100 years ago in Spokane: Local leaders back Woodrow’s Wilson’s call to war

The Spokesman-Review found unanimous support among Spokane’s prominent figures for President Woodrow Wilson’s request for a declaration of war against Germany.

“Party lines were practically obliterated,” said the paper.

Even Jacob “Dutch Jake” Goetz, Spokane’s best-known German native, supported the president. He said the U.S. government had backed him for the last 30 years, and now he backed the government.

Here are a few comments from other local luminaries:

Marion Hay, former Washington governor and president of Lincoln Trust: “I have never read a presidential message with which I was more in accord.”

Louis Davenport, president of the Davenport Hotel: “War should be declared against the Imperial German government and not against the German people, and we should make common cause with the allies.”

R. Lewis Rutter, president of the Spokane and Eastern Trust: “The president’s awful indictment of wanton Prussianism leaves nothing more to say as to America’s duty in dealing with the imperial German government. There is only one thing to do now, and that is to stand by Wilson to the last ditch.”

Sheriff George L. Reid: “I was not a Wilson man at the time of the election, but I heartily endorse the stand taken by our president in the present crisis. All must concede he has done everything in his power to keep us out of war.”

Dr. Henry Suzzallo, president of the University of Washington: “America must now take her place as a complete world power.”