NORFOLK CEEY
WAR TIME

a

A Community History

By
ARTHUR KYLE DAVIS

Ss viiiee Chin
WAR TIME

LI
A Community History

By
ARTHUR KYLE DAVIS

VIRCINIA STA DOCUMENT

University et
ersiv) i LibraryFOREWORD

This is not the definitive history of Norfolk in war time that
is expected at the hands of the Commission. It is merely a ten-
tative sketch of source material prepared under the supervision
of the editor from the valuable reports and manuscripts con-
tributed to the archives by the Norfolk War History Commis-
sion, Mrs. Frantz Naylor, chairman; Mrs. A. R. Hanckel, and
Mrs. N. H. Slack.

The sketch has been prepared as an aid or guide for the
writers of the community history of the several Virginia cities.
The contents are arranged under the general section heads of
the Virginia plan, and the treatment follows the topical outline
issued by the Commission.

Each of the eight chapters is documented. On each page may
be found references to the source material from which are de-
rived the statements and figures given. It is hoped that the
community historians may follow this plan of documentation in
their narratives.

The topics treated are as follows:
I. Pre-War Conditions.
II. Churches in War Time.
III. Schools During the War.
[V. Draft Law and Military Organiations.
V. Economic and Social Conditions.
VI. The Red Cross.
VII. War Work and Relief Organizations.
VIII. Post War Conditions and Activities.

Since the book has been compiled only from the source ma-
terial sent in by the Norfolk branch and from the published
source volumes and from the newspapers, it is obvious that there
must be many gaps or omissions. Thus the section touching
churches in war time lacks an adequate account of Baptist ac-
tivities. The reason for this omission is that the Norfolk files
supplied no material for this topic. Full use has been made of
the material available.

The sketch lacks also the personal tone and the local color
that a native of Norfolk could give. Such a full and authorita-
tive narrative from the hands of a distinguished citizen of Nor-
folk may be expected later. In the mean time, there is an
insistent demand from the cities and counties for some norm or
example of community history. Hence the editor has shaped
this treatise, not as a model but as a helpful indicant of the type
of work desired.

ARTHUR KYLE DAVIS:

15 September 1925.CONTENTS

CHAPTER I.
Pre-War CONDITIONS:

Economic Conditions—Valuation of Exports in 1914; Invested capi-
tal and manufacturing plans; Government plants; Local industries
feel war-time growth; Increase in freight rates, prices, business
during 1916; Navy Yard appropriation; Southern Commercial
Congress; Bank clearings, 41 million over 1915.

Racial Conditions—Population, 85,000 in 1914 and 115,777 in 1920;
Population in 1918 more than in 1920; Negro population 36%;
Aliens, 5,000; The reputed negro exodus; Attitude toward aliens.

Patriotism and Public Opinion—Sympathy for Allies; German war
lords denounced, not German people; “Fair deal” asked for
Deutschland; Response to Red Cross call; staunch support for
Wilson’s policies, particularly preparedness.

GHAPT ER IT-

CHURCHES IN War TIME:

Church war work not usually tangible; Catholic recruiting rally;
Food conservation drive; $5,000 for community work; Absence
of denominational friction; Response to call for workers or sub-
scribers prompt; Wesleymen’s Bible class in home guards; “War
workers of Epworth”; Church organizations not representative
of church but of themselves; Sermons on the war; Ministers
exhort people to prepare Norfolk for soldiers; Liberty bonds in
the churches.

CHAPTER III.

ScHoots DurRING THE WAR:

Red Cross work-hospital supplies; 14,000 members Junior Red Cross;
Various drives—Armenian relief, adoption of war orphans, gar-
dening; Letters written and boxes sent to soldiers; Liberty
bonds and war saving stamps; Students leaving school for work
or enlistment: Teachers in service; Effect of war in classroom—
history, patriotic assemblies, German language discontinued.

CHAPTER IV.

Drarr LAw AND MILITARY ORGANIZATIONS:

National Guard—Battery B, Ist Virginia Field Artillery, entered
111th Field Artillery—history; Fourth Virginia Infantry con-
tained eight Norfolk companies; Roster of officers; History of
Companies.

Home Guard—The Brambleton Home Guards and Norfolk (proper)
Home Guards: Officers; Participation bond and stamp drives;
Reorganization of Norfolk Guards; Guards refused to join Vir-
ginia State volunteers; Later wished to join—armistice signed;vi

 

NORFOLK IN WAR TIME

Service rendered by Home Guard—police duty, Canvassing, pa-
rading, support of Norfolk morale.

Recruiting—Norfolk’s great interest in recruiting; Norfolk girls

solicit recruits; Parades of French sailors; Mass meetings; Nor-
folk leading all cities in recruiting; Patriotic concerts, sings,
and rallies; Opening of naval base; Recruiting low near registra-
tion day; Heavy recruiting immediately before December 15,
1917; Effect of submarine campaigns and German atrocities on
recruiting; Training camps, St. Elelena, A) ©). TG. at Fort
Myer; 700 volunteers by May 5, 1917; The Government Naviga-
tion School trains men for merchant marine—leads all similar
schools in South.

The Draft—Norfolk people desired conscription; Personnel of draft

board; Number of men registered on June 5, 1917; Number of
pleas for exemption—grounds; First quota—number called, per-
centage drafted; Second quota; Idlers to be drafted; Negro draft:
Second registration, September 12, 1918; Norfolk loyal through-
out draft.

CHAPTER: Vz

Economic ANp Socrat ConpITIONS:

Finance—Norfolk War Campaigns Committee organization, per-

sonnel and purposes; Four-minute men; Advertising committee;
First loan; Methods used in obtaining subscriptions; Quotas,
subscriptions and subscribers for all five loans; Organizations
selling bonds; Leadership of Mr. H. M. Kerr, director-general
of loans in Norfolk District: Advertising the Fourth Loan;
War saving stamps; Organizations aiding in sales of war Savings
stamps; Figures in stamp sale..

Agriculture, Food Production and Conservation—Norfolk a center

of trucking industry; Rise of freight rates in 1917; Movement of
truck decreases 1917; Figures of crops moving; Need for govern-
ment inspector of foods; Bread, sugar, and milk prices; Ice
shortage; Flour shortage; Farmers permitted to buy Ford tract-
ors cheaply; Conservation campaigns, gardening, Mrs. Vaughan’s
Cooking School, “meatless” and “wheatless” days; 14,000 citizens
pledged to economy of food; Mr. H. K. Wolcott, Food Admin-
istrator, and question of profiteering; Profiteers punished; Re-
strictions on sale of biscuits and rolls; Foods saved by conserva-
tion programs.

Industry—Sudden growth of Norfolk industries; names of new

firms; firms cited by the government for excellence in contract-
ing; Government plants, naval and army bases added; Employ-
ment, transportation, water and electric power for naval base:
Norfolk facilities inadequate; Threat to put base at Yorktown:
Naval hospital enlarged; Navy Yard increased in size and ca-
pacity; Norfolk water supply doubled; Coal dumpings below
demand; Coal prices; Coal shortage; “Lightless” Thursdays and
Sundays; Idle draymen haul coal: Industries close down every
Monday; Administrator Hough makes every night “lightless’’:
Controversy; Streets half lit; No joy riding on Sundays; Electric
power shortage; Retail stores close at 4:30 P. M.

Commerce and Transportation—Work of the Chamber of Com-

merce; City manager for city; Business inflation; Car and ship
shortage; Truck losses; Electric car service inadequate for nava]
base and local industries; Railroad administration gives cars to
electric line; Storage of war materials in Norfolk; Harbor ice-

en a ~~ aaeA CoMMUNITY HISTORY vil

bound; Government appropriation for harbor work; U. S. Ship-
ping Board agency; Report of navigation for 1917.

