Racine County, Wisconsin - Chapter 2: Racine County Prior to Hostilities, 1920

Chapter 2: Racine County Prior to Hostilities

RACINE county is a typical inland American community. Like thousands of other counties in the United States it is populated by intelligent, progressive citizens. A considerable proportion of the inhabitants are native born and descended from a line of pioneer stock. There are likewise a great many who are immigrants or the offspring of immigrants who came from foreign shores to seek their fortunes in this land where Nature smiles encouragingly upon the hopeful and the energetic. A dozen nationalities are well represented here.

The two principal cities of the county - Racine and Burlington - are factory centers. The former has for years manufactured and shipped to all parts of the earth a varied assortment of products, ranging from clothing and prepared foods to automobiles, machinery and leather goods. Surrounding these centers, and tributary to them is an area of rich, highly cultivated farm land where dairying and agriculture is carried on by the most modem methods.

There are millionaires in Racine county, and there are laborers. There are high salaried specialists and skilled mechanics. There are representatives of almost every class known to American life. It has daily newspapers and good schools. Its connections with the outside keep its people in touch with adjacent and distant lands, and its numerous transportation lines make travel to all parts of the country easy. Its prosperity has kept its people happy and contented. Its steady growth has resulted in continued optimism. Briefly, it is a thriving American county, with the qualities and characteristics typical of American communities.

The history of Racine county's part in the World War, therefore, is much the same, in all probability as that of the great majority of places in the United States. The story of its sacrifices and trials and accomplishments is similar to that of the nation. What America did, Racine did in a smaller way. What Racine and its neighbors experienced, the towns and villages and cities of the entire country experienced.

The whole story of the great conflict which deluged the world with suffering and misery and death from 1914 to 1918 has not yet been told. It may be a generation before there will appear an historian able to do justice to such a theme and with means to assemble all the data required for such a monumental work.

But it is not too early to attempt to put into words the tale of one county's part in the war. It is possible to depict armies and navies in terms of men whose faces are familiar to the reader; to explain America's mighty industrial efforts during the war in words which paint the tasks performed in local plants; to recall the nation's financial support to her armies while many who peruse the lines still own the bonds which helped to purchase victory; to describe the loving efforts made in home, and club and church to provide comfort for those who had donned the khaki or blue; and above all to keep fresh the memories of those who made the great sacrifice for country, while their families still wear the bands of mourning on their arms.

At the outbreak of the World War in 1914, this community had but little fear that the distant conflagration could spread to this side of the Atlantic. That Racine might be sending men to France, England and Russia to fight their country's battles seemed more like the figment of a disagreeable dream than the unavoidable and logical result of the turmoil overseas.

For more than two years Racine county, in common with the greater part of America, watched the progress of the terrible struggle in Europe with startled fascination. From the flood of charges and countercharges, defenses and denials, protests and arguments, which came from the various governments involved, few people seriously assumed the power to tell with certainty who was responsible for the holocaust. Almost everyone denounced Ger- many for her base violation of Belgium's neutrality, and sympathy was quite generally with the Belgians. When Great Britain came into the war, most Americans were inclined to assume that Germany's fate was sealed, now that the "iron ring" was closing about her at sea as well as on land. As days passed, and the armies settled down to trench warfare, the lingering- idea that the war might spread to America almost disappeared.

Pacifists opposed any military preparations on our part, assuming that the vast armaments of Europe were the cause of the trouble there. Looking back to the days of 1914-1915, it seems as if a majority of Racine people had the same sort of interest in the World War then as they might have had in some well advertised championship prize fight. They discussed in homes, cafes, cigar stores and clubs the merits of the various antagonists. They cited statistics on land and naval forces, and on population and wealth and resources. They cheered the brave French poilus for driving the German invaders back at the Marne: they applauded the Germans for turning apparent defeat on the Russian front into an overwhelming victory which almost destroyed the Czar's armies; they expressed admiration for the boldness of the Kaiser's raiders going forth on the seas to almost certain destruction, yet spreading terror and death from Gibraltar to the East Indies before they met their fate.

