January 1919

It's January 1919.  The Great War has come to an end, and the victors are assembling in Paris to decide on the terms of the peace.  In the United States former President Roosevelt dies at his home in Oyster Bay.  The Eighteenth Amendment is ratified making prohibition the law of the land.

As we observe the end of an era in world history and the beginning of a new one, I have decided that it is an appropriate time to end my monthly blog posts.  This month-by-month review of world events (mostly from an American perspective) has been an enjoyable and educational exercise for me, as I hope it has been for my readers.  All of the monthly installments, beginning with September 1911, remain available in the blog archive, and I may well add posts from time to time, just not on the rigid monthly schedule I've followed for the last seven plus years.  Many thanks to all of you for your interest and feedback.

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 Roosevelt at Sagamore Hill

Former President Theodore Roosevelt died in his sleep at Sagamore Hill on the morning of January 6.  He had returned home on Christmas Day after a hospital stay that began on November 11 for treatment of a painful case of inflammatory rheumatism.  The cause of death was a pulmonary embolism.  Roosevelt was working hard as recently as the day before his death, proofreading a series of magazine articles and planning a meeting with Republican Party Chairman Will Hays to discuss a possible run for the presidency in 1920.  On January 3 he had dictated an article for the Kansas City Star in which he criticized President Wilson's utterances as "still absolutely in the stage of rhetoric precisely like the 'fourteen points,'" some of which may "be construed as having a mischievous significance, a smaller number might be construed as being harmless, and one or two even as beneficial, but nobody knows what Mr. Wilson really means by them."  Instead of the proposed League of Nations, Roosevelt asked whether it would not "be well to begin with the League which we already have in existence, the League of the Allies who have fought through this great war," and then "extend the privileges of the League, as rapidly as their conduct warrants it, to other nations."  Finally, he asserted that "the American people do not intend to give up the Monroe Doctrine," and recommended a similar policy for the rest of the world, proposing that "civilized Europe and Asia introduce some kind of police system in the weak and disorderly countries at their thresholds."

A funeral service was held on January 8 at Christ Episcopal Church in Oyster Bay, followed by a graveside burial service.  Because the grave is on a steep hill accessible only by foot, automobiles had to be parked outside the cemetery gate.

President Wilson and King Victor Emmanuel

After their visit to Great Britain, President and Mrs. Wilson returned to France on the last day of the year, then moved on to Italy, arriving in Rome with the President's daughter Margaret on Friday, January 3.  They were greeted at the station by King Victor Emmanuel and Queen Helena, local officials, and members of the Italian government.  The crowds that greeted the President and his party as they were carried through the streets were, if possible, even larger and more enthusiastic than those in Paris and London.  On the day of his arrival he addressed the Italian Parliament, attended a state dinner as the guest of honor, and was made an honorary citizen of Rome.  The next day he was received at the Vatican by Pope Benedict XV.  On his way back to Paris, he stopped at Genoa, Turin and Milan.  In Turin he was notified by telegram of the death of President Roosevelt, perhaps his most outspoken political adversary, and sent a telegram of condolence to his widow.

The Supreme War Council (Left to Right: Orlando, Lloyd George, Clemenceau, Wilson)

The President arrived back in Paris on January 7.  Resisting the urgent requests of President Poincare, Premier Clemenceau, Ambassador Jusserand and others, he declined to visit the devastated regions of Belgium and France.  His stated reason was that he wanted the conference to proceed on schedule; privately he expressed concern that the European Allies had extended the invitation in the hope that the visit would cause him to share their hatred of Germany, and insisted he wanted to attend the conference with an open mind.  On January 11 Secretary of State Lansing gave the President an outline of topics for discussion at the conference, including a skeletal version of the peace treaty.  Wilson angrily rejected it, saying he did not want lawyers drafting the treaty.

The Supreme War Council (the heads of government of France, Great Britain, Italy and the United States) met at the Quai d'Orsay on January 12 for preliminary discussions.  Among other things, they decided to add Japan to the group, along with each nation's foreign minister.  The resulting "Council of Ten" will be the principal decision-making body of the conference.  On January 18 the formal opening of the conference took place.  After President Poincare's welcoming speech, the conference chose a permanent chairman.  Following his nomination by President Wilson, Premier Clemenceau was elected unanimously.

