Remember the Lusitania America Enters WW1:
One hundred years ago on April 6, 1917 America declared war on Germany and entered the Great War, the First World War, or World War 1. Dora has been reading missives from her fiance, Lieutenant Edward Ware who is off at the front fighting in the Middle East with Lawrence of Arabia. She interrupts her reading to answer the phone to hear the news from her best friend, Rita Jolivet, the French actress, who was a fellow survivor of the Lusitania two years before. The Lusitania was one of the many causes of America’s entry into the European conflict “over there”. The scene is slightly edited to make sense out of context. You can read the rest in the Edward Ware Thrillers at War novel, Key to Lawrence Special Edition:
“Hello?” Dora answered automatically, jolting awake from her trance.
“It’s me!” exclaimed Rita. “I’m in New York City. Listen to this.”
Rita must have been holding her phone up to an open window. A paper boy cried as if in a far off world removed from her present devastation: “Read all about it! Read all about it! President Wilson calls for Declaration of War against Germany.”
Her father burst through the door grumbling and shoved a newspaper into her free hand. She gaped at the bold headline:
PRESIDENT CALLS FOR WAR DECLARATION, STRONGER NAVY, NEW ARMY OF 500,000 MEN, FULL CO-OPERATION WITH GERMANY’S FOES
Below that was the text of the President’s address from the previous day when he spoke before the Joint Houses. At the bottom of the page it read: The War Resolution Now Before Congress.
“We’re in. Wilson’s done it, damn the fellow.” Mr. Benley threw up his hands.
Dora just gaped at him.
Her father nodded grimly. “I’ll have Wilson impeached. I’m going to start getting signatures today. I’ll send them to my congressman and senators. We want to keep America pure from European wars!”
Dora thought, So Ali and the Kaiser have forced us into this war!
Her father exclaimed, “It’s enough to make you want to move to the Alaska Territory!”
On the phone Rita deduced, “I guess the American President and Congress finally remembered the Lusitania.”
