, home guard, financing and health. Food conservation was considered of first importance, a judgment confirmed by the Federal government in its later war experience. Anyone who is interested in seeking out the dominant tone in Cleveland's character, as evidenced in her war activities, will carefully note that her first care was that people should be fed. Some more happenings must be rapidly sketched here. At Western Reserve University the students were training, and business men were gravely learning "fours right" on top of the Cleveland Athletic Club building. The Chamber of Commerce was compiling data on the capacity of industrial establishments to supply war munitions. The City Hospital was offered to the Government as a base hospital. Vacant lots were being plowed for food planting. And all this was before Congress declared war, on April 6. When war came to the Puritan fathers in New England, the father took down musket and powder horn from the wall, grabbed a handful of corn, and there was the army, all armed, provisioned and mobilized. Personal valor, marksmanship and strategic skill were large factors in victory, which was won or lost on the field. War in 1917 was an industrial problem, victory going to the side which could produce the most food, manufacture the biggest tonnage of metal to hurl into the opposing lines and best transport its troops to the scene of action. It is amazing to the student of Cleveland's World war history to mark how this plump, peace nourished community aimed its thoughts unerringly at the essentials of modern warfare, how it turned, at the first sound of distant cannon, to the garden, the laboratory and the shop. Drums and flags and marching men were not strangers. The very day after war was declared, April 7, the crew of the Dorothea, 200 strong, under Capt. E. J. Kelley, left their armory at 3433 Carnegie Avenue and marched to Union station to entrain for the scenes of fighting. They were the first force to leave Cleveland. But those who were to stay at home had already begun fighting, with hoe and hammer—men, women, children. 754 - THIS CLEVELAND OF OURS The City Hall was headquarters, and here the War Board had its offices. The policy was to use existing civic organizations as far as possible, with Board committees in supervision. There was a committee on military, with Ben P. Bole and Capt. H. P. Shupe in charge ; publicity, William J. Raddatz, chairman ; waste, Frank Harmon ; vacant lot gardening, George A. Schneider ; finance, Myron T. Herrick, with William G. Mather, W. P. Palmer and E. R. Grasselli ; war aid and Red Cross, Mrs. E. S. Burke, Jr. ; women's activities, Miss Belle Sherwin ; fuel supply, James P. Walsh; patriotism and aliens, Harry L. Vail ; teaching English to foreigners, Edward Bushnell. Changes in personnel were made in the Board as members were called into Federal services, and more names were added later. The first act of the board was a proclamation from Mayor Davis that on May 4 at 7 a. m. whistles should be blown throughout the city calling all the people from stores, factories and schools to the vacant lots, for planting. The banks had agreed to underwrite the garden project to the extent of $25,000 and even lawns were ploughed up. Characteristically, Cleveland made a festival of the planting. Meanwhile 300 men per day were seeking enlistment and 100 were being accepted. Spanish War veterans, led by James M. Smith, a former first sergeant of U. S. Infantry, wanted a bureau of registry for older men, unfit for the field. Red Cross headquarters at 2525 Euclid was the busiest place in the city, for 100 women had answered the call for help on the first day and they continued to come. All this by April 10, four days after war was declared. There was a short pause thereafter for breath catching. Enlistments fell off to less than 100 per day, despite the strenuous efforts of Major H. W. Stamford, in charge of recruiting headquarters at 54 Public Square, who was trying to get 3,000 volunteers for the duration of the war. The Draft Act, passed by Congress on April 28, ended the anxiety, however, for there was a renewed rush of applicants who were eager to get in as volunteers before the draft was called. THE CITY'S WEALTH AND POWER - 755 Money contributions fell off, too, when people contemiplated the demands that would be made on them in taxes and war loans. Two hundred and sixty business men met at luncheon on May 6 and raised $400,000 among themselves for Y. M. C. A. and army welfare work, but the Mayor's War Board seriously considered drafting funds to the extent of $250,000, from business concerns and individuals. But the pause was brief. Too much that was inspiring was going on everywhere. There was the spectacle of 150 men, many of them from the colleges, leaving for Fort Benjamin Harrison to train for officers' commissions; members of the Cleveland Yacht Club training crews for submarine chasers, and business men organizing a home guard. This last activity was launched by a "Committee of 100 Organizations" which, with Fred H. Caley as chairman, had fought and won a campaign for a $3,000,000 paving bond issue and now found a new outlet for its aggressiveness. Before the first meeting assembled there were 250 men ready to join, including 75 of those who had been drilling on the Cleveland Athletic Club roof. This work was absorbed before long. by the local branch of the American Protective League. The American Protective League offers a curious and interesting chapter to American history. It was organized with the sanction of the Department of Justice of the United States, but its members had no official standing or authority anywhere, nor were their duties defined. Unlike the Vigilantes, they were not expected to