Labor—Manufacturing plants and employers in 1913; Government
employees in 1918; Labor shortage; Losses to truckers; Chamber
of Commerce recruits workers; Government employment bureau
for Norfolk; Labor agents and stranded workers; Lure of high
wages; Labor imported from Middle West; Workers filled with
self-importance; Strikes; Housing situation; 12,000 homes needed
in Norfolk; Rent profiteering; Service men as tenants refuse to
vacate property; Government builds 4,000 homes.

Social Conditions—Norfolk’s cosmopolitanism; Absence of class

distinction; No change in status of negroes; No trouble with
aliens.

CHAPTER VI.

Tue Rep Cross 1N NORFOLK:

Pre-war activities; Organization in 1917; First drive for funds;
Norfolk chapter and neighboring auxiliaries; Organization of the
Junior Red Cross; Services during 1917; Drive for Funds in
1918: Re-organization and subdivision in 1918; Work during

influenza epidemic; Supplies, membership and funds; Attitude of
Norfolk people.

GHAPTERSYV IL
War WorK AND RELIEF ORGANIZATIONS:

Camp Service—Names and work of organizations participating;
300k drives; Community sings; Liberty theatre; Armory dances.

Relief Organizations—Armenian, Syrian, Jewish, and Belgian re-
liefs; Adoption of French war orphans; Names and work of
organizations participating; Splendid service of Travelers’ Aid.

Negro War Work—Aid in all war activities; Emergency hospital;
Mass meetings; Drafted negroes; Work of negro women.

GHAPTER ViITE

Post-War CONDITIONS AND ACTIVITIES:

The cessation of war; Demobilization and the returned soldier;
Economic conditions; Labor conditions; Welfare and relief work;
The American Legion; Conversion of war activities; Vocational
education for soldiers; Social conditions.CHAR TCR],

Pre-War Conditions

ECONOMIC

_ Norfolk, Virginia, of 1914 was a complacent, bustling,
important seaport town which had dreamed occasionally of
development of her naturally advantageous harbor into one of
the greatest ports in the world. Her exports were mainly coal,
peanuts, cotton, and truck. In the first two she held the world’s
record in shipping and marketing, respectively. Six per cent of
the United States cotton yield was shipped from Norfolk in 1913;
the annual shipment of fish, oysters, and crabs was valued at
$3,000,000, and the annual shipment of greenstuffs to the North
and West, $15,000,000. In the year preceding the European
conflict, Norfolk possessed an invested capital of $30,000,000 in
362 manufacturing plants which employed 15,000 workers. Her
building operations for 1913 cost $3,000,000, and she boasted
six foreign lines of steamships and twenty-six coastwise and
river steamship lines. Aside from these local and civic enter-
prises, the government plants near Norfolk were counted as
assets for the industrial and commercial future of the town: the
Navy Yard (273 acres), St. Helena Training Station (90 acres),
Marine Barracks (87 acres), St. Juliens Magazine (95 acres),
United States Naval Hospital (150 acres), and Fort Norfolk
(12 acres)—representing an expenditure by the government of
$14,350,000. These, generally, were the economic condition of
1913.3

3y the time the war had gotten under way in Europe, Nor-
folk’s industries were beginning to feel an urge of growth. The
Norfolk and Western Railroad handled 800,000 more tons of
coal through Norfolk in 1914 than in 1913;% and this increase
pointed decidedly to a new and enlarged coal export for the war-
ring nations—particularly England.* But the war during 1914
and the first half of 1915 did not act as an impetus to industry,
for a pronounced depression in business continued from August,
1914, until almost the end of 1915.4. True, fifteen new manufac-
turing plants were established in Norfolk during the end of the
latter year® and the beginning of 1916, but their presence was
occasioned more by local growth than by any foresight of war
business inflation. It was in July, 1916, that Norfolk began to
feel the coming impetus® toward a prosperity which swept her,

‘Report of Industrial Commission, ‘Virginian-Pilot, Dec. 31, 1915.
City of Norfolk, 1914. "Virginian-Pilot, Dec. 31, 1915.
*Virginian-Pilot, Aug. 5, 1914. *Ledger-Dispatch (Editorial), July

*Virginian-Pilot, Aug. 14, 1914. 18, 1916.2 NorFOLK IN WAR TIME

involuntarily (since it exceeded her dreams) from a busy Vir-
ginia seaport to a national metropolis and world port. At that
time, however, prosperity was seen approaching as some benevo-
lent fate—not as it really came with the pinch of high prices and
the growing scarcity of materials.

November, 1916, saw the Norfolk Truckers’ Exchange plead-
ing before the Interstate Commerce Commission for reduction of
produce freight rates ;* and during the same month food prices
were noted to have advanced 32% within a year’s time, for
turkeys sold for 40c a pound, and even corn meal, which had been
2c a pound, was now 4c.8 In spite of this sudden rise in prices,
business increased and the city collected $72,000 in license taxes
as against $71,000 for the preceding year. And on November
25, 11,309 packages of truck were handled through Norfolk in
one day, and more than 5,000 barrels of potatoes were shipped
to New York on that same date. The Virginian Railroad dur-
ing this period began construction for increasing the capacity of
its piers at Sewell’s Point from 1,800 tons per hour to 5,400.4
. . . But such prosperity, promised or arrived, was accompanied
by a rise of prices which produced the protest from the Norfolk
Central Labor Union to the Mayor that the cost of food was too
high and that food was being hoarded in Norfolk warehouses.”
The Housewives’ League of Norfolk felt itself forced into action
by the price situation; and together with the aid of other organi-
zations, instituted a boycott on turkeys and eggs,!* a boycott
which, by December 8 had extended to the entire State.14 The
editor of the Virginian-Pilot attempted to ease the troubled situa-
tion by explaining that high prices and high wages are a sign of
prosperity.’° The difficulty lay, as it always does, in the prece-
dence of the high prices, with wages following, as it were, re-
luctantly.

The news on December 5 that Secretary McAdoo had asked
Congress for two and a half million dollars for the Navy Yard
at Norfolk’® constituted to many a hope for added money and
relief from increase in all operating expense in business. (In-
crease in freight rates on truck from Norfolk was from 20% to
25%.)** At this time (December 11, 1916) the Southern Com-
mercial Congress met in Norfolk, and for the moment the com-
plication of the economic situation was ignored in the midst of
enthusiastic prophecy and outlook for the South commercially.
The fact that local bank clearings increased forty-one million
over 1915; that Norfolk ranked fourth in the United States as a
cotton port, having handled in 1916 a half million bales, and that
five million packages of truck were marketed during the season

 

"Virginian-Pilot, Nov. 24, 1916. “Virginian-Pilot, Nov. 30, 1916.
*Virginian-Pilot, Nov. 25, 1916. “Virginian-Pilot, Dec. 12, 1916.
“Virginian-Pilot, Novy. 25, 1916. “Virginian-Pilot (Editorial), Nov.
“Virginian-Pilot, Nov. 25, 1916. 30, 1916.

“Virginian-Pilot, Nov. 26, 1916. Virginian-Pilot, Dec. 5, 1916.

“Virginian-Pilot, Nov. 28, 1916. “Virginian-Pilot, Dec. 5, 1916.A CoMMUNITY History 3

 

of 1916,** pointed clearly to commercial potentialities which sub-
stantially overbalanced the concern over the high cost of living.

RACIAL

In 1910 the population of Norfolk numbered 67,452. In
August, 1914, the census showed 85,000, an increase of 30% in
four years; and from 1914 and 85,000 to 1920 with 115,777,
there was an added increase of about 36%. These last figures
do not tell the whole truth; because during the war the popula-
tion reached 200,000 (estimated and unofficial) and then dropped
suddenly to the figure above. A survey of these census figures
should give a hint of difficult conditions with which Norfolk of
1914 and its 85,000 inhabitants had to deal.

