November 11, 1918 World War I Armistice Day
November 11, 2009 – 2:55 pm
November 11, 1918
This time the announcement was for real, the fighting was halted and the stage was set for the end of World War I.
Sadly the peace was bungled. The punitive nature of the surrender negotiations are alluded to in the headline:
Germany is Hog-Tied by Terms
The importance of railroads was underlined in the lead story, in addition the the surrender of war weapons 5,000 locomotives and the Alsace-Lorraine railways were surrendered to the Allies.
After the Second World War The Marshall plan rebuilt Western Europe and the United Nations was established.
After the First World War America failed to join the League of Nations.
Terms of the final peace agreement required crushing reparation payments and humiliating concessions from Germany to the France and England. The victorious nations had suffered terribly and wanted revenge. When the Great Depression struck the world, German ground was fertile for demagogues to appeal to injured pride and accuse innocent scapegoats for the nation’s woes. The seeds for next war would soon be planted in the Treaty of Versailles and explode 20 years in the future.
Careful readers of the Daily Telegram would notice that a new wire service had been added to the roster, now Associated Press bylines competed for space with United Press reporting. After the debacle of the premature peace announcement it seems that C.L. Day wanted an additional source of information even though he had a small newspaper.
There was a third news service, the Hearst owned International News Service which would merge with United Press Association in 1958 to form UPI. However with the nameplate crowing the independence of the Daily Telegram there was little interest in subscribing an agency that serviced the chain of Hearst papers.
In other items of interest, from a front page classified ad:
NOTICE TO THE PUBLIC
Twenty-five dollars reward offered for evidence leading to the arrest and conviction of the party or parties found guilty of taking empty milk bottles from the customers of the Laurel and Chorro Dairies.
Front page advertisement:
A PHONOGRAPH or PLAYER PIANO
Is just the thing to entertain you these long evenings when you can not go to the Movies. Or perhaps, if you already have one or both you need some new records or rolls.Player Pianos as low as $575.00
Phonographs as low as $22.50
Come in and let us show you what we have.
MUSIC MAINTAINS MORALE
MERRIFIELD & SON
Monterey St.
Who needs iPods?
3 Responses to “November 11, 1918 World War I Armistice Day”
Gee, I wonder if they ever found the milk thieves.
By Pat on Nov 11, 2009
I could understand full milk bottle bandits but empties?
By David Middlecamp on Nov 11, 2009
I believe that you had to put your empty milk bottles on the stoop in order to have them refilled the next day. The number of bottles waiting for the milk man indicated how much milk you would get.
Now, if someone stole your player piano there’d be a real stink.
By Sarah on Nov 11, 2009