supplant police authority but to cooperate with it, furnishing automobiles, reporting troubles as they discovered them and holding themselves ready to answer calls to active duty when the legal officials needed them. They far exceeded those expectations. Organization was similar to that of the police in major cities, with chief, assistants, inspectors, captains, lieutenants and operatives. In Cleveland the force numbered 1,500, with Arch Klumph as chief. Police Chief Rowe welcomed them, as did his men, mostly because the police saw a handy fleet of automobiles at their disposal. But soon the League members had their own headquarters and took independent charge of 756 - THIS CLEVELAND OF OURS war activities, leaving the police free for their normal duties. Such matters as protection of industries against sabotage, regulating aliens against zone violation, detection of draft evaders, spies, etc., were undertaken on the League's initiative and with police cooperation. Cleveland was notably free from alien disturbances during the war, credit being given the League by Chief Rowe, who said afterward that the police could not have handled the situation alone. The effectiveness of these home guards was largely due to the fact that they were not regulated by legal authority. They needed no warrants for search or arrest, and seldom appeared in courts. Here is an example of their methods. An attorney on the East Side was suspected of pro-German activities and a League operative was sent to sum-mon him to League headquarters. "Look here !" the attorney said. "I know more of your status than you do yourself. You have no authority to arrest or question me. If I refuse to go with you, what are you going to do about it?" The operative drew out his watch. "I am going to give you two minutes to decide," he answered, "whether you will go down town in my car or whether I shall call a patrol wagon." The attorney went in the operative's car. The League put men in the county jail with the mere request to the sheriff that they be held. No charge, no inidictment. The law of habeas corpus was still on the statute books, but where was the attorney who would risk the popular temper by invoking it? There was some injustice, some overzealousness among 1,500 untethered patriots suddenly vested with unaccustomed power, but the wonder is that the abuses were so few. Doctors and nurses at Lakeside Hospital had been prepared to go since the first of February, but conflicting orders had been issued. When on May 6 the word came, there was no opportunity for leave-taking, and they went away to the train in a drizzling rain, almost unnoticed. There were 250 of them, "Lakeside Hospital, Base Hospital No. 4," bound THE CITY'S WEALTH AND POWER - 757 for "an Atlantic port" and France, with Miss Grace Allison, chief nurse; Major H. L. Gilchrist in command; Major George W. Crile, medical director, assisted by Major Charles F. Hoover. Uniforms of olive green skirts, khaki blouses and green velour hats without trimmings replaced the white gowns and caps of the nurses. The unit sailed for France the next day. The next to go were 125 members of the Engineers corps, ordered to the front on June 7. According to the U. S. Census Bureau, which counted the population for purposes of the draft, there were 872,000 persons in Cleveland at this time. On draft day, June 5, 96,532 men registered in the city, and 9,198 more in the county of Cuyahoga. The day passed without disorder, although most elaborate precautions had been taken to guard against riots. The next episodes in this war history are full of beauty and inspiration, not only to those who will cherish the good things said about their city, but to all men who have faith in the ultimate rightness of mankind in emergencies. Cleveland's greatness during this period appears, to its highest dimensions, in retrospect. The first episode was the initial Liberty Bond issue when the people of the United States were asked to back their faith in their country with their money. That was not a very severe strain upon patriotism. No one feared that the country would be defeated, much less conquered, and the proposition was a simple one of being asked to invest in the safest security that was ever offered, a bond backed by the integrity and resources of the world's richest and most powerful nation and at a fair rate of interest. The issue needed to be sold, like any other investment offering, and the selling. campaigns of this and following "drives" were among the most familiar wartime scenes. Appealing and distinctive posters everywhere and great publicity. The lining up of the selling organizations, with a general chairman, team captains, managers and officials of stores and shops, teachers, preachers, business agents of labor unions, pretty girls who stopped people on the streets, 758 - THIS CLEVELAND OF OURS children who went from house to house, pins worn by subscribers, serving as local passports. Noonday luncheon meetings of the sales managers, where results were tabulated and cheered. Speeches, bands, parades. Every one was a sales-man and every one was a buyer. The first quota set for Cleveland was $45,000,000. The drive began on June 8 and ended on June 15. The final count showed that 75,000 citizens bought $67,596,250 worth of bonds, an excess of twenty-two and one-half millions over the assignment. There was a great jubilation over the result. But the time for celebration was short—only three days before the second episode was staged. On June 18, the city had to start on a campaign to raise $2,500,000, its share of the funds for Red Cross and war relief work. Now the flagiwaving and band-playing epoch was not over, by any means, but it had begun to lose some of its potency. Our