In 1916 the population was approximately 102,000. Of this
number about 36% were negroes—not a large ratio for a South-
ern city of the “Black Belt” of Virginia—and 4.5 or 5% (5,000)
were aliens, of which number 4,000 were foreign born.!® During
the earlier part of the war, when the negro exodus to the manu-
facturing plants in the North occurred, Norfolk was not particu-
larly affected. It was the rural South that felt the negro labor
shortage, and the thriving industries of the cities managed to
hold their men, with the exception of a relatively small number
of the more gullible. In fact, Norfolk never believed the negro
exodus would reach proportions of any size.2® \As for the atti-
tude toward aliens, relations were most amicable, and in the late
fall of 1916 the editor of the Virginian-Pilot suggested schooling
for local aliens in order that they might the sooner become
acquainted with American traditions and _ institutions.”!

 

PATRIOTISM AND PUBLIC OPINION

The attitude of Norfolk toward the war was not different
from that of the country at large. Sympathies were for the
most part openly with the Allies, and although Germany was
denounced, it was the German war machine rather than the
German people that received the denunciation.“- When the Ger-
man submarines reached this country, the attitude of Norfolk
people was sportsmanlike in recognition of the courage of the
crews; and a “square deal” was asked for the visitors.*

When the Red Cross call came as early as August 16, 1914,
Norfolk responded liberally to aid stricken soldiers in the Serbian
and Austrian armies.~*

Although Norfolk scarcely considered any participation in the

*Virginian-Pilot, Dec. 31, 1916. “Virginian-Pilot (Editorial), Aug.
“Figures from U. S. Census Re- 11, 1916.

ports. *Ledger-Dispatch (Editorial), July
*Virginian-Pilot (Editorial), Nov. 29, 1916.

ME 1916: “Virginian-Pilot, Aug. 16, 1914.

*Virginian-Pilot (Editorial), Nov.
21, 1916.4 NorFOLK IN War TIME

war by the United States during the early days, the Southern
Commercial Congress on December 14, 1916, cheered Secretary
Daniels when he declared his stand for an active preparedness
program in the United States.*? With Virginian and Democratic
loyalty, Norfolk approved all the moves of President Wilson, and,
if editorial comment serves as a guide to the temper of the people,
strongly supported him in his program of war preparation in
February, 1917.78 By April 4, 1917, before the war declaration
had come, recruiting in Norfolk was increasing and the people
heartily approved it.??

"Virginian-Pilot, Dec. 14, 1916. “Ledger-Dispatch (Editorial),
*Ledger-Dispatch (Editorial), Feb. April 4, 1917.
13, 1917.CHAP BER: Ur

Churches in War lime

Norfolk churches rendered valuable service to the city and
nation during the war. This service, however, was not so much
the result of consolidated or institutionalized effort as of the
individual energy of certain laymen, church organizations and
pastors. This does not mean that the churches as such did noth-
ing; it means that economy of labor left to organizations already
existent the business of carrying on the war work, and required
of the church few definite duties. The fact that members of
organizations engaging in war work were also members of a
church, does not rightly register service done as belonging to
the church: rather to the organization. For the church’s service
was mainly religious and supervisory. The church was a nucleus
from which smaller groups with specified duties sprang; it was
a background, a foundation, a fountain of ideals inspiring war
work at the same time that it administered to the spiritual needs
of soldiers and members; it was a steadying earnest support for
all humanitarian appeals.

The churches in themselves were thoroughly alive to the
more abstract values and implications of the war. Mi£nisters
preached frequently on the moral and religious aspects of German
and Allied conduct of the war, and seized the opportunity to
denounce the cruelty reported of Germany, and to declare for
the righteousness of the Allied cause. The people were exhorted
to pray with frequency and fervor for the success of the Allies ;
consolation in the words of spiritual and religious comfort was
tended those grieving over loss of dear ones; the deeper idealism
of the American motive was stressed constantly. Aside from
such distant and somewhat general matters, the moral conditions
of Norfolk in war time were the theme of many sermons and
the object of small reforms. Dr. S. T. Senter, of Epworth
Methodist, urged his peop!e repeatedly to use care and foresight
in preparing Norfolk for the soldier.’ Dr. Mendoza and Dr.
Steinmetz, particularly, were outstanding leaders in various civic
activities to which the churches gave aid.

In the midst of the manifold duties which the Norfolk
churches undertook to do, there is one characteristic of their
attitude which deserves considerable commendation: their splen-

did spirit of interdenominationalism. Naturally each church,
each church organization, was proud of the work done in its
own circle and its own name. A healthy competition spurred

the energies of every one, and each person felt a personal re-
sponsibility toward insuring a full and worthy representation o1

 

‘Virginian-Pilot, July 24, 1917.6 NorrouK IN War TIME

his society and church in the roster of war workers ; but the name
of the group in which the work was done was merely a means—
the ideal, the aim, was to serve the men in service, to aid the
government, to win the war. There is no evidence of denomi-
national friction to be found anywhere in war work done by
Norfolk religious bodies. Whenever a call came for workers or
for church sanction in matters pertaining to soldiers or war
funds, there was always a hearty, co-operative response from
Jewish, Catholic and Protestant churches alike.

' The great number of Norfolk church societies engaged in war
work will be dealt with later under the topic of camp service
and relief organizations. Their work with the Red Cross, the
Liberty Loan and War Savings Stamp drives, the War Camp
Community Service, and various other war-time enterprises was
specific and characteristic of the city rather than of the churches.

A number of drives for bonds, war relief, the Red Cross, food
conservation, recruiting, and the myriad operations of war, were
begun in the churches. Ministers faithfully served by presenting
to their congregations those matters which required civilian aid.
Propaganda, stimuli for patriotism, information—all found a
place in the pulpit for their proclamation.

The following are typical examples of the general work done
by the Norfolk churches: In April, 1917, a Catholic recruiting
rally declared for the selective draft. The food conservation
drive of October, 1917, began in the churches.? The Federation
of Churches in Norfolk set out to raise $5,000 for community
work ;* and the State Convention of Christian Endeavor on May
25, 1917, declared its loyalty to the United States and to Presi-
dent Wilson.® Such work as this was characteristic of all the
churches in Norfolk.

In the chruches there were certain organizations formed pri-
marily for war work. The following are typical: The Wesley-
men’s Bible Class of the Epworth M. E. Church, which formed
a company in the Home Guards ;® and the women of the same
church, who organized “The War Workers of Epworth” for the
purpose of making hospital supplies and surgical dressings."

As for war activities carried on by the churches themselves,
let us examine the records of several churches whose work was
similar to that of all those unnamed.

The Chevro Mickro Kodsh Synagogue, of which the officiating
rabbi was Rey. L. Canter, gave thirteen men to the service—
five to the Army, eight to the Navy. The activities of the syna-
gogue were largely devoted to entertaining Jewish men in the
service, but the majority of their entertainments were open to
soldiers and sailors of all denominations. Frequently services of

 

“Virginian-Pilot, April 21, 1917. “Virginian-Pilot, March 20, 1918.

Virginian-Pilot, Oct. 28; 1917. “Virginian-Pilot, May 25, 1917.

