Targeting the Party Switchers. The 2019 Legislative Session Kicks Off.

The 2019 Legislative Session has kicked in, in the form of pre filed bills and committee meetings and, one of those early filed bills looks to. . .. the 2018 election.

As anyone following the late stages of the 2018 Gubernatorial Race would be aware of, late in the 2018 session the failed gubernatorial candidates, or at least some of them, and in particular one of them, began to complain that Democrats had crossed over and doomed their candidacy. 

There is, quite frankly, a certain element of hubris in an assumption like that, to say the least.

Such candidates were the extremely conservative ones, at least one of whom had a thin connection to the state in general in some ways, and there seemed to be s certain lack of knowledge on the state’s political culture on their part.  The state has never actually been liberal in the Alabama or Texas sense (not that those two things are the same), but more in a high plains sense.

As the Democratic Party is dead here there’s real reason to believe that Democrats crossing to the GOP would have little impact on any one race, but those failed candidates believe it and now a new Republican legislator from Ranchester (an area of the state which has had some odd politics in recent years) in the Senate had introduced a bill which would require a notarized signature in advance of an election to switch as well as submission of the switch form to an election judge.

In other words, switching would be more difficult.

That’s about all that would do.  Assuming election judges do their jobs honestly, they’d look at it and say “yup. . . that’s a form alright”.  Of course, history in other localities has shown that submitting such things to election judges often serves as a source of mischief for a party under stress, which mysteriously finds that Mrs. Ima Republican didn’t properly sign, or something, and is really a Democrat.

Indeed, the requirement of a notarized signature does nothing other than to serve that interest as at best a notary has verified that you are who you say your are by the presentation of identification, if not known to the notary personally.  Generally the Clerk’s office has notaries so that’s about all that would actually do, other than to further emphasize that you need to do it in advance of the election.

All this really points to a single thing, which is that primaries are party elections and if you don’t like people voting in them, don’t have one.  Disgruntled GOP figures should keep that in mind. If they did that, they could pick the candidates they wanted through a convention process, as they did in the old smoke filled room days. 

On the other hand, if they want to make switching parties more difficult, and they figure that a lot of Democrats switched in the 2018 Primary Season they ought to also consider that those Democrats probably wouldn’t be switching back until 2020. . . and so by making it more difficult, they’ll probably help cement some of them in the GOP.

Musing on the Century Link Net Outage

One of the things a net outage, or at least a long one, serves to do is to remind you how much you’ve become dependent upon the Internet.

At the time I’m writing this (on Word) Century Link has being doing something (who knows what, and they’re not saying) for over 24 hours.  Obviously the Louisiana based company has a major Internet disaster going on, but it feels that it makes its customers happy if it doesn’t tell them squat.

Good thinking, Century Link.

This may be the first lesson here.  In terms of customer support, not letting a customer know what is going on is not the proper course to take.  Most people are tolerant of mistakes, errors, and breakdowns.  Not everyone is, but most people are.  Letting them know what is going on is a good idea. 

When I called Century Link to find out what the deal was, I got no help at all.  Indeed, there was an element of absurdity to the entire experience as the help person with the Indian accent at first simply pretended that it must be my machine until finally admitting it was a national outage (international actually) and that he had no idea when things were going to be fixed, and among the questions he'd asked the "technician", that wasn't one of them.

Be that as it may, it also means that I’m frustrated by something which, most of the time, is just a toy for me.

Or maybe it isn't.

I wake up really early most days.  Often around 4:00 A.M. but never later than 5:00 A.M. That’s when I type these blog entries out.  I’m an extremely fast typist and it really doesn’t take me long to do them, so that’s what I do after I let the dog out and fix myself coffee, and before the Tribune appears at my door. 

So  not having the net disrupts my routine.

But it wasn’t always my routine.