people were learning that war was not all thrills. Here the citizens had just gone through a strenuous fund-raising struggle, in which the highest of high-pressure sales methods had been exercised on every man, woman and child, with the exhortation, even the demand, that every one "give until it hurt." Almost every one felt that he had, and there was a generally righteous sense of duty well done. There was the vision, too, of more of these "drives," down the years. No one could tell how long the war might last, with more and more wage earners taken from the payrolls, with taxes and high cost of living, as in the Civil war, until common prudence demanded that a person be a little careful and have something put away for himself, if the worst came to the worst. The bond subscriptions were investments, and one could sell them any time. This Red Cross affair was giving "for keeps." In some such atmosphere the new drive began, June 18. By the twenty-first the quota was raised. "Let's go on!" people cried. And they did. Three million. Three and a half. "Let's double it!" A wild, shouting, laughing avalanche of giving. The whole nation took notice as the totals oath THE CITY'S WEALTH AND POWER - 759 swelled. Henry Ford gave $500,000 to the Detroit fund, while the largest contribution to the Cleveland fund was $200,000 from Pickands, Mather and Company. The news of the Ford gift was a fillip to the Cleveland givers. Pittsburgh wired to Charles A. Otis, president of the Chamber of Commerce : "We understand John D. Rockefeller is duplicating every subscription raised in Cleveland." "Nothing has been heard as yet from Mr. Rockefeller," replied Otis. Well, here is the summary : Quota - $2,500,000 Gifts - 5,000,000 Workers - 20,000 Time - 7 days Cleveland was the second in rank among cities of the na-tion for total amount raised, only New York leading her, and first in amount raised per capita. The whole country had been asked for $100,000,000, of which New York had pledged $36,000,000, leaving $64,000,000 for the rest. And Cleve-land gave more than one-thirteenth of that balance. Here is one case where a glorious drama is told in figures. The National Red Cross Headquarters in Washington said, "The showing made by Cleveland is regarded by the War Council headquarters as the bestPubilic country." There was the inevitable jubilee and carnival on the Public Square the night of June 25, with confetti and bonfires and yelling. The people were hysterical with joy because they had just given away five million dollars to help feed soldiers, and to give them nurses and bandages and otherwise make them as comfortable as possible. Not just Cleveland soldiers, or Americans, but Frenchmen, Russians, "Huns:" and not just glamorous soldiers in uniform, but miserable women and hungry little children, for the Red Cross sym-pathies were not limited. Here is the revelation of the soul of Cleveland, where the first thought, when the War Board was named, was that plans must be made to feed hungry people. The theme ap- 760 - THIS CLEVELAND OF OURS pears again and again as the war story is followed through. In fact, Cleveland's maternalistic inclinations were shown away back in 1914, at the first signs of outbreak in Europe and long before the cold breath of war had come this far West. Frank A. Scott, of Warner and Swasey, had guessed, from the large orders for lathes that his company had been receiving from Germany, that, trouble was brewing, and the Cleveland Y. M. C. A. got into action, with other branches throughout the country. Dr. John R. Mott, national head, went to Germany and saw the Kaiser. He surprised Wilhelm with the information that the Y. M. C. A. of America was interested in the welfare of war prisoners, whatever their allegiance, in France, England, Russia, Germany alike. The function of the Y. M. C. A. was to supply recreational facilities in prison camps. The Kaiser enthusiastically endorsed the movement and Dr. Mott returned to this country and proceeded to raise funds. Ohio gave $10,000,000, of which Cleveland, led by Fred Ramsey and. E. H. Baker, gave some $2,000,000. There were seven organizations banded together in this fund-raising : the Y. M. C. A., Y. W. C. A., American Playgrounds Association, Salvation Army, Hebrew Relief Society of Friends--the "Quakers," and the Catholic charities. The Community Fund idea started here. One could always start a commotion in the Cleveland of War times by talking about food and food prices. The Cleve-land bakers got together on June 28 and united to prevent waste and high costs. Right away the county prosecutor started an investigation of milk prices. It came out, in the resulting flurry, that there was seven times as much poultry on hand as in normal days, being held, presumably, for higher prices. Prosecution was threatened, but popular sen-timent was the right remedy for such ills, and there was little food profiteering at any time. Meanwhile the draft held its share of attention. It showed, incidentally, that Cleveland had a high standard of physical manhood, two out of three being found fit for ser- THE CITY'S WEALTH AND POWER - 761 vice. But less than one in three were certified as "fit and willing." There developed the "slacker marriage" phenomenon, men marrying after they had been called in the draft, in order to claim exemption on the ground of dependents. Ninety per cent of the exemption claims here and elsewhere were on the plea that there were dependents. Also "mothers" could be purchased. One such "mother" was claimed by seven draftees, all of different names. But the government got around this by holding that dependents annexed after the draft were not to be considered grounds for exemption. Nearly every night a group of American