Report of Wesleymen’s Bible ‘War Workers of Epworth. Nor-
Class. Norfolk Files, Vol. L, folk Files, Vol. I., Va. War

Va. War Hist. Com. Hist. Com.A ComMMuUNITY HISTORY 7

 

a patriotic nature were held, at which time special prayers were
said for service men. The attendance of men in uniform at
these and other services was gratifyingly large. When on leave,
men were welcomed to homes of members of the congregation.
Although the synagogue as a body did not have a Red Cross
Auxiliary, practically all the members and their families were
contributors to the Red Cross. In the work of the Jewish Wel-
fare Board, the Jewish War Relief Fund (three-fourths of the
$14,000 raised in Berkley was subscribed by members of the
synagogue), and the various war-time drives were sponsored
fully by the synagogue.®

In spite of small quarters, the Sacred Heart Church (Cath-
olic) accomplished a splendid amount of work. It co-operated
fully with other Catholic organizations, such as the Young Men’s
Association, the Knights of Columbus, the National Catholic War
Council, and the Chaplain’s Aid, and formed a valuable adjunct
to all social affairs given by these organizations. Miss Mary
Smith, with a force of sixty-six assistants, superintended the
making of articles of all descriptions for use by chaplains over-
seas. Books, rosaries, and religious articles were distributed in
the Naval hospitals; comfort bags were provided and distributed
at all debarkation as well as embarkation camps. The parish-
ioners were most generous with their automobiles. They called
at the Naval Y. M. C. A. and the Y. M. C. A. for service men
and carried them to and from mass on every Sunday throughout
the year. The service flag of the Sacred Heart Church numbered
ninety, all in active service at home and abroad.®°

The Union Mission in Norfolk, under the administration of
Superintendent Henry H. Kratzig, cared for the needs of thou-
sands of men who were never considered by many welfare
organizations. Many of them came to Norfolk looking for
menial labor aboard ships. The Mission served them and directed
them. \As early as 1914 fifty-four men were sent to City Point
to work for the coming DuPont powder plant; and during the
years 1914, 1915, and 1916 approximately 15,000 men were taken
from the Union Mission to work on horse boats going to Liver-
pool, Glasgow, ports in France, and Alexandria, Egypt. When
war was declared, a group of men who were brought to Norfolk
to work on horse boats decided to enlist, some in the Army,
some in the Navy. The Mission aided them.’°

The Memorial M. E. Church, of which S. J. Battin was pas-
tor, had twenty-one men in the Army and forty-four in the
Navy. The congregation was generally zealous in carrying on
war activities. Prayers for service men were said at numerous
patriotic services; and a service flag was formally dedicated in

 

‘Report of Chevro Mickro Kodsh *Report of Sacred Heart Catholic
Synagogue. Files Va. War Church. Files Va. War Hist.
Hist. Com. Com.

“Report of Union Mission. Files
Va. War Hist. Com.8 NorFOLK IN WAR TIME

the church. The church did not engage specifically in financial
war work except to buy a Liberty Bond; but the members of
the church were active in all the drives. The pastor preached
frequently in favor of the various relief funds and took collection
for them."

St. Paul’s Church, Rev. R. R. Phelps, pastor, had five men in
the Army and eight in the Navy. In addition to the matter of
prayers for soldiers and the dedication of a service flag (activities
common to all the churches) the congregation sponsored two
entertainments for service men at the Imperial Recreation Club.
In the various bond, stamp, and food conservation drives, the
pastor delivered appropriate sermons and made necessary an-
nouncements.’*

The First Lutheran Church, of which Dr. E. R. McCauley
was pastor, had five men in the Army and eighteen in the Navy.
The congregation zealously complied with all Federal requests
for announcements and discourses. The various church organi-
zations -brought service men to the church and entertained them
in two entertainments each month. The church itself had no part
in the subscription of bonds and stamps or food drives, except
that the pastor advised his people to buy bonds and also spoke
in favor of the food conservation campaigns.}%

In the fall of 1917 the Virginia Conference of the Methodist
Church appropriated the sum of $16,000 for the support of three
ministers who gave their time to the enlisted men in Tidewater,
Virginia. Mr. Daniel T. Merritt was in charge of religious
services at the Naval Base and the Army Base. Besides the
usual devotional work, papers, magazines, flowers, etc., were
distributed among the sick; entertainments were given to Red
Cross nurses; home accommodations were secured for relatives
visiting the sick. Two Bible classes were held each week with
the average attendance of thirty; several thousand New Testa-
ments were given away to soldiers, and service flags, with appro-
priate exercises, were placed in every Methodist church in
Norfolk.14

Colley Memorial Presbyterian Church, Rev. R. B. Grinnan,
pastor, possessed a congregatoin which was anxious to help in
all war activities. Although the record of activities done was
outside the church proper, practically every member was engaged
in some sort of productive war work. The pastor kept his con-
gregation posted on numerous activities and directed the various
prayer services and entertainments held for service men. From
Colley Memorial eleven men entered the Army, two the Navy,
and four the Marines.1®

 

“Report of Memorial Methodist.

Files Va. War Hist. Com.
“Report of St. Paul’s
Files Va. War Hist. Com.

“Report of First Lutheran Church.

Files Va. War Hist. Com.

Church.

“Report of War Work Commis-
sion, M. E. Church, South,
Norfolk, Va.
Hist. Com.

“Report of Colley Memorial Pres-
byterian Church.
War Hist. Com.

Files Va. War

Files Va.A CoMMUNITY History 9

 

The Memorial Christian Temple, of which G. Herbert Ekins
was pastor, had nine of its members in the Army and one in the
Navy. In addition to holding special prayer services, dedication
of a service flag, and special services of farewell and return, the
pastor advocated the purchase of war securities and participation
on the part of all his people in the food conservation drives.1®

St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, of which W. Edward Callendar
was pastor, had five men in the Army and twenty-five in the
Navy. The church complied with all Federal requests for an-
nouncements, held special prayer services, and displayed a service
flag. The pastor publicly exhorted the people to buy Liberty
bonds and to aid in conserving food. Many members of the con-
gregation entertained service men in their homes.??

The Armstrong Memorial Presbyterian Church had six men
in the Army and five in the Navy. Since the church was a small
one, war work activities were limited. The congregation and
pastor, Rev. T. H. Dimmock, cheerfully carried out the announce-
ments requested by the government. The church had no service
flag and conducted no special services for farewell or return of
soldiers. Food conservation and the purchase of bonds were
urged from the pulpit."®

Park Place Methodist Church had thirty-one men in the Army
and thirty-five in the Navy. The church engaged in numerous
war activities—holding special prayers, displaying a service flag,
entertaining soldiers, holding farewell and return services. Mem-
bers of the congregation subscribed liberally to war securities
and worked in behalf of food conservation.”

The First Christian Church (Disciples), of which Rev.
Charles M. Watson was pastor, did a large and varied war
work.*° Twenty-three of its members were in the Army, thirteen
in the Navy, and two in Red Cross service. At the very beginning
of the war, in the spring of 1917, the church set about mobilizing
its energies for war-time activities. Sermons preached, prayers
said for men in service, the hanging of the honor roll, and the
raising of the service flag with the flag of the nation, printing of
special hymns, making provision for entertainment of uniformed
men in homes—all put the congregation of the church into a spirit
of wanting to aid the soldier as much as possible. Patriotic
meetings stimulated an ardent interest in every member. A
pageant, “The Church and the Nation’s Need,” was given July 4,
1918. The church issued bulletins asking some sort of service

“Report of Memorial Christian ‘Report of Park Place Methodist

Temple. Files Va. War Hist. Church. Files Va. War Hist.
Com. Com.

“Report of St. Peter’s Episcopal ~*Report of First Christian Church
Church. Files Va. War Hist. (Disciples). Files Va. War
Com. Hist. Com.

‘Report of Armstrong Memorial
Presbyterian Church. Files
Va. War Hist. Com.10 NorFOLK IN War TIME

 

from every individual. The congregation responded admirably.
A prayer circle was organized, and through it solicitation was
made to all members for earnest prayers for our men in the
Army and Navy. Numerous public services for prayer were
held. In addition to these general gatherings, a memorial service
was held on November 10, 1918, for Shirley Owen, a member
of the church.

But the church did not devote all its energies to things spirit-
ual. Entertainments consisting mainly of suppers given every
Sunday evening, brought numbers of service men to the church.
Several thousand magazines were collected and distributed among
soldiers. Advice and aid was given men in uniform whenever
the need was discovered.