At one time, when papers arrived early, my routine was to thoroughly read them over coffee and then get ready fro my day.  I’d often also read a book, after I was married, as I didn’t want to wake up my spouse too early (which remains one of the reasons that I mess around on the net early in the morning).  I wouldn’t’ have written as there would have been no audience for most of what I write, even though I’m my own primary audience and I know that.  I’ve never kept a “journal” or diary, as a habit, although I can sure see why people do.

After I was married I often turned on the television with very low sound and watched whatever was on really early, such as the farm report, or perhaps the very early news.  Occasionally a movie if a good one was on really early.

Now I’m acclimated to this.

Good thing?

Well, maybe not bad.  It’s probably better than watching television.  And I do like to write.  But it has its downsides as well.

Poster Saturday. A look at newly released movies for December 29, 1918.

It's cold and snowy in Minnesota. Is that news?

Snow in Minnesota. . . 1942.

When did routine weather events become national news?

Have they always been?  Or this is this a reflection of the vapid nature of television?

As an example, this past week, it was snowing in Minnesota.   That isn’t news. But the television news treated it as news.

Has television always does this?

Are our weather memories so short in this modern era that winter in the north is actually surprising?  Or rain in the south?  Or is it that we’ve created living conditions which are now disasters but which were simply another day in the winter in earlier eras?

Or is television just that dense?

Identify? That doesn't identify anything.

From Cheyenne's KWGN.  A "network element" that's "impacting" something.

Eegads.  How about CenturyLink issues babble after over a day of disruption to no service.

CenturyLink identifies issue that caused nationwide outage

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (KGWN) - A Nationwide outage reaching from New York to California has been causing headaches since early Thursday morning. The outage didn't spare Cheyenne, where customers lost internet and phone service. Some reports told of people unable to get gas as card readers shut down at some gas stations, and others of ATM's glitching.

CenturyLink posted several times via Facebook that it was working to solve the issue. Finally, late Thursday night, the company said its engineers had identified "a network element that was impacting customer services..." and was working to restore service.

CenturyLink expects the service to be restored within hours.

December 27, 1918. The Collapse of the German Empire. The Rise of Poland. A League of Nations.

Polish soldiers digging trenches in their 1918-1919 war against Imperial Germany.

The final stages of the collapse of Imperial Russia saw huge numbers of Polish troops join forces with any Russian rebels and the establishment of a defacto Polish state from Polish lands that had been under the crown.  Indeed, not only did this occur, but Polish forces and rebels soon were engaged in combat with Ukrainian forces and rebels over what was Polish and what was not.

On this day, in 1918, that spread to Germany.

The collapse of the German war effort in World War One is such an important historical event that most histories of World War One simply end with that and treat the German Revolution as a bit of an epilogue.  Histories of World War Two tend to treat it as a prologue.  But what should be evident from reading these posts is that Imperial Germany didn't really end on November 11, 1918, or even before that when the Kaiser abdicated shortly before, but rather Imperial Germany sloppily turned the reins of government over to a provisional socialist government that found itself with a major domestic revolution on its hands from the hard left and the old Imperial Army with which to put it down.  It was trying desperately to do so.  

Contrary to what occurred after World War Two, the allied occupation following the Armistice of November 11 was quite limited in scope. This is also sometimes misunderstood. The occupation following the Second World War was intended to totally demilitarize and remake Germany.  The 1918 one was not, but instead was intended merely to prevent a resumption of the war with the West.  It was quite limited, but strategic, in scope.

Occupation zones following November 11, 1918.  'Armistice and occupation of Germany map', URL: https://nzhistory.govt.nz/media/photo/armistice-and-occupation-germany-map, (Ministry for Culture and Heritage), updated 15-Jun-2017

Indeed, the occupation zones were actually frankly anemic and basically were simply sufficient for the Allies to create a strong defense on the south bank of the Rhine with bridgeheads over it, in case of a resumption of the war.  That this was highly unlikely was obvious by the behavior of the Allies themselves, who immediately began to repatriate their soldiers and sailors to their homes and discharge them.  While I disagree with those who insist on the Versailles Treaty being the date that ended all doubt, this map gives them a point.

Cheyenne readers on this learned that Wyoming Guardsmen would definitely be overseas for awhile.