 

William Jennings Bryan

As newly elected state legislatures convened throughout the United States, one after another passed resolutions ratifying the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which will prohibit the import, manufacture, sale or transportation of intoxicating liquors.  When the month began, the amendment had been ratified by only fifteen of the necessary thirty-six states; by month's end, the number was forty-four.  The thirty-sixth state to ratify the amendment, on January 16, was Nebraska, the home state of former Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan, a prominent advocate of prohibition who famously served grape juice at a diplomatic dinner shortly after becoming Secretary of State.  The amendment became part of the Constitution at noon on January 29, when acting Secretary of State Frank L. Polk signed the formal proclamation in the reception room adjoining the Secretary's office.  Among those present were Mr. Bryan, the amendment's sponsor Senator Morris Sheppard of Texas, and representatives of various temperance organizations.  The amendment will take effect one year from the date of its ratification, January 16, 1920.

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January 1919 – Selected Sources and Recommended Reading

Contemporary Periodicals:

American Review of Reviews, January and February 1919

New York Times, January 1919

Books and Articles:

A. Scott Berg, Wilson

Britain at War Magazine, The Fifth Year of the Great War: 1918
Winston S. Churchill, The World Crisis 1911-1918
John Milton Cooper, Jr., Woodrow Wilson: A Biography
John Milton Cooper, Jr., The Warrior and the Priest: Woodrow Wilson and Theodore Roosevelt

John Dos Passos, Mr. Wilson's War

Kenneth S. Davis, FDR: The Beckoning of Destiny

David Fromkin, A Peace to End All Peace: Creating the Modern Middle East, 1914-1922

Martin Gilbert, Churchill: A Life
Martin Gilbert, The First World War: A Complete History

Martin Gilbert, A History of the Twentieth Century, Volume One: 1900-1933
Martin Gilbert, Winston S. Churchill Volume IV: The Stricken World 1916-1922

Ann Hagedorn, Savage Peace, Hope and Fear in America, 1919

August Heckscher, Woodrow Wilson: A Biography

Godfrey Hodgson, Woodrow Wilson's Right Hand: The Life of Colonel Edward M. House

Roy Jenkins, Churchill: A Biography
John Keegan, The First World War
David M. Kennedy, Over Here: The First World War and American Society
Ian Kershaw, To Hell and Back: Europe 1914-1949 

W. Bruce Lincoln, Passage Through Armageddon: The Russians In War and Revolution 1914-1918

Giles MacDonogh, The Last Kaiser: The Life of Wilhelm II 
Margaret MacMillan, Paris 1919: Six Months That Changed the World
Robert K. Massie, Castles of Steel: Britain, Germany, and the Winning of the Great War at Sea

G.J. Meyer, A World Undone: The Story of the Great War, 1914 to 1918

G.J. Meyer, The World Remade: America in World War I 

Ted Morgan, FDR: A Biography
William Mulligan, The Great War for Peace

Michael S. Neiberg, The Path to War: How the First World War Created Modern America

Patricia O'Toole, The Moralist: Woodrow Wilson and the World He Made 

Edward J. Renehan, The Lion's Pride: Theodore Roosevelt and His Family in Peace and War
Andrew Roberts, Churchill: Walking With Destiny

Jonathan Schneer, The Balfour Declaration: The Origins of the Arab-Israeli Conflict

David Stevenson, Cataclysm: The First World War As Political Tragedy 

David Stevenson, With Our Backs to the Wall: Victory and Defeat in 1918

J. Lee Thompson, Never Call Retreat: Theodore Roosevelt and the Great War
Adam Tooze, The Deluge: The Great War, America and the Remaking of the Global Order, 1916-1931

Geoffrey C. Ward, A First Class Temperament: The Emergence of Franklin Roosevelt

Geoffrey C. Ward and Ken Burns, The Roosevelts: An Intimate History