Protective League men and police would swoop down on a boarding house or a saloon somewhere and round up a score of "slackers," most of whom were allowed to join the army and swell the ranks that were now marching away from the city in increasing numbers. The largest group made its farewell appearance on August 11, although it did not leave until later. It was the most colorful martial spectacle thus far. There were 3,000 soldiers in line, saluted by fully 100,000 citizens who lined the curbs for seventy blocks, while a community chorus of one thousand voices sang the national songs. These troops were the old Fifth Regiment, now commanded by Col. A. W. Davis, successor to Colonel Zimerman, who had been made a brigadier general. Then there were the Ohio Engineers Regiment, a battalion of the Sixth, which had been on guard in Cleveland; four companies of the Second Ohio Field Artillery, formerly cavalry troops; Company D, of the Ninth Battalion, negroes under Capt. William R. Green, who received a tremendous ovation; and the National Naval Volunteers, in their white uniforms, led by Capt. Thomas B. Bolton. The first of the old Fifth left the city August 23, Company C. The Engineers went on the 24th and Battery A on the 26th, bound for Montgomery, Ala. Seven hundred more of the Fifth left for Montgomery, or Camp Sheridan, as it was better known then, a few days later, now to be part of the One Hundred and Forty-fifth U. S. Infantry. The first 762 - THIS CLEVELAND OF OURS drafted men left on September 8, and presented a different spectacle as they were not in uniform, yet they made a splendid showing on their march to the station, as they had had the benefit of some drill. Cleveland, incidentally, had a draft quota equal to one-fifth of that of the whole state. After bidding farewell to so many of its soldier sons, the city returned home and found that it had some internal problems to meet. Not every one had been down to see the parades and cheer the flag. Plenty were crying "Peace, peace," and denouncing the war spirit. Some of these tried to hold a meeting at Luna Park on September 4, and there was a full-sized riot when soldiers and loyalists mounted the platform and hurled the speakers off. Two city councilmen were forced to resign for suspected disloyalty and attempts were made to suppress a German newspaper. The German language program in the public schools was curtailed. Arrests and convictions of well known leaders in anti-war parties stirred the public. The second call for a war loan came on October 1, asking for $60,000,000 from Cleveland. William G. McAdoo, Sec-retary of the Treasury, started things by selling a $1,000 bond to Tris Speaker, the ball player, on the Public Square. Secretary Baker came home from Washington, and after him came Lord Northcliffe, the British publisher, and James W. Gerard, former ambassador to Germany. Before October 27, the quota had been oversubscribed by $20,000,000, with a total of $80,000,000. One of the gravest problems, now that winter was coming on, was that of coal. The readjustment of industry that came with the war was not effected over night, and much confusion was caused. In order to move men to training camps and munitions to seaports, the government had to control railroad shipments, and thus gave priority to war shipments over coal for domestic consumption. On top of that, there was a slackening of efficiency among mine workers, due in part to the enlistment of so many of their number in war activities. And on top of all that, there came the announcement by The East Ohio Gas Company that its West Virginia THE CITY'S WEALTH AND POWER - 763 fields were becoming exhausted. Prices of coal were fixed by the government, and the operators said they were too low and refused to sell. They were accused of refusing, at any rate, although the operators blamed the shortage of cars. Real hardship resulted from this situation later in the year, so that the schools and many industrial establishments were closed December 14. Federal Fuel Administrator Garfield proclaimed "heatless Mondays," later varied to "heatless Tuesdays," similar to the "meatless days" so familiar later. This measure helped matters until the railroad tangle was relieved, and there was no severe suffering. Another domestic difficulty was housing. There had been an influx of colored workers from the South for several years, and it was increased at the time of the declaration of war by Congress. The population of the city was growing 40,000 to 50,000 a year. Yet a survey showed that 1,697 fewer dwellings were built in 1917 than in 1916. Rents sky-rocketed, houses and tenements were overcrowded and the health of the community was menaced. A campaign was put on to build 10,000 houses to rent for $22 per month or less, in spite of the difficulty of finding labor and materials. This housing situation bothered the city all through the war. Yet, in terms of war as Belgium was thinking of it, the "hardships" in Cleveland were ludicrous. It is not a reproach to the city that it lived through 1917-18 in comfort. It is a lasting testimonial to Cleveland women. You cannot stage a real war without women. All you can do is to put on a short riot. The men folk get out their swords and their plumes, their drums and their horns, and plunge into the fray. But along about sundown both sides stop, by mutual and tacit consent, and march back to the mess tents. And if they do not find any bread and potatoes and beef stew there, why, where's your war? There just isn't any, and there can't be any more, because those soldiers will have to hustle out and get some food together and cook and serve it; and not only that, but provide enough for the next few days, if they are to fight without interruption. By