100 YEARSAGO IN THERECORD
Friday, Nov. 8, 1918. Despite yesterday’s victory celebrations in Troy and across the country, the world war continues today, though probably not for much longer. From early af ternoon through last night, Trojans celebrated the news, wired across the Atlantic by the United Press, that Germany had agreed to an armistice. Yesterday’s Record ran that story, but also published Associated Press reports that peace could not be confirmed. Americans learn today that an inaccurate story spread around the world due to a combination of errors. An American admiral informed the United Press that Germany had accepted the armistice terms when the German delegation had only just received them. The admiral sent out a correction, but the press service was unable to wire it to the U.S. because of “the summary seizure of the cables by the government immediately after the arrival of the [original] cablegram.” Because it receives multiple wire services, The Record was in a better position than many papers, but its caution did little to discourage celebrations throughout the city. “While the report was unconfirmed, the readiness with which it was accepted was indicative of the desire of the people to believe it,” an editor comments today, “Why? Is the American nation so enamored of peace that it goes into transports of delight at the thought that the world war is actually at an end?
“Of course we desire peace. But peace would not have been acceptable to the American people if it had been based on compromise or our defeat. The nation rejoiced yesterday, we believe, not only because it believed the war was at an end, but principally because the end marked the unconditional surrender of the German government and the accomplishment of those high purposes for which we entered the war.”
With the German government reportedly facing mutinies and popular uprisings at home, our editors remain confident that “the actual signing of the armistice can not be delayed many hours….There is scarcely any question that the greatest war in the world’s history is at an end.”
Despite our optimism, the state adjutant general’s office reminds local draft boards that “We are still at war. Quotas must be filled….The military program has not changed. You won’t slacken your efforts and the large tentative quota of the state must be supplied.”
Casualties from weeks ago continue to be reported daily. Today’s paper reports, based on a letter received by his sister in Syracuse, that Private Joseph G. Benchley of Troy was killed in action, while Corporal Benjamin Rosen of Troy has written home to report that he and Private Ellis Cohen were wounded on September 27.