In financial matters and relief work the First Christian
Church was well represented. The Surgical Dressing Committee
(later merged with the Red Cross) made 15,551 articles of
clothing and surgical dressings. Members of the congregation
took part in canvasses for the Red Cross and for the sale of
Liberty Bonds and War Savings Stamps. The church itself
bought $5,000 in Liberty Bonds and subscribed $816.84 to the
Syrian and Armenian Relief Fund. The War Work Committee
of the church raised $875 for welfare work. The pastor pre-
sented the plan of the food conservation drives and members
conducted campaigns for securing pledges to the movement.

The churches named above are not the only ones in Norfolk
participating in war work. These are merely typical, for all the
churches responded as generously as their facilities permitted ;
and Norfolk can boast that in line of war-time activities all the
churches of all denominations and religions were fully mobilized.CHAPDER Ti:

Schools

The war had a very decided effect on the schools. Officials
of the nation, as well as civic representatives of the government
in the conduct of war support, depended on the schools for much
of the war service work and the dissemination of propaganda.
Sewing classes in the Norfolk schools made hospital supplies and
garments for the Red Cross to the number of 5,000 articles ; and
manual training classes furnished the Red Cross with many
hospital supplies, such as writing tables, taborets, screens, dress-
ing stands, and thousands of splints... The Junior Red Cross,
limited to school pupils, numbered 14,000; and in their work
conducted various drives—‘Tag Your Shovel’ Day; Armenian
Relief ; adoption of thirteen French and Belgian war orphans;
cultivation of 1,500 city lots. The pupils of Maury High School
wrote 1,500 letters and sent 100 Christmas boxes to homeless
soldiers. The R. E. Lee School was particularly active in garden
work. Pupils of all schools joined in canvassing for books which
were supplied to the men at the Naval Base and the Marine
Hospital.*

One of the great services rendered by the schools during the
war was that of aid in Liberty Loan Bonds and War Savings
Stamp drives. The enthusiasm of the young people was never
turned to greater advantage nor to better results. The School
Board® had early sanctioned the pursuance of systematic garden-
ing and participation in loan bond drives by the schools, and
when the call came for the schools to sell bonds and stamps the
response was unanimous. In the War Savings Stamp drives
particularly did the school children distinguish themselves. In
the drive which came during the first of May, 1918, the quota
of $40,000 was soon passed, and on May 14, 1918, the sales
numbered $141,054.49; $7,772.23 of this amount was subscribed
through colored schools.* These figures were larger than those
of the schools of any other city or county in the State, a distine-
tion of which the Norfolk schools were justly proud. The total
sales of stamps by Norfoik schools was $400,000.°

It was not alone in sales of war securities, in Red Cross work,
and in gardening that Norfoik’s schools are represented. By

Report of Department of Voca- ‘Virginian-Pilot, May 9, 1917.

tional Education. Norfolk ‘Virginian-Pilot, May 14, 1918.

Byles) Vole l., Vay War Fist Report of War Work in the Pub-

Com. lic Schools of the City of Nor-
*Report of War Work in the Pub- folk. Norfolk Files, Vole ie
lic Schools of the City of Va. War Hist. Com.

Norfolk. Norfolk Files, Vol.
1... Va. War Hist. Com.12 NorFOLK IN WAR TIME

May 7, 1917, more than 100 Maury High School pupils (boys
and girls) had left school to take positions made vacant by sol-
diers. As many as thirty Maury boys had themselves joined the
colors. Nor were such honors for pupils alone, for sixty-five
white teachers, nine colored teachers, and three nurses in some
way devoted themselves totally to government work, and two
hundred teachers assisted the local draft boards.’

As for the effect of the war on classroom and school activities,
such changes were gradual yet pronounced. The teaching of his-
tory, particularly European, very naturally became modified to
fit the conditions of war, and emphasis was placed on war con-
ditions. In assemblies students were addressed on patriotic mat-
ters so that they might become acquainted with the program of
the war.’ In April, 1918, the study of German was discontinued
in the Norfolk schools. This action met with some opposition
on the ground that the lack of knowledge of German might handi-
cap a student entering college; but when only one such student
was reported as being found, the original plan of omitting Ger-
man from the curriculum was carried out—so it was said—as

 

a rebuke to Germany.?°
‘Virginian-Pilot, May 7, 1917. folk. Norfolk Files, Vol. I.,
“Report of War Work in the Pub- Va. War Hist. Com.
lic Schools of the City of Nor- ‘Report of War Work in the Pub-
folk. Norfolk Files, Vol. I., lic Schools of the City of Nor-
Va. War Hist. Com. folk. Norfolk Files, Vol. I.,
*Report of War Work in the Pub- Va. War Hist. Com.

lic Schools of the City of Nor- “Virginian-Pilot, April 10, 1918.GHARTER. LV.

Draft Law and Military Organizations
NATIONAL GUARD

Norfolk had nine National Guard units.!. Of these the Nor-
folk Light Artillery Blues was counted as Battery B of the First
Regiment, Virginia Field Artillery, and was mustered in on June
30, 1917. Its officers were Captain Paul W. Kear, First Lieut.
William C. Jones, First Lieut. John D. Thomas, Second Lieut.
Cary A. Wilcox, Second Lieut. Dustin W. Armstrong. This
battery, with the Virginia Field Artillery, was mustered into
Federal service on June 30, 1917, and remained in Norfolk until
July 6. From Norfolk it went to Fort Oglethorpe, thence to
Camp McClellan on December 15, and was redesignated Bat-
tery B, 111th Field Artillery. This contingent left Camp Mc-
Clellan on June 19, 1918, and arrived at Camp Mills, N. J., on
June 21, 1918. On July 5 it sailed on the “Aquitania” to Liver-
pool, where it arrived on the 12th. By way of Birmingham, the
battery proceeded to a rest camp at Winchester on July 13. It
arrived at Southampton on July 14 and sailed for Cherbourg on
July 15, arriving there on the 16th. It went by way of Poitiers to
Migne-Auxannces; thence it went to Camp-de-Meucon; thence
via Liffol-le-Grand to Aillianville, arriving there on November 9.
On December 6 the regiment joined the rest of the division at
Vernois Sur Mance. Here there followed various divisional and
corps maneuvers until April 21, 1919. From here the regiment
went to Le Mans on April 23. About June 1 orders came for
movement to St. Nazaire, where the regiment embarked for
home.*

The Fourth Virginia Infantry was composed of units from
Tidewater Virginia, and eight companies were recruited of Nor-
folk men. The regiment was commanded by Col. Edw. E. Good-
win, Col. Bernard W. Salomonsky having been discharged on
account of his age. The following were officers: Lieut.-Col.
Albert G. Epes, Major Frederick L. Curdts, First Lieut. and
Adjutant Chas. C. Moss, First Lieut. and Chaplain Thomas M.
Bulla, Major J. W. Liggan, Second Lieut. Chas. F. Higgin-
botham, and of the eight companies: A—Captain Edward M.
Curdts, First Lieut. Robt. C. Kent, Second Lieut. Chas. MG:
Doran; D—Captain Jas. L. Mitchell, First Lieut. Frank H. Bon-
durant, Second Lieut. Herbert N. Morris; E—Captain William
‘Report of the Adjutant General ‘History of Battery B, 111th Field

of the Commonwealth of Vir- Artillery. Files Va. War His-

ginia for the year ending De- tory Com.

cember, 1919, pp. 222-250;

p. 255.i4 NorFOLK IN WAR TIME

V. King, First Lieut. Harry A. Macon; C—Captain Roland
Thorp, First Lieut. Lawrence A. Porter ; Headquarters Com-
pany—Captain Chas. B. Borland; Machine Gun Company—Cap-
tain Joseph V. Bidgood, Jr., First Lieut. Blair Wilson, Second
Lieut. John W. Moss; Supply Company—Captain Robert B.
Myers; Sanitary Detachment—Major Israel Brown, Captain
Herbert R. Drewry, Captain Charles C. Smith, First Lieut. Thos.
V. Williamson, First Lieut. (Dental Corps) John M. Hughes.

