100 years ago in Spokane: German society says members stand behind Woodrow Wilson

The Deutsche Gesellschaft, Spokane’s major German society, took a symbolic and telling step.

It took down all portraits of Kaiser Wilhelm and all German flags from the walls of its halls.

“These portraits and flags are to be replaced by the Stars and Stripes,” said the society’s president, Dr. E.T. Richter.

Richter said he believed that all 300 active members of the society “deplore the action of the German government in its announcement of unrestricted submarine warfare.”

Further, he said that “every one of the 2,500 Germans in Spokane, who have taken out naturalization papers, will stand behind the president of the United States in his decisions.”

The U.S. was in a virtual state of war with Germany and it was making plans to declare war formally within a week.

The pages of the Spokane Daily Chronicle were filled with other war news, including:

• A call went out for 200 more men to fill the three companies of Spokane’s National Guard.
• The Army sent notices to 13 Spokane physicians, asking them to get ready to serve in the medical corps.
• Spokane’s Red Cross chapter was preparing plans to offer assistance to the families and dependents of guardsmen who were called into service.