the time they do that, the uniforms will be all soiled, the 764 - THIS CLEVELAND OF OURS plumes wilted and all the fun just generally gone out of the thing. The whole world has found that out, and Cleveland knew it the first thing, as has been pointed out. "Old men for counsel; young men for war," and the women to raise the food, run the store, stoke the furnace, nurse the wounded, raise the money, tend to the children, drive the trucks and otherwise do whatever has to be done. When the War Board sounded the call for planting, at the first sign of war, it was the call for the women to rally. They rallied. Among the committees of the War Board were those on women's activities, Miss Belle Sherwin, chairman, and war aid and Red Cross, headed by Mrs. E. S. Burke, Jr. Miss Sherwin was soon called to the larger field of statewide service and her duties fell to Mrs. Henry L. Sanford, with Miss Ruth Stone as executive secretary. All the women's activities centered in these leaders. There was no more rivalry or jealousy of place in the women's ranks than in the men's—less, really, because the women felt the weight of their responsibility and the gravity of it, right at the outset, and their business was organized and running at full speed before any of them had time to think about titles. Miss Stone has said : "Cleveland had the organization spirit and was accustomed to thinking in groups. The groups had no difficulty in uniting." Even the Red Cross, old, famous and worldwide in scope, fell in line under War Board leadership, and the foyer of the City Hall became women's headquarters. Planting began in the vacant lots and on the lawns. Women from the surrounding farms came in to the city to get seeds and city women went out to the farms and helped sow them. The "farmerette" came into stylish being, with her overalls and sunbonnet. There was a vigorous and successful campaign to induce women everywhere to can the fruits and vegetables that were not immediately needed. So varied were the demands upon women that a speakers' THE CITY'S WEALTH AND POWER - 765 bureau had to be established to carry the word to the workers. Fifty women were put through a course of public speaking, and many a well known club speaker today owes her training to this bureau. Meetings and speeches, reports, conferences, clacking typewriters; 150 automobiles owned and driven by women volunteers, operating every day on normal routine, and hun-dreds more on extraordinary occasions. A troop train would be coming through from the West, with a thousand soldiers aboard. The train would be met with women bearing coffee, doughnuts, pie, sandwiches and everything needed to make up a full and satisfying meal, some of the stuff paid for from Board funds, but most of it donated and all of it prepared, transported and served by the women workers. When Herbert Hoover, then Food Administrator, asked that white flour and sugar be conserved, the women got out Pamphlets showing how good meals could be prepared without these, enumerating substitutes--corn syrup and saccharine for sugar, and so forth. Then they would send out speakers to the schools and mothers' meetings to lecture on these matters. "Food thrift cards" were distributed, school children helping, with which housekeepers pledged them-selves to eliminate sugar and white flour from their menus. Whatever was not the special job of anyone else was turned over to the women. It is hopeless to try and list their activities within the limitations of this chapter. They drove trucks and they served as motormen and conductors on street cars, they knitted socks and ran lathes in factories, they made bandages and they worked in garages. The women found what the need was, then they trained women to fill it. Occupational training was one of the chief functions of the committee. Selling Liberty Bonds was an incidental, but they made a record at it. The women's work was hard, much of it dirty. All of it required long hours and none of it was accompanied by band music. Just once, on November 10, called "Mercy Day," did they have a parade of their own, 8,000 in line with Red Cross 766 - THIS CLEVELAND OF OURS flags. A little Scotch nurse from the front was the chief speaker that day, and she brought over this message from t wo French poilus : "We'll win if the civilians stand back of us." Substituting "women" for "civilians" would have made that a first-class slogan. By this time and long before it the municipality had converted itself into a smooth war machine and was running in high. There was so much action of various kinds that the activities blended into a rhythm which became a bit monotonous. There was always a drive for funds going on—Liberty bonds, Red Cross, thrift stamps—and it became increasingly difficult to get up much excitement over them. It is surprising that, in the November election, the people voted $3,000,000 for schools, $3,000,000 for sewers, $1,250,000 for a new county criminal building and $1,000,000 for new hospital equipment, because the cost of war was being increasingly impressed upon all. The war tax measure became effective November second and this tax reached into the thinnest pocketbook. It went after the pennies. You paid one cent for every dime you spent on a show; eight per cent on railroad tickets and ten per cent on Pullman accommodations; five cents on a tele-phone, telegraph or radio message costing over fifteen cents; ten per cent on club dues; three per cent on freight and five per cent on express shipments. The smoker paid, and so did the letter writer, postage being three cents instead of two. A man who took out new life insurance paid eight cents for every $100 of premium, and he paid ten cents for every dollar of fire, marine or accident