Wyomingites in the 91st Division would be remaining overseas as well.  On the positive side, it seemed that American troops were getting along well with German civilians.

As does the behavior of Germany itself, within its borders.  The German Army was very active, where it could be, but it couldn't be everywhere, and it was effective everywhere it was.

On December 24, the German Army had been defeated in a street battle with Berlin by Red Sailors and Kreigsmarine and soldiers who had gone over to the Reds.  Lots of significant towns were in the hands of Red revolutionaries who intended to form a communist government.  The provisional socialist government Weimar was struggling to retain power and not go down in a Red revolution.

On this day, the Poles added to their troubles.

The Posen region of Imperial Germany, a major coal producing region of the state, had always really been Polish. The German Empire had been just that, and like the Austrian Empire it included people who were not German by ethnicity within its borders, although not nearly to the same extent that was the case in the Austro Hungarian Empire.  Included in that were regions of what had been Poland and which were among its oldest possessions.

Prussian province of Posen, Polish regions in yellow.

The Poles had been subjects of conquest by neighboring Prussia back into Medieval times. In more recent times the Germans had participated in the dismemberment of what remained of Poland.  The Poles, in spite of a late German effort, had never been absorbed by the Germans who had always looked down upon them.   With the Poles reforming their country out of the Polish regions of Russia, it was inevitable that Poles in Posen would attempt to break away and joint them.

What wasn't inevitable was that it would work, but it did.  The Polish rebels were largely successful in a two month long war with Germany which saw them seize control of most of the region.  On February 16, 1919 with a renewed armistice involving the Poles and the Germans imposed by the Allies.  The Versailles Treaty would settle the territorial question in favor of Poland.

Cartoon in the New York Herald, December 27, 1918.  This cartoon is only quasi clear.  It was celebrating the concept of a League of Nations, but are the little dachshunds republics made up of a dismembered German state?

On that treaty, the British were very strongly backing a League of Nations, and that was starting to get some press, and some discussion in the United States, where views were initially quite favorable.

Training in the US kept on in other places, exploring the newly learned and newly acquired.

I still can't help but wonder what became of Pvt. Dilley.

You remember Pvt. Dilley, at least if you followed this and our Today In Wyoming's History blog.

Drafted men boarding a train to a military camp for training.  Is Pvt. Dilley looking back at us?

I particularly wonder in light of the story of the Wyoming National Guardsmen of the 148th Field Artillery we discussed here the other day, and their proud service.

For those who might not recall. Pvt. Dilley was a young soldier who joined the National Guard when the Guard was recalled to service following the declaration of war against Germany.  In early August, he disappeared.  At first it seemed foul play or a tragic accident was involved.  It was suspected that he'd drowned in a stream, for example.

Well, soon after that, it appeared that Dilley had just despaired of military life and had gone AWOL, and that had grown into desertion.

He never reappeared.

His elderly father hoped for his return but felt that he had been murdered. Authorities didn't support that view and believed he'd simply taken off.

If he did, he took off into a country that would draft a 4,000,000 man Army and which became aggressive about "slackers".  It would have been hard for Dilley to remain out of uniform.

American medics treating a battlefield casualty, March 6, 1918.  Is Dilley on the stretcher?  Is he treating the wounded.

In 1917 it probably didn't seem that way. The country didn't have Social Security Cards at the time.  Most people didn't drive, actually and driver's licenses were mostly a thing of the future.  Lots of people had no birth certificates.  In short, "ID" was basically a thing in the American future.

If Dilley deserted, as the authorities believed, and was not murdered, as his father believed, staying out of the military would have been tough for a man of his age.  Some did manage, however.  Perhaps he did.  Perhaps he somehow simply managed to dodge service, although as noted that was far from easy.  Maybe he took a job in a shipyard or something of the type, which provided some of the few draft exempt occupations that were available during the war.

Did Dilley find work in a plant during the war that exempted him from service? And if he did, did he pass a sign like this everyday and feel guilty about his path, or relieved that he wasn't in France?

