Chronicles of Boundary Country from the pages of
The Ledge
Volume 24, No. 2 – July 26, 1917
➢ The Yanks Join the War – The following is an editorial published in the New York Tribune newspaper: “We are fighting Germany because if we do not fight her and conqueror her, she will wreck all her bestiality on us. If she ever succeeds in dominating Europe, she will soon turn toward the Americas and fasten her militaristic yoke on us. The war is now an American war as much as it is a European war. Americans should begin to think of it as such. German arrogance strikes at us as well as at France, Great Britain and Russia. When we strike back, we are fighting for ourselves. We are first of all defending the America of today and of the future.”
➢ Good Neighbors – The following is an editorial published in the American magazine the New Republic: “Participation by the United States into the war will have one result in which all good Americans can rejoice without misgivings and without qualifications: It will help enormously to remove misunderstanding between the Canadian and American nations and to lay an indispensable foundation for their future co-operation. Of all the positive needs of American foreign policy, the working out of some basis of common action with Canada is the most essential. The facts of geography, the circumstances of a common experience and the similarity of institutions and ideals all help to make Canada the nearest relative and the most fruitful ally of the American republic.”
➢ A Hero Returns – “Private William Jones, of the 102nd Battalion, returned to Rock Creek last Friday, being the first returned soldier to come back to this area. He owns a ranch on Nicholson Creek. He was wounded in the knee, by shrapnel, in the battle of the Somme, where the 102nd Bat. won a great victory. Three Rock Creek boys, Tom Cave, Billy Tallet and Ed Sparks, were killed in the Somme fight. Private Jones is going back to the coast for further medical treatment. He carries with him the piece of shrapnel that was taken out of his leg, and you would wonder how a chunk of ragged metal like that could go through a man’s leg without tearing it all to pieces.”
➢ Dead Man Walking – “George M. Johnson passed through Greenwood yesterday on his way to his home in Nelson from a convalescent hospital at the coast. He went to France two years ago with the Pioneers battalion and was wounded with shrapnel last fall. He was reported as dead in the Daily News newspaper some time ago, and his wife moved from their home in Nelson to live with her relatives in Orillia. On his way from Europe to the hospital at the west coast, George dropped in at Orillia and successfully convinced his wife that the report of his death was greatly exaggerated.”
➢ Same Old, Same Old – “The coming federal election in Canada will be one of hatred, passion, prejudice and falsehood. It will do much to destroy unity and peace in this great Dominion.”