The regiment remained at Norfolk from April, 1917, until
September 4, 1917, having paraded on August 24. During the
time that the regiment was stationed in Norfolk, 115 army mules
ottached to it broke from their enclosures and did some damage
to crops and trees, but were later recovered.®

In September, 1917, the Fourth entrained for Camp McClel-
lan at Anniston, Alabama. Here the various companies lost
their former identity and became units in other regiments. Com-
panies A, D, E, G, Supply, and Sanitary were placed with the
116th Infantry; part of D went into the 112th Machine Gun
Battalion; the Headquarters Company became Companies I and
M of the 111th Field Artillery and followed approximately the
same movements as those of Battery B given above; and the
Machine Gun Battalion entered the 111th Machine Gun Bat-
talion.*

The following is a brief account of the 116th Infantry:? In
June, 1918, all the companies above, which were in the 116th
Infantry, left Camp McClellan. They detrained at Hoboken,
New Jersey, and embarked on the transport Finland, which
sailed June 15. On June 27 the transport docked at St. Nazaire,
France. Immediately the regiment disembarked and moved to
several small towns around Champlitte, where it received inten-
sive training preparatory to advancing to the front line. By the
latter part of August all companies had been in the trenches.
Gradually they were moved into the front lines, and during July
and August they saw their first fighting in the comparatively
quiet sector of Alsace. Their experiences here were to temper
them for heavy fighting later. In September and October the
regiment moved from its former position to the Argonne region,
where it took part in the Meuse-Argonne fighting. It was during
the last of October that they were relieved from constant duty
in that region. The armistice was signed before the regiment
arrived for the second time at the front lines, although orders
received November 10 ordered it to advance. After considerable
movement, the entire division was reviewed by General Pershing
at Fresnes on March 24, and on April 19 the 116th Infantry was
chosen by General Pershing to parade for Field Marshal Sir

 

‘Virginian-Pilot, May 2, 1917. ‘Adapted from History of 116th
‘Report of the Adjutant General Infantry. Va. War History
of the Commonwealth of Vir- Com.

ginia for the year ending De-
cember, 1918, p. 77.A CoMMUNITY History 15

 

Douglas Haig. On April 26 the regiment was ordered to St.
Nazaire, where it embarked for the United States. After arriving
at Newport News, the regiment moved to Richmond, paraded,
then went to Camp Lee where it was discharged.

HOME GUARD

There were two distinct Home Guard units in Norfolk: the
Brambleton Home Guards and the Norfolk (proper) Home
Guards. Both were organized during the spring of 1917. The
former, the Brambleton Guards, was an independent organiza-
tion formed by Col. John L. Degge, who was elected president
of the association, with Temple T. Broughton as secretary. The
original organization numbered one hundred members. After
drilling for a few weeks the following men, who had shown
efficiency in the drill, were elected as officers: Captain, Cleveland
M. Daniels; First Lieut., W. E. Nicholson; Second Lieut., Paul
T. Goddin. The drills were continued until the signing of the
armistice, and the men were always ready to respond to any
call. During a Red Cross drive the Guard canvassed Bramble-
ton and raised $2,500, although most of the residents had already
been solicited and had contributed at their places of business.
The Brambleton Guard also participated in the Liberty Bond
and War Savings Stamp drives, and sold a substantial amount
of those securities.®

Also during the spring of 1917, the larger unit, the Norfolk
Home Guards, was organized. During the latter part of the sum-
mer of 1917 this unit contained 600 citizens grouped into eleven
companies. Later these companies were combined to form six
companies and two battalions. The commanding officers of the
Norfolk Home Guards on March 6, 1918, were: Col. B. W. Solo-
monsky (formerly of the Fourth Virginia Infantry, now _re-
tired); First Battalion—Major G. Serpell; Company A—Cap-
tain B. F. Williams, First Lieut. W. H. Feurerstein, Second Lieut.
Guy Webb; Company B—Captain H. A. Brinkley, First Lieut.
Collins Hill, Second Lieut. J. E. Sebrell, Jr.; Company C—Cap-
tain J. R. Winstead, First Lieut. Linton Jones, Second Lieut. W.
H. Doyle; Second Battalion—Major J. B. Moss; Company D—
Captain C. T. Melvin, First Lieut. F. R. Barrett, Second Lieut.
J. W. Grandy; Company E—Captain G. Y. Gooch, First Lieut.
L. G. Y. Baker, Second Lieut. R. C. Taylor; Company F—Cap-
tain H. C. Maury, First Lieut. G. W. Swarthout, Second Lieut.

H. M. Chewning.'

In August, 1917, the Norfolk Home Guards definitely refused

 

‘History of Brambleton Home "History of Home Guard Organi-
Guard. Norfolk Files, Vol. J zations in Norfolk. Files Va.
Va. War Hist. Com. War Hist. Com.16 NorFoLtk IN War TIME

 

to join the Virginia State Volunteers.* It seems that the city had
appropriated $23,000 for the maintenance of the Home Guard,
and that a major portion of that amount had been expended when
the request came for them to join the Volunteers. In view of
this cost to the city, the Guards were not willing to join any
organization which would require their services outside the city
of Norfolk and its immediate environs. On the other hand, it
was the Mayor’s hope that the Guards could receive aid for
equipment from the government—a hope which was, of course,
vain. On October 4, 1918, Colonel B. W. Solomonsky wrote to
the Adjutant General of Virginia that the majors and captains
of the Norfolk Guard were in favor of joining the Virginia State
Volunteers, and that they would try to induce their men to join
such a force. Colonel Salomonsky asked for petitions with a
view to organizing two or perhaps three companies of State
Volunteers. The Adjutant General responded and supplied every
encouragement—but the armistice was signed in a few weeks,
and it is probable that this circumstance is responsible for Nor-
folk’s not having at least one company of State Volunteers.®

The Home Guards of Norfolk served the community in in-
numerable ways. Not only were their services used in loan
drives, but 400 were called out for guard duty on the first draft
registration day (July 5, 1917).1° Also on January 23, 1918,
three companies of the Home Guards were summoned to aid the
police in guarding warehouses, docks, piers, utility plants, and
public buildings. Rumors of enemy plots to destroy property
were the occasion for the call; but the response and service of
the Home Guard on this and numerous similar occasions showed
to the Norfolk people that the organization of its citizens into
such a unit was of definite utilitarian value. Aside from par-
ticipation in parades, from solicitation of funds in war security
drives, and from service as sentinels and police, the Home Guard
by its presence gave to Norfolk a stabilizing influence, an influ-
ence which supported the morale of all patriotic citizens at a
serious time in Norfolk’s history.

RECRUITING

When it is remembered that Norfolk has always possessed a
large transient population, one can readily understand the im-
portance of recruiting in Norfolk during the war. Stimulation
toward enlistment was a very noticeable feature of Norfolk’s
daily life. Like most communities in April, 1917, Norfolk be-
lieved that a national army could be recruited from volunteers,

“History of Home Guard Organi- “Virginian-Pilot, June 6, 1917.
zations in Norfolk. Files Va. “History of Home Guard Organi-
War Hist. Com. zations in Norfolk, p. 2. Files

*History of Home Guard Organi- Va. War Hist. Com.
zations in Norfolk. Files Va.

War Hist. Com.A Community History WZ

whereupon the business of securing recruits became one of the
prime activities of civic organizations. So great was the force of
public interest in recruiting that even after the draft was in force
patriotic demonstrations continued with the object of drawing
men voluntarily to the colors. It is but another evidence of the
sanguine enthusiasm which was characteristic of Norfolk: what-
ever she undertook she did with a will; whatever she was indif-
ferent to, she did not attempt.