Some took the opposite approach, as we've read about before, and escaped the law by entering the service where they blended into the mass of men joining for World War One.  Dilley may have done that. Perhaps he just joined back up, or was drafted under an assumed name.

Its impossible to not to wonder what became of him.  If he did end up back in uniform, was his second experience with military life better than the first?  He was supposed to be a medic in the Wyoming National Guard. What did he end up in his second experiment with the service, he that occurred. A medic again?  A clerk? An infantrymen?  In the Army of 1917-18 non combat roles were much fewer than those in later eras.  Did he march in the mud of France carrying a 1917 Enfield on his shoulder at the Marine watching Renault EGs roll by wishing he'd stayed in the Guard?

We'll never know.

His father never found out.

But we wish we did.

American Renault EG artillery tractor towing a French made 155 howitzer.  Did Dilley end up marching past his former compatriots of the Wyoming National Guard and wish he'd stayed in (although being an artillerymen was dangerous enough in its own right).

Boxing Day, 1918

The December 26, 1918 edition of Life Magazine, which at that time was a magazine that featured humor, although this image, if it's supposed to be humorous, isn't.

December 26 is Boxing Day, a holiday in almost all of the English speaking world except, for some odd reason, the United States. Given that much of the United States's holiday traditions that are older stem from the United Kingdom,  including some aspects of the Christmas holidays, it's surprising that Boxing Day isn't observed in the U.S. while it is in nearby Canada.*

Australian convalescence soldiers and volunteers out on Boxing Day, 1918.  Photo courtesy of the University of Wollongong, Australia.

In most of the English speaking world, the day is a day off.  It's also a day that has traditionally been devoted to sports and the like.  In British Army units, including units from the Dominions, it's likely that there were games of various types.  Horse racing and equestrian sports, which are a traditional Boxing Day activity, likely was likely part of that.  FWIW, it was in Austria that year (maybe it is every year), as soccer matches were held.

Whatever else was going on in the UK, dignitaries were meeting Woodrow Wilson who was visiting the country.  Elsewhere, British troops were engaged in active combat service, as for example off the coast of Estonia where the HMS Calypso and the HMS Caradoc ran the Red Russian Navy destroyer Spartak aground.

In New York, the U.S. Navy, or rather some elements of it, were committed to a big victory parade.

The Laramie Boomerang reported on the celebrations in New York City.

*Examples of British holidays incorporated into American tradition are Thanksgiving, which isn't really a thing though up by the Mayflower Pilgrims (it was a commonly observed English harvest religious holiday) and the observation of Halloween, which originally was an Irish observation of All Hallowed Eve in which the poor went door to door in search of the gift of food in exchange for a promise to pray for that family's dead.

Christmas Over There. December 25, 1918.

Pope Francis' 2018 Christmas Message.

Pope Francis' 2018 Christmas message.

Dear Brothers and Sisters, Happy Christmas!

To you, the faithful of Rome, to you, the pilgrims, and to all who are linked to us from every part of the world, I renew the joyous proclamation of Bethlehem: "Glory to God in the highest, and on Earth peace among those whom he favors" (Luke 2:14). Like the shepherds who first went with haste to the stable, let us halt in wonder before the sign that God has given us: "A baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger" (Luke 2:12). In silence, let us fall to our knees and worship. 

What does that Child, born for us of the Virgin Mary, have to tell us? What is the universal message of Christmas? It is that God is a good Father and we are all brothers and sisters.

This truth is the basis of the Christian vision of humanity. Without the fraternity that Jesus Christ has bestowed on us, our efforts for a more just world fall short, and even our best plans and projects risk being soulless and empty. 

For this reason, my wish for a happy Christmas is a wish for fraternity. Fraternity among individuals of every nation and culture. Fraternity among people with different ideas, yet capable of respecting and listening to one another. Fraternity among persons of different religions. Jesus came to reveal the face of God to all those who seek him. 