insurance that he bought. It seemed as if hands were stretched out everywhere you went, to take your money away from you. Yet, when the Y. M. C. A. asked for $1,000,000, the people gave $1,378,000. When Campaign Chairman Charles E. Adams announced the result, he said that 300,000 individuals had subscribed to the fund. It meant that more than one person in three had given. It meant there had been more than one giver per family in Cleveland. THE CITY'S WEALTH AND POWER - 767 Many of the difficulties of those times were foreseen and met before they became acute. The Federal government had a firm grasp on the food situation because food sellers with a gross business of over $100,000 a year were licensed and so obedience to the "meatless" and "wheatless" edicts could be enforced. At one time there were twenty-five restaurants under suspicion of violations, but a warning was sufficient. It was harder to buy a hamburger on Tuesday or a loaf of white bread on Wednesday than it was to get a glass of beer after Volstead. But there had been as yet no standardization of food prices; and so, on November 29, the United States Food Administration fixed prices on certain articles, basing cost to the consumer on what the retailer had to pay. These were the prices set : Bulk, granulated sugar, 9 1/2 to 10c per pound. Corn meal, 7 to 8c per pound. White flour, $3.35 to $3.50 per quarter barrel. Rice, 12 to 14c per pound. Rolled oats, 11 to 12c per standard package. Macaroni, 9 to 12c per 9 to 12 oz. package. Navy beans, 19 to 20c per pound. Potatoes, choice, white home-grown, 45 to 50c per peck. So plenty of food was available at fair prices, but the advent of winter brought troubles and perplexities, though worse in the anticipation than in the ultimate realization. To start with, railroad workers demanded higher wages and issued an ultimatum. Employees of the Cleveland, Southwestern and Columbus asked an increase of eight cents an hour and voted to strike. A bitter cold wave struck on December 10 and the thermometer in Cleveland went to eight below zero. Coal was scarce and the gas pressure went down. In some sections there was no gas at all. By December 16, one hundred manufacturing plants had closed down, throwing 125,000 men out of work, and the school board voted to close all schools. Ohio's governor, James M. Cox, defied the government's orders for priority shipments, seized the coal within the borders of the state and shipped it where it was 768 - THIS CLEVELAND OF OURS most needed. By this drastic action he saved the situation by the 16th. The government later endorsed his course. Three-cent fare on the street railway, for which Mayor Tom L. Johnson made his famous fight, went into the dis-card and remained there. The fare rose to four cents. The Federal government took over the operation of the railroads and caused fear of another severe economic re-adjustment. Russia and Germany agreed to make peace, evacuate occupied territories and resume trade, a sickening blow to the Allies, since it released German troops for western operations and promised adequate food supplies for the enemy. The Kaiser's peace terms, so optimistically predicted by Premier Lloyd George of Great Britain, failed to come. Instead Wilhelm indicated further determination to push on to conquest. The telephone company announced new and higher rates, starting the first of the year. And to cap it all, New Years had to fall on a meatless day and there was no turkey on the table. Cleveland solemnly went forth on New Years eve for a melancholy celebration. But before its dismal merrymaking it found heart to give $8,000 to brighten Christmas day for the poor. Disregarding the circumstances, it was the most successful campaign for fund raising that the city ever saw, and the easiest. Considering the circumstances, it was an epic achievement. The year of 1918 began with the temperature around zero. Some cheer came when President Wilson announced his fourteen points, on which peace could be based, and there was encouragement in the growing unrest apparent among the people in Germany. The women of the United States rejoiced when the President sided with them on suffrage and when Congress voted to give them the ballot. But on January 13, the mercury sank to ten below zero and Cleveland was practically isolated by a blizzard that tied up all the railroads. In addition to unescapable Liberty bond issues and other THE CITY'S WEALTH AND POWER - 769 future campaigns for money-raising, the citizens were faced with the necessity of raising $50,000 for every day of the new year, which was their share of $15,643,580 assigned to the county in war savings stamp sales. This was a movement which lacked the spectacular phases of the periodic, shorter drives and would affect more of the residents than all other campaigns combined. As J. Robert Crouse, sales director, expressed it, "anyone with a quarter in his pocket could get in." More misery on January 17. Fuel Administrator Garfield ordered all factories closed for a period of five days, be-ginning on the eighteenth. Railroads, hospitals, army camps, public utilities, ships and essential government departments were not included in the order to close. There was, however, no exemption for munitions plants, municipal governments and manufacturers of perishable goods. Every Monday for the next ten weeks was to be "heatless." It meant that 200,000 workers in Cleveland would be made idle, with a pay-roll loss of a million dollars a day. A howl of protest went forth. "Impossible and unpractical," said business men. "Gigantic blundering," said Mayor Davis. The Cleveland Federation of Labor formally protested to President Wilson. The city refused to obey the order literally and the decree did, indeed, lack