One hundred years ago this week, the United States declared war on Germany and entered World War I on the side of the Allies. Chattanooga’s morning paper, the Chattanooga Daily Times, on April 6, 1917, printed the expectation that the declaration would come that day, as the United States Senate had approved war just days before. The House was expected to vote approval that day as well.
The front page of the Times posted a proud accounting of what America brought to the conflict. “Into the balance against Germany are thrown a navy in strength and efficiency among the foremost afloat; an army comparatively small but highly efficient, backed by a citizenry of upward of 20,000,000 capable of military duty; industrial resources, incomparably the greatest in the world, already mobilized for public service, and the moral force of over 100,000,000 Americans.”
But rumors abound, as a “score” of U-boats were reported to be lurking in the Gulf of Mexico, and government agents purportedly raided the home of a German brewer in Washington who had several small cannon trained on the Capitol.
Closer to home, the Times reported that in Alabama, a white man and a black man were arrested as agents of the German government for purportedly trying to get Southern blacks to rise against the United States.
German agents were supposedly posing as ministers of the Gospel or Bible salesmen to disguise their movements. Therefore, an editorial called for the “Colored Men” of Chattanooga to come to a meeting at the courthouse that night to “repudiate the foul aspersion that they might be beguiled by German agents to betray their country and join the enemies of the flag that stands to them for liberty and freedom.”