As early as April 7, 1917, there were stationed throughout the
city several hundred Norfolk girls—presumably the more comely
ones—whose purpose it was to encourage recruiting for the
Navy.’~ It is only natural that the bulk of recruiting done in
Norfolk should have been naval, for all her facilities—even the
atmosphere of the town itself—were maritime in war as in peace.
Added to this individual service on the part of Norfolk girls, a
naval parade on April 7 stimulated considerable interest in re-
cruiting ;’* and later when a detachment of French sailors paraded
with the U. S. local units,'* a noticeable response was to be found
in the daily recruiting records. A mass meeting held April 15
for Navy recruiting was counted as successful in that the en-
thusiasm then aroused could have had nothing less than far-
reaching effects.!°

By May 2, 1917, Norfolk was leading all cities of the country
in naval recruiting, as shown by the comparative rating list pub-
lished by the Bureau of Navigation, United States Navy Depart-
ment.?°

Following the various parades and picketing for the sake of
stimulating interest in recruiting, there was planned by the Nor-
folk Section of the Navy League of the United States a patriotic
concert.17 So great was the success of the concert that it was
repeated on June 21, and the Naval Training Station band was
present to add to the enthusiasm already aroused. The out-
growth of these concerts and mass meetings, originally planned
to encourage recruiting, appeared in the form of a series of so-
called Patriotic Sings held every Sunday afternoon at the Blues’
Armory.'® These gatherings served as stimuli for enlistment, as
entertainment for service men, and as encouragement and outlet
for the patriotism of all civilians who attended. On Sunday
afternoon, January 20, there were a thousand persons present,!®
and in April, 1918, the sings were still reported as phenomenal
successes.”°

At the same time that civic demonstrations of patriotism and
interest in recruiting were being made, certain organizations of a
religious and commercial sort were holding meetings of their own.
Dr. Mendoza spoke at a patriotic rally held at the Y. M. H. A.,”?

 

“Virginian-Pilot, April 7, 1917. “Virginian-Pilot, June 19, 1917.
"Virginian-Pilot, April 7, 1917. ‘SVirginian-Pilot, Jan. 14, 1918.
“Virginian-Pilot, April 27, 1917. “Virginian-Pilot, Jan. 21, 1918.
“Virginian-Pilot, April 16, 1917. Virginian Pilot, April 22, 1918.

"Virginian-Pilot, May 2, 1917. Virginian-Pilot, May 6, 1917.18 NorFOLK IN War TIME

 

and business clubs encouraged campaigns for recruits and pub-
lic demonstrations of the people’s patriotism. On May Z, 1917,-
the negroes of Norfolk held a parade, declaring their patriotism
and loyalty to the United States. Later, at a mass meeting fol-
lowing the parade, further demonstrations were made. At that
time Walter L. Land, prominent colored lawyer, was the princi-
pal among many speakers.”

The formal opening of the Naval Base on October 13, 1917,
served as a decided stimulus to recruiting.** Examination by
numerous visitors of that great plant was sufficient to cause an
increase in the local recruiting.

As the draft registration day (June 5, 1917) approached, en-
listment decreased to a peace basis.** The government had called
for 100,000 men, but when the registration process was begun
few men attempted to enlist.°"° After registration day, however,
recruiting resumed its former status, and many men found it more
convenient to volunteer than to be drafted. By the first of De-
cember the order was published that after December 15 no regis-
tered men could enlist. Immediately there was a rush to the
recruiting stations by those who preferred to volunteer rather
than to wait for the draft to call them.2® Whereas the recruiting
had been averaging scarcely more than a dozen men a day, on
December 5, 1917, three enlisted in the Army, four in the Navy,
and twenty-eight in the Naval Reserves.2* On December 7
seventy-seven men enlisted in the naval reserve ;*8 and on Decem-
ber 10 sixty-one enlisted in the Naval Reserve, one in the Army,
and nine in the Navy.*? This sudden boom did not last long.
‘As soon as December 15 came, and with it the order that regis-
tered men could not enlist, December 18 found only one man in
Norfolk enlisting.2° During the last rush (from December 8 to
15) 435 men were accepted.

During the spring of 1918 recruiting was somewhat beneath
the expectations of the government, but there were noticeable
increases during June, when stories of renewed submarine cam-
paigns, particularly in the instance of a hospital ship sunk by a
U-boat, caused many men to enlist.21. From then until the end
of the summer Norfolk led, most of the time, all the cities in the
State in recruiting.®*

Besides the regular recruiting work in Norfolk, there were
several specific training schools and camps to which Norfolk men
were exhorted to go. In April, 1917, the St. Helena training
station was, with 9,642 men, taxed to its capacity.23 When the

“Virginian-Pilot, May 2, 1917. **Virginian-Pilot, Dec. 11, 1917.
“Virginian-Pilot, Oct. 13, 1917. Virginian-Pilot, Dec. 18, 1917.
“Virginian-Pilot, June 3, 1917. "Virginian-Pilot, June 16, 1918,
“Virginian-Pilot, June 1, 1917. and July 4, 1918.
**Virginian-Pilot, Dec. 5, 1917. “Virginian-Pilot, July 9, 1918, and
“Virginian-Pilot, Dec. 5, 1917. July 28, 1918.

*“Virginian-Pilot, Dec. 8, 1917. *®Virginian-Pilot, April 8, 1917.A ComMmMuNITy History 19

call came for forty Norfolk men for the Army Officers’ Train-
ing Corps at Fort Myer, more than eighty were ready and quali-
fied to go.34 In August, 1917, sixty-one Norfolk men in the
camp at Fort Myer received commissions in the army; seven of
these were captains and eight were first lieutenants.°° By May
5, 1917, Norfolk and Tidewater Virginia had given 700 men to
the service, most of whom were in the Navy.°® When the call
came to Norfolk to furnish twenty-five men for the Railroad
Corps (Engineers), the number was supplied promptly.3?

On June 30, 1917, a free government navigation school was
opened for the purpose of training men for merchant marine
service, and the course was to take fourteen weeks.°8& The school,
conducted by the United States Shipping Board, was held at the
Central Y. M. C. A. The success of this school surpassed the
expectations of its founders,?® for within one year’s time one
hundred deck officers were graduated.*® Similar schools had
been established by the Shipping Board in other ports, but in
February, 1918, it was noted that not only was the school growing
rapidly, but also that it led all like schools in the South.*!

As for the other stations, of the twenty-eight new ensigns
graduated from the Naval Base in March, 1918, five were Nor-
folk men,** and St. Helena trained many of the local youths to
served as armed guards aboard merchant vessels.*%

THE DRAFT (ee

Toward the latter part of April, 1917, when it became known
that some method other than the volunteer system was necessary
if the United States were to raise an army, hundreds of Norfolk
people asked Congress, through their representative, for con-
scription.44 When the draft was decided upon, Mayor W. R.
Mayo appointed men for the Conscription Board: R. E. Steed,
ir. ©, S: Schenck, W. L. Williams, A> B:. Taylor, Edward
Brockenbrough, Moe Levy, and M. J. Lyons.*°

On June 5, when the first registration was made, Norfolk wit-
nessed an orderly and enthusiastic compliance with the law. The
three Norfolk divisions, directed by H. L. Butler, Edward
Brockenbrough, and W. Lee Williams*® as chairmen, registered
9,894 men—4,829 white, 4,571 colored, 464 alien, and 30 enemy
alien. Of this number 6,162 (or about 65%) asked for exemp-
tion.*7 The large majority of pleas for exemption were based on
marriage as the reason.

The first draft quota was called in August, 1917. The num-
ber was 242. Four hundred and eighty-four men were sum-

 

“Virginian-Pilot, May 5, 1917. “Virginian-Pilot, Feb. 9, 1918.
“Virginian-Pilot, Aug. 12, 1917. “Virginian-Pilot, March 3, 1918.
“Virginian-Pilot, May 6, 1917. “Virginian-Pilot, May 26, 1918.
"Virginian-Pilot, May 11, 1917. “Virginian-Pilot, April ZL 197:
‘Virginian-Pilot, June 30, 1917. “Virginian-Pilot, May 3OF 1917
"Virginian-Pilot, Jan. 17, 1918. “Virginian-Pilot, June 6, 1917.

