The mask slackers of 1918
ANTI-MASK SENTIMENTS GO BACK 100 YEARS TO SPANISH FLU
The masks were called muzzles, germ shields and dirt traps. They gave people a ‘piglike snout.’ Some people snipped holes in their masks to smoke cigars. Others fastened them to dogs in mockery. Bandits used them to rob banks.
More than a century ago, as the 1918 influenza pandemic raged in the United States, masks of gauze and cheesecloth became the facial front lines in the battle against the virus. But as they have now, the masks also stoked political division. Then, as now, medical authorities urged the wearing of masks to help slow the spread of disease. And then, as now, some people resisted.
In 1918 and 1919, as bars, saloons, restaurants, theatres and schools were closed, masks became a symbol of government overreach, inspiring protests and bare-face gatherings. All the while, thousands of Americans were dying in a deadly pandemic.
1918: The infection spreads
The first infections were identified in March, at an Army base in Kansas, where 100 soldiers were infected. By the fall of 1918, seven cities - San Francisco, Seattle, Oakland, California, Sacramento, Denver, Indianapolis and Pasadena, California - had put in effect mandatory face mask laws, said Dr. Howard Markel, a historian of epidemics and the author of Quarantine!
By the end of October, there were more than 60,000 cases statewide, with 7,000 of them in San Francisco. ‘The Mask Ordinance,’ signed by Mayor James Rolph on October. 22, made San Francisco the first US city to require face coverings, which had to be four layers thick.
Masks that ooked like ‘slabs of ravioli’
Resisters complained about appearance, comfort and freedom, even after the flu killed an estimated 195,000 Americans in October alone.
Alma Whitaker, writing in The Los Angeles Times on Oct. 22, 1918, reviewed masks’ impact on society and celebrity, saying famous people shunned them because it was “so horrid” to go unrecognised.
“The big restaurants are the funniest sights, with all the waiters and diners masked, the latter just raising their screen to pop in a mouthful of food,” she wrote.When Whitaker herself declined to wear one, she was “forcibly taken” to the Red Cross as a “slacker” and ordered to make one and put it on.
Mask Court
The penalty for violators was $5 to $10, or 10 days’ imprisonment.
On November 9, 1,000 people were arrested,
The San Francisco Chronicle reported. City prisons swelled to standing-room-only; police shifts and court sessions were added to help manage.
Jail terms of eight hours to 10 days were given out. Those who could not pay $5 were jailed for 48 hours.
In Los Angeles, ‘To mask or not to mask’
That was the headline for a report published in
The Los Angeles Times when city officials met in November to decide whether to require residents to wear “germ scarers” or “flu-scarers.”
Public feedback was invited. Some supported masks so theatres, churches and schools could operate. Opponents said masks were “mere dirt and dust traps and do more harm than good.”
In Illinois, the right to choose, and to reject
Suffragists fighting for the right to vote made a gesture that rejected covering their mouths at a time when their voices were crucial.
At the annual convention of the Illinois Equal Suffrage Association, in October 1918, they set chairs four feet apart, closed doors to the public and limited attendance to 100 delegates, the Chicago Daily Tribune reported.
Four weeks of muzzled misery
San Francisco’s mask ordinance expired after four weeks at noon on November. 21. The city celebrated, and church bells tolled.
Waiters, barkeeps and others bared their faces. Drinks were on the house. Ice cream shops handed out treats. By the end of 1918, the death toll from influenza had reached at least 244,681, mostly in the last four months, according to government statistics.
1919: A New Year
In January, Pasadena’s city commission passed a mask ordinance. The police grudgingly enforced it, cracking down on cigar smokers and passengers in cars. Sixty people were arrested on the first day. “It is the most unpopular law ever placed on the Pasadena records,” W.S. McIntyre, the chief of police, said. “We are cursed from all sides.”
The anti-mask league
As the contagion moved into its second year, so did the skepticism.
On December. 17, 1918, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors reinstituted the mask ordinance after deaths started to climb, a trend that spilled over into the New Year with 1,800 flu cases and 101 deaths in the first five days of January.
That board’s decision led to the creation of the Anti-Mask League, a sign that resistance to masks was resurfacing as cities tried to reimpose orders to wear them when infections returned.
The league was led by a woman, EJ Harrington, a lawyer, social activist and political opponent of the mayor. About a half-dozen other women filled its top ranks. On January. 25, the league held its first organisational meeting where they united behind demands for the repeal of the mask ordinance and for the resignations of the mayor and health officials. Their objections included lack of scientific evidence that masks worked and the idea that forcing people to wear the coverings was unconstitutional.
On January. 27, the league protested at a Board of Supervisors meeting, but the mayor held his ground. Repeal came a few days later on Feb. 1, when Rolph cited a downturn in infections.
But a third wave of flu rolled in late that year. The final death toll reached an estimated 675,000 nationwide, or 30 for every 1,000 people in San Francisco, making it one of the worst-hit cities in America.
Then, as now, medical authorities urged the wearing of masks to help slow the spread of disease. And then, as now, some people resisted.