The Call for Total War in Kennewick
A sobering editorial urges local citizens to drop their apathy and fully embrace the personal sacrifices required by the 'Prussian' threat in Europe.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Although the United States is engaged in the greatest war of all history, the American people are not yet awake to the gravity of the situation. Ambassador James W. Gerard, who spent nearly four years in Germany, has warned that the German military power is unbroken and that Americans do not grasp the magnitude of the conflict. The war will not be ended by revolution or starvation within Germany; we must fight Prussianism in France or fight it here at home. Furthermore, we must support Herbert Hoover's request for food conservation—eating wheatless meals, reducing meat and sugar, and economizing—to ensure our allies do not starve. Locally, this means four-minute men will be organizing talks in theaters to help citizens understand their role in this national service.
“We can only avoid fighting Prussianism here by going to meet it on the battle lines of the free people in Europe.”
This 1917 piece reflects the intense, high-pressure civic mobilization that defined the World War I era in rural Washington. It serves as a stark reminder of how 'home front' sacrifice—from food rationing to localized propaganda—was sold to ordinary Kennewick residents as a necessary defense against a global enemy.
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