definiteness in all its applications. The schools, churches, stores and office buildings were open, and Walter D. Sayle, chairman of the local fuel committee, advised fifty firms engaged in war work to carry on, a ruling later upheld by the government. Three above on February 1st, and it was becoming a battle of coal against cold. The month just past had been the coldest recorded in the forty-eight years of the weather bureau's existence. The average for the month was 15.2 degrees. The thermometer had gone below zero four times and stood at zero twice. Finance Director Clarence Neal asked Governor Cox for a special session of the legislature to pass measures to relieve Cleveland's serious financial situation. Hoover predicted that the country was to face a food crisis within sixty days, 770 - THIS CLEVELAND OF OURS pointing out that corn and potatoes were in danger of spoiling in the intense cold before railroads could move them. There were 300,000,000 bushels of potatoes in storage in the country. It was the dark hour of Cleveland's war experience. Better news came on February 9, with the lifting of the heatless Monday edict, made possible by warmer weather and improvement in the railroad situation. The city was proud when the national government adopted the plan of Dr. John H. Quayle of Cleveland to reclaim men who had been rejected by the draft examiners and make them fit, if not for military service, at least for useful work at home. Also, an estimate that the citizens had saved $300,000 in their war gardens encouraged another big effort of the sort for 1918. But citizens were not in the best frame of mind for the third Lib-erty Bond campaign which was scheduled to begin on April 6. Federal agents had assiduously gathered a vast mass of German literature, school text books, folk songs, the works of Schiller and Beethoven, Goethe and Wagner, everything they could find that was written in German or by Germans, and there had been planned a huge civic bonfire whereat this mountain of stuff would be burned. However, wiser counsel prevailed, and the mass was turned over to Department of Justice officials, to be examined carefully and then, if found objectionable, ground up into pulp. If the officials carried out the intent, they spent their time thereafter in laborious scrutiny of the score of "Tannhaeuser" and the text of "Wil-helm Tell." One night a man on a West Side street car rose from his seat, glared and tore down a poster announcing the forthcoming Liberty Bond drive. Other passengers fell upon him and cried, "Lynch the traitor !" There happened to be a police-man in plain clothes aboard and he, showing his badge, took the man to the nearest police station, followed by a large crowd. There the prisoner was searched and two Liberty bonds were found on him. When an interpreter was called, it developed that the man was intensely loyal but could not read English, and when he saw a picture of the Kaiser he thought it had to do with enemy propaganda. THE CITY'S WEALTH AND POWER - 771 The times were evidently getting on the people's nerves. Labor troubles came with demands from street railway employees, garment workers, building tradesmen, even city firemen, for higher wages and shorter hours ; reports from France seemed conflicting and unsatisfactory, and even the stirring talks of notables like ex-President Taft, Anne Morgan, Douglas Fairbanks, Lord Northcliffe and a long list of others failed to inspire as before. News came of the German offensive on Paris. General Foch was given supreme command of the allies and War Secretary Baker went to France to observe conditions at first hand. Thus was the third Liberty Bond campaign introduced, carrying a burden of $55,000,000 for Cleveland, to be subscribed by 250,000 individuals and fought for by 6,000 workers. The drive started on the anniversary of the day on which war was declared, "Liberty Day." Secretary of the Navy Daniels launched the campaign with the usual mass meeting in Central Armory. President Wilson in Baltimore said : "This is the anniversary of our acceptance of Germany's challenge. * * * Force, force to the utmost. * * * The righteous and triumphant force which shall make the law of the world and cast selfish dominions down in the dust." His words struck the popular chord ; but in spite of his inspiration, in spite of the extraordinary investment value of the issue, which bore four and one-fourth per cent interest, the drive lagged. In the first week only $18,616,000 was subscribed, and on April 21, only the half-way mark had been reached. Then the stirring news came that Haig, in Flanders, aided by the French, was holding Hindenburg and preparing an offensive. Baker returned from France, came to Cleveland and told of the fighting' spirit among the local boys "over there." George A. Schneider, secretary of the Athletic Club, mounted the stage during a performance at the Hippodrome, took off his coat and sold $103,000 worth of bonds in a tumultuous 55-minute session. An army tank lumbered down Euclid Avenue, crumpled up an automobile at East Ninth 772 - THIS CLEVELAND OF OURS Street and wound up by demolishing' the tank replica, "Liberty 3," which had served as bond headquarters on the Public Square. Martial ardor came back and the issue went over to the sum of $55,475,000, representing 200,000 sales. This was on May 3. Next came another "giving" campaign, starting May 19, following at the heels of an exhausting Liberty Loan drive, as it always did. This time $6,000,000 was asked, to fill a "Victory Chest." The leaders were apprehensive over the results of the drive, especially in view of the bond issue just ended, which barely made its quota. Where could Cleveland find another six millions to give away? The