The face of God has been revealed in a human face. It did not appear in an angel, but in one man, born in a specific time and place. By his incarnation, the Son of God tells us that salvation comes through love, acceptance, respect for this poor humanity of ours, which we all share in a great variety of races, languages, and cultures. Yet all of us are brothers and sisters in humanity! 

Our differences, then, are not a detriment or a danger; they are a source of richness. As when an artist is about to make a mosaic, it is better to have tiles of many colors available, rather than just a few! The experience of families teaches us this: As brothers and sisters, we are all different from each other. We do not always agree, but there is an unbreakable bond uniting us, and the love of our parents helps us to love one another.

The same is true for the larger human family, but here, God is our "parent," the foundation and strength of our fraternity. May this Christmas help us to rediscover the bonds of fraternity linking us together as individuals and joining all peoples. May it enable Israelis and Palestinians to resume dialogue and undertake a journey of peace that can put an end to a conflict that for over 70 years has rent the land chosen by the Lord to show his face of love. 

May the child Jesus allow the beloved and beleaguered country of Syria once again to find fraternity after these long years of war. May the international community work decisively for a political solution that can put aside divisions and partisan interests, so that the Syrian people, especially all those who were forced to leave their own lands and seek refuge elsewhere, can return to live in peace in their own country. 

My thoughts turn to Yemen, in the hope that the truce brokered by the international community may finally bring relief to all those children and people exhausted by war and famine. I think too of Africa, where millions of persons are refugees or displaced and in need of humanitarian assistance and food security. 

May the Holy Child, the King of Peace, silence the clash of arms and allow a new dawn of fraternity to rise over the entire continent, blessing the efforts of all those who work to promote paths of reconciliation in political and social life. May Christmas consolidate the bonds of fraternity uniting the Korean Peninsula and help the path of rapprochement recently undertaken to continue and to reach agreed solutions capable of ensuring the development and well-being of all. 

May this blessed season allow Venezuela once more to recover social harmony and enable all the members of society to work fraternally for the country's development and to aid the most vulnerable sectors of the population. May the newborn Lord bring relief to the beloved land of Ukraine, yearning to regain a lasting peace that is slow to come. Only with a peace respectful of the rights of every nation can the country recover from the sufferings it has endured and restore dignified living conditions for its citizens. 

I am close to the Christian communities of the region, and I pray that they may develop relationships of fraternity and friendship. Before the child Jesus, may the inhabitants of beloved Nicaragua see themselves once more as brothers and sisters, so that divisions and discord will not prevail, but all may work to promote reconciliation and to build together the future of the country. 

I want to mention, too, all those peoples that experience ideological, cultural and economic forms of colonization and see their freedom and identity compromised, as well as those suffering from hunger and the lack of educational and health care services. 

A particular thought goes to our brothers and sisters who celebrate the birth of the Lord in difficult, if not hostile situations, especially where the Christian community is a minority, often vulnerable or not taken into account. May the Lord grant that they, and all minorities, may live in peace and see their rights recognized, especially the right to religious freedom. 

May the little child whom we contemplate today in the manger, in the cold of the night, watch over all the children of the world, and every frail, vulnerable and discarded person. May all of us receive peace and consolation from the birth of the Savior and, in the knowledge that we are loved by the one heavenly Father, realize anew that we are brothers and sisters and come to live as such!

Queen Elizabeth II's 2018 Christmas Message

Queen Elizabeth II's 2018 Christmas Message:

For many, the service of Nine Lessons and Carols from King's College, Cambridge, is when Christmas begins. Listened to by millions of people around the world, it starts with a chorister singing the first verse of Once in Royal David's City.

The priest who introduced this service to King's College chapel, exactly one hundred years ago, was Eric Milner-White. He had served as a military chaplain in the First World War. Just six weeks after the Armistice, he wanted a new kind of service which, with its message of peace and goodwill, spoke to the needs of the times.

Twenty eighteen has been a year of centenaries. The Royal Air Force celebrated its 100th anniversary with a memorable fly-past demonstrating a thrilling unity of purpose and execution. We owe them and all our Armed Services our deepest gratitude.