There were few, indeed, who hoped for a real German victory. 'The brutal methods of the invaders in Belgium and eastern France caused even the friends of the Teutonic Empire to blush for shame, and dread the adoption of such rule in wider spheres. Yet there was also a feeling that Germany was handicapped in the struggle by her lack of food and other supplies and to many she appeared as a brave people being slowly starved into submission despite her magnificent fight. Americans, too, had never been inclined to feel, as individuals, much friendliness for Great Britain. They had been taught in the schools of our troubles with her in the Revolution, the War of 1812 and the Civil War. The Irish-American population had also told tales of British rule which had not been without their effect.

Probably, the preponderance of sentiment in Racine county was in favor of the Allied cause. But quite frequently the feeling seemed to be as disinterestedly neutral as that of the woman who, seeing her spouse in combat with a grizzly, exclaimed, "Go it husband! go it, b'ar! May the best one win!"

opinions and sympathies. German-Americans, loud in their defense of the Fatherland were noticeably backward about trying to get back to the old country to fight, while quite a number of young men of French and English, and particularly Canadian, nativity were quietly packing up their suitcases and starting for Allied ports to enlist. Very shortly most of us could claim some acquaintance with men in the Allied ranks.

Then the German government began a course of action which forever lost her the support of even her admirers. No one claiming to be a selfrespecting American could hear without anger and resentment in his heart the stories of American lives lost in the ruthless attacks by German submarines upon defenseless ships. Every principle of international law required that a warship provide for the safety of passengers before sinking any unarmed vessel, and this the Germans persistently refused to do.

Then came the revelations of German intrigue in Mexico, and the exposure of the official instructions from Berlin to agents in Mexico to stir up a war against the United States. This followed after the discovery of plots, in some cases successful, to destroy American factories which sold goods to the Allies, these plots being contrary to all law and often times with utter disregard for human life.

The indiscriminate bombing of English and French towns with heavy loss of life among the women and children was also generally denounced. All these things tended to germinate a feeling of dislike and distrust. The Allies themselves did many things to grate upon our feelings, but they did not kill Americans, destroy American property or show a total disregard for the rights of neutrals. Perhaps the most serious complaint against the Allies was due to the British rule that neutrals could ship but a limited amount of food and manufactured goods to countries bordering upon Germany, it being claimed that Holland and the Scandinavian countries were furnishing the Germans with supplies. Cargoes stopped in transit and seized, were paid for, however, so there was no actual loss. Efforts to stop this interference with trade were being made when Germany's actions finally forced us into the war and then, of course, we were in accord with the Allies' policy.

Racine people took active part in the plans to send food and clothing to the Belgian refugees prior to our entry into the struggle, and funds were contributed by many to aid the French orphaned children. In Milwaukee,

Photos By Hood

The upper picture shows recruits for Batteries C and F out for drill in a quiet street of the city, early in 1917. Officers were trying to teach them the mysteries of keeping step when marching, and how to halt in unison. These men did not

The lower picture was a familiar one after September, 1917. It depicts a draft contingent leaving for a cantonment, the yards of the North-western depot being crowded with friends and relatives of the departing men.

where there was a large German population, there were fairs and entertainments held to raise money for the German and Austrian civilian sufferers and contributions to these causes, also, were made here. The Red Cross Society, being an international organization for the amelioration of suffering, did work on both sides of the fighting lines in Europe and maintained an impartial attitude.

At times, during our period of neutrality, there were hot arguments and even some fistic encounters on the streets as a result of differences of opinion over the war. But it is probably not far from the truth to say that up to the spring of 1916 there were very few people in this part of the country who were so partisan that they would have cared to see America enter the war on either side, or who would have been heart-broken at the defeat of any

Probably in future years, this attitude of our people will seem one of the strangest features of the history of America during the period of the war.

President Wilson was re-elected in 1916 as a result of a campaign which had as its political battle-cry, "He kept us out of war." Yet, when in the following April he solemnly set forth the reasons why we could no longer be at peace, the nation quietly, sternly and with undoubted loyalty and determination, transformed itself into a mighty fighting machine pledging its last man and last dollar to the task of defending the ideals of democracy from the onslaughts of arrogant militarism and autocracy.