women found out. Instead of talking about invest-ment values, they marched through the streets in the most touching parade yet seen, mothers, wives and sisters of the fighting men, wearing ribbons inscribed : "I have given. What are you going to give?" In one week the city subscribed $11,000,000 instead of the $6,000,000 quota. Three millions of this sum were given by 250,000 employees of shops and stores. "Amazing, incredible," said newspaper commentators. It was incredible then but is understandable now. Lincoln Steffens says an eyewitness cannot write history. You have to stand off in the distance of after years and look back to see events in their right correlation to understand people. So, if the principal function of history is to make people and their motivating impulses understood, a simple tabulation of these succeeding bond and gift drives is sufficient. A bond drive first, thirty days of it, "Give till it hurts." "The best investment ever offered." Parades, speeches, high pressure. Exhaustion, apparently, of spirits and pocketbooks. Results: the quota assigned and a surplus. Next week, "Give without hope of return to make living easier for other folks." Results : an outpouring flood. Cleveland's war history is told. But there are more events to be chronicled. Great news was coming from Flanders, encouraging citi-zens in a final effort to end the war. School officials decided to have all high school boys equipped with army uniforms, to THE CITY'S WEALTH AND POWER - 773 be sold at cost, and enforce regular military training. College students were actually enrolled in service, but on furlough until their draft numbers were called. They wore the uniform, lived in barracks under the discipline of army officers, drilled and were paid the regular $30 a month of privates. The girls in the high schools were taught munitions manufacture and nursing. Every resource was being sought out and prepared for war use. Early in the summer the government had asked that the use of fuel oils in yachts be discontinued, and Cleve-land yachtsmen cheerfully called off their annual regatta at Put-in-Bay. This order was later modified to conform with the ruling that gasoline should not be used for automobiles or yachts on Sundays. This tied up even the taxicabs. No force was needed to enforce the ruling. People yelled "slacker" at the few who ventured forth for a Sunday outing, and even used violence in a few cases, so that attempts at evasion became exceedingly unprofitable. The war touched the lives of all. The "work or fight" order of the government meant that every man in the draft age must get into an essential occupation or enlist. On June 9 there was a parade of 20,000 children to encourage more sales of thrift stamps. This spectacle produced renewed enthusiasm. On "Flag Day," June 14, 150,000 patriots jammed Wade Park for a pageant and another 100,000 milled about in adjacent streets, unable to find places to see the ceremonies. One thousand workers volunteered for a two-weeks campaign, starting June 18, to put over $16,000,- 000 in savings stamp sales. The American League abandoned baseball for the term of the war. Theaters and golf clubs closed. Eugene V. Debs, four times candidate for the presidency on the Socialist ticket, was arrested in Cleveland under the espionage act, after a speech in Canton in which he charged that the war was for plunder. He was convicted and sentenced to ten years in prison. Directors of the Chamber of Commerce had been making a survey of the work of women in industry, as a result of 774 - THIS CLEVELAND OF OURS which they recommended, on July 18, that women should be paid the same wages as men were getting. The survey developed that sixty-four per cent of managers in the metal industries agreed that women were more efficient than men, twenty-four per cent found them equal to men and twelve per cent were in doubt. These findings were valuable later in the year when street car men threatened to strike unless women motormen and conductors were taken off. The national gov-ernment stepped into the situation, for its munition makers must have transportation to and from their work, and two agents were sent on from Washington with power to decide the issue. They ruled that the women might stay, only to have their verdict overruled on September 23 by Secretary of Labor Wilson, who ordered the women off the cars by November 1, maintaining that the street car company could get plenty of men to do the work. The all-important food situation claimed public attention at all times, but more particularly at this time when another winter was approaching. Hoover called off the ban on wheat consumption, stating that the nation had successfully met its crisis. But sugar was still scarce, and the food administration of Cuyahoga County ruled that, on August 15, every family must be listed and rationed by means of food cards, each family to be allowed two pounds of sugar per person per month. More bad news came to the brewers and their customers with the announcement that the former would have to quit the manufacture of "near" beer after December 1st. They had been prepared to stop real beer making, but had thought they could continue operations with the substitute. Brewers said all saloons in the districts outside of the down-town section would have to close, since only in the downtown hotels and restaurants was enough of the spirituous liquor in demand to make it possible to pay expenses. It was now estimated that the war gardens in the city would yield $350,000 worth of produce, with 5,000 acres under cultivation by 50,000 gardeners, most of them amateurs. In five months the city had saved enough white flour to provide a normal day's ration for 50,000,000 persons. In June