“Virginian-Pilot, July 28, 1918. “Virginian-Pilot, June 6, 1917.20 NorFOLK IN War TIME

 

moned, and two-thirds either pleaded exemption or were physi-
cally unfit.48 And of this same 484 called, only 135 (27%%)
could be drafted; thus 107 were still needed to fill the quota.*®
By the first of September the quota was complete and the men
were sent in small detachments to Camp Lee.°® On September
22, a day before a contingent left for Camp Lee, a banquet was
given at the Monticello Hotel to drafted men.°* By December
all of the first draft men had left Norfolk. The next draft
quota came May 25-June 1, 1918, and 447 men were called.
In the decision of the city to break up loafing and idling, the local
draft boards about June 18, 1918, called on the public to report
all idlers who must either go to work or lose their class rating
(many were in deferred classes) and be called at once.°? On
June 20, 1918, the draft of negroes carried with it 292 of Nor-
folk’s citizens.°2 September 12, 1918, the registration for all
those from eighteen to forty-five was calmly and efficiently car-
ried out.°*

Norfolk’s attitude toward the draft contained nothing particu-
larly distinctive. Pleas for exemption on account of marriage
were numerous elsewhere; and on the whole the temper of the
draft in Norfolk was merely typical of that in other Virginia
cities: a wholly patriotic and co-operative response.

 

‘““Virginian-Pilot, Aug. 11, 1917. “Virginian-Pilot, Sept. 9, 1917.
“Virginian-Pilot, Aug. 14, 1917. ‘Virginian-Pilot, Sept. 22, 1917.CHAR RER V-

Economic and Social Conditions
FINANCE

When war was declared, certain business men in Norfolk
realized that the business of financing the United States in war
was a matter of serious concern. The first Liberty Loan came on
May 17, 1917, and the machinery for subscribing it had to be
built almost immediately. The result of this need was the Nor-
folk War Campaigns Committee, whose object it was, generally,
“to raise funds to help win the war.” The thoroughness with
which this ERauE of men organized was the main cause of the
success with which the Norfolk loan quotas were subscribed.
Mr. Thomas H. Wilcox was chairman of the committee, with
Garland P. Reed, secretary and chairman of Committee on Pub-
licity.- The following are the chairmen with their respective
committees: Tazewell Tay] Public Meetings; Henry Bowden,
Speakers; Moe Levy, Dee Gon: Otto Wells, Advertising ; Wal-
ter H. Taylor, Corporations; Major Clinton L. Wright, Parades ;
». W. Grandy, Jr., Audrting; David Pender, Retail Merchants ;

H. Glack, Wholesale Merchants; Mrs. A. R. Hanckel, Booths
and Theatres; R. L. Dobie, Teams; Mrs. George Moss, Women’s
Teams; D. H. Goodman, Men’s Tea The work of the com-
mittee is largely explained by the titles of its sub-committees,

whose duties were to organize the city, to make way for infor-
mation and encouragemnient, and to carry through the forthcoming

campaigns for the sale of war securities. In addition to the per-
sonnel of the Executive Committee just given, there were certain
ex-officio members: H. M. Kerr, Liberty Loans; C. O. Haines,
Catholic War Council; Mrs. Frantz Naylor, Liberty Loan
(Women’s); Dr. Louis Mendoza, Jewish Welfare Board; John
A. Lesner, War Camp Community Service; T. S. Southgate,
Weewe ©. A’ Richard’ Mcllwaine;, Jr., American Library Asso-
ciation; A. Brooke Taylor, Salvation Army; Miss Nonie H.
Wialkinson, Y. W. C. A.; Mr. G. Long, War r Savings Stamps
Campaign.t With such an organization the promptness with
which Norfolk responded to the Liberty Bond campaign could
be almost foreseen.

It was in this Norfolk War Campaigns Committee that the
Four-Minute Men were organized. Mr. Henry Bowden, chair-
man of the Committee on Speakers, so developed his department
that the four-minute speeches in theatres and before audiences in

‘Report of United War Work mittee. Norfolk Files, Vol.
Campaign, and Plan of Nor- LE.. Va- War Hist. Gom:
folk War Campaigns Com-22 NorFOoLK IN WAR TIME

 

general brought very satisfactory results.7 The advertising
Committee, under the efficient direction of Mr. Otto Wells,? is
credited with much of the success of the Norfolk subscriptions,
and the commendation which was heartily given him by his co-
workers was unquestionably deserved.

In the Liberty Loans the entire facilities of the city were
used to further the campaigns: practically every organization and
society in the city began a campaign for the sale of bonds; and
the Executive Committee of the War Campaigns Committee ar-
ranged booths, offices and the organization of commercial groups
for the public and more extended sale of Liberty Bonds. The
Norfolk banks aided greatly, a fact evidenced by the offer of
the local banks during the First Loan to lend 90% on bonds to
small purchasers.* Thus it was that in the First Loan Norfolk
subscribed (with 17,000 buyers) $3,131.900.° The quota was
$2,000,000. A method employed by the committee in this loan
was that of dividing one week, known as Liberty Week, into six
parts, and on each day soliciting a different group of people:
Monday, merchants and manufacturers; Tuesday, professional
and insurance men; Wednesday, laboring men and automobile
mechanics; Thursday, farmers; Friday, women; Saturday, chil-
dren.®

The following figures show the quotas, subscriptions, and sub-
scribers for the five loans in Norfolk.‘

Ouotas Subscriptions Subscribers
Steere See $2,000,000 $3,131,900 17,000
CGO ec ce cs osc... 5,928,720 7 687 800 17,299
(ainda re i. 3,911,800 5,898,500 23,392
OURO bee ce... 8,415,200 10,607,050 39,686
NAGLOV em ee IST LOU 8,393,950 20,260

the Second Loan was comparatively late in being subscribed
and represented,the only instance of difficulty met by workers
In carrying out Norfolk’s record for over-subscription.

All the credit is not due the War Campaigns Committee; for
innumerable organizations contributed to give the city as high
rating as any subscriber to the country’s needs. :Among such
Organizations there are the following: the Sisterhood of Ohef
Sholom Temple, which sold $88,000 worth of Third Loan Bonds
and, in conjunction with the Council of Jewish Women, $132,700

“Report of Four-Minute Men. ‘Financing the World War, with
Norfolk Files, Vol. II., Va. Special Reference to the Part
War Hist. Com. Played by the Federal Reserve

‘Report of War Advertising Com- Bank of Richmond, the Fifth
mittee. Norfolk Files, Vol. Federal Reserve District and
Tis Mia. War Hist. Gom: the Citizens of Virginia, 1917-

“Virginian-Pilot, May 24, 1917. 1919. By George J. Seay, Vol.

‘Virginian-Pilot, June 16, 1917. It Vai War Hist Com.

*Virginian-Pilot, June 3, 1917.A Community History 23

 

of Fourth Loan Bonds;* the Women’s Auxiliary of National
Catholic War Council, with the aid of Four-Minute Men, which
sold $260,000 in bonds and $34,000 in stamps ;? Norfolk Council
of Jewish Women with $140,000 in bonds and $70,000 in
stamps ;*° and the Norfolk Boy Scouts, who secured 4,300 sub-
scriptions to over $550,000 worth of bonds.1! The Norfolk
Equal Suffrage League gave valuable aid in the Second Loan;
and many other organizations, whose names are not recorded,
furnished workers for the solicitation as well as money with
which to buy bonds. At the beginning of the Third Loan, cer-
tain colored citizens asked the Mayor for permission to form an
organization to sell Liberty Bonds to negroes.‘* The request
was granted, and the result, while aiding in securing a greater
number of subscriptions, also served as a great source of pride
to the colored people, who could see what they as a group were
doing toward helping the country financially.

Throughout all the prea: the leadership of Mr. H. M.
Kerr, director-general