My father served in the Royal Navy during the First World War. He was a midshipman in HMS Collingwood at the Battle of Jutland in 1916. The British fleet lost 14 ships and 6,000 men in that engagement. My father wrote in a letter: 'How and why we were not hit beats me'. Like others, he lost friends in the war.

At Christmas, we become keenly aware of loved ones who have died, whatever the circumstances. But, of course, we would not grieve if we did not love.

Closer to home, it's been a busy year for my family, with two weddings and two babies, and another child expected soon. It helps to keep a grandmother well occupied. We have had other celebrations too, including the 70th birthday of The Prince of Wales.

Some cultures believe a long life brings wisdom. I'd like to think so. Perhaps part of that wisdom is to recognize some of life's baffling paradoxes, such as the way human beings have a huge propensity for good, and yet a capacity for evil. Even the power of faith, which frequently inspires great generosity and self-sacrifice, can fall victim to tribalism.

But through the many changes I have seen over the years, faith, family and friendship have been not only a constant for me but a source of personal comfort and reassurance.

In April, the Commonwealth Heads of Government met in London. My father welcomed just eight countries to the first such meeting in 1948. Now the Commonwealth includes 53 countries with 2.4 billion people, a third of the world's population.

Its strength lies in the bonds of affection it promotes, and a common desire to live in a better, more peaceful world. 

Even with the most deeply held differences, treating the other person with respect and as a fellow human being is always a good first step towards greater understanding. 

Indeed, the Commonwealth Games, held this year on Australia's Gold Coast, are known universally as the Friendly Games because of their emphasis on goodwill and mutual respect

The Christmas story retains its appeal since it doesn't provide theoretical explanations for the puzzles of life. 

Instead it's about the birth of a child and the hope that birth 2,000 years ago brought to the world. Only a few people acknowledged Jesus when he was born. Now billions follow him.

I believe his message of peace on earth and goodwill to all is never out of date. It can be heeded by everyone; it's needed as much as ever.

A very happy Christmas to you all.

Christmas 1918

I want to note, right from the onset, that I don't want to have this blog be one of those websites that attempts to relate every Christmas to the historical event or events that the blog focuses on, although given the focus of this blog on the period generally from the late 19th Century up until around 1920, more or less, that would be more tolerable and even interesting.  What I mean is, I don't want this to become the "Christmas is about World War One" day, which it isn't.*

Charles Russell's 1918 Christmas Card, Christmas Meat.  The "meat" is a play on words.  This 1918 card (which I found on the net, and which is past any copyright protectection, whohc is why I put it up) does not depict a scene from the Frontier West like some might suspect, but depicts a contemporary scene from 1918 in which one cowboy is bringing a deer, i.e, meat, to an old cowboy at a line camp who was probably living by that time of the year on canned beans for the most part.  Isolated line camps would remain a feature of Western ranching until after World War Two when the 4x4 truck changed ranching.

Still, as this year finds us winding down some of the stores we started tracing on a century removed daily basis, or on a focused basis as well, this would be a good time to take a look at Christmas, 1918.

Rather obviously, a focus of many people was on their servicemen who remained overseas in France, the war having just ended.  This was the case, for example, for the Wyoming National Guardsmen of the 148th Field Artillery, who were now on occupation duty in Germany.  Lot of troops had already come home, but a bit oddly, perhaps, the troops who were mostly likely to have returned were those who had been stationed in the United Kingdom at the time of the war's end. They were packed up and shipped home nearly immediately, most of them having only recently arrived.  So the oddity of military logic, and perhaps there was some logic to it, is that if you just showed up, you were sent right home.  The same was true for those who never made it overseas.  Many were pretty quickly discharged (into an uncertain economic future).  Combat troops who had been fighting in France went on to Germany. And of course, Germany was in turmoil so that made some sense.

In fact, not only was Germany in turmoil, there was a gun battle in Berlin on December 24 between the "Volksmarine" who were there and the German Army.  The Volksmarine were naval troops (Kreigsmarine), sailors and solders who had gone over to the Reds.  On the 24th, they battled unit s of the Regular German Army.  The Volksmarine held the field at the end of the day and the German Army's performance at street combat proved to be quite poor.  The Army negotiated a withdraw from the city and the Reds returned to their barracks.  The situation defused itself and the German government slowly assumed control of the city.  The Volksmarine, for their part, grew discontented with their lack of pay and ultimately they were called to collect pay in the presence of right wing military authorities some weeks later, who dismissed and discharged them, retaining 10% of those who mustered for pay (30 men) and shot them dead in an application of the old Roman principle of decimation.

With stuff like that going on, you can see why experienced troops were retained.

The military always makes an effort to celebrate major holidays and Christmas is one, perhaps the biggest one. We can be assured, therefore, that in every American military unit there was a type of Christmas feast and can be more assured that in a lot of units, probably most units, officers dined on the 24th and 25th separately and probably as formally as the circumstances would allow.

Christmas Tree in Officers Club, France.

As would be suspected, there wasn't one single expression of Christmas that was the same from unit to unit, for those stationed overseas, but a variety of them.  The American Red Cross, which had been active in the war (as we've discussed earlier) continued to be and made an effort to bring Christmas to the troops.

Red Cross Recreation Hut in France decorated for Christmas.

Not all of those troops were in good condition, of course. Some celebrated Christmas in Europe as convalescents.

Christmas stocking over the best of a convalescing American solder in the United Kingdom.

The Red Cross also remained active in trying to distribute needed items to soldiers.

Red Cross socks being distributed as presents to soldiers.  The American Army,  in spite of the nation really materially mobilizing for the war, had a hard time supply woolen goods of some sorts, including socks, for some reason.  Socks were knitted by volunteers.

While also observing the holidays themselves.

Red Cross nurses in their quarters, decorated for Christmas.

Christmas wasn't a happy one universally in Europe by any means.  Death had impacted everyone and privation had set in everywhere.

Cartoon from the New York Herald, December 25, 1918.

In Europe, where they could, and as we would expect that they would, Americans tried to make the Christmas a little more cheery for those who had been impacted by the war.

American military and Red Cross personnel giving Christmas gifts to British orphans in the Untied Kingdom.

In the U.S. things were not bad, in spite of the strain the war had imposed, and people were mostly just waiting for troops to come home. Some would be coming home as badly damaged men, of course, and the families of the missing would find that some wouldn't be coming home at all.  But most would be coming home to their families and old lives (we'll post on that soon).  Therefore, Christmas had a sense of longing. . . 

J. C. Leyendecker's 1918 Saturday Evening Post illustration, which we've already run here.  His 1917 cover had a solder feeding an orphan.

but it also had many of the contemporary features of American holidays, consumerism already being a thing, in spite of what people like to believe.

While the war had brought more than full employment to the United States (indeed, everywhere), and while deaths from the war, whether direct combat losses or ancillary ones, like those lost due to the 1918 Flu Epidemic, created a workplace shortage (grim topic for Christmas I know), there were still those in the country, indeed a lot in the country, who lived hard lives.  Efforts were made to recall them as well.

Christmas for horses and their drivers in Washington D. C.

So our post on Christmas, 1918.  Some things we'd recognize, and some not so much.

_________________________________________________________________________________

*If I publish a "New Years Resolutions For Other People" post, like I have on some prior years, but not last year, one will be for people to quit converting every holiday into Veteran's Day.  I am a veteran, but frankly it's gotten strangely out of hand since the Depression Era/World War Two generation became aged and the Boomers started to feel guilty about how they'd treated them.  When I was a kid, Veteran's Day was observed but frankly not a great deal.  Memorial Day was used by families to honor and remember their own dead.  Now, Veteran's Day, Memorial Day, Pearl Harbor Day have all become Veteran's Days and I routinely see people posting things to make you feel vaguely guilty if you don't recall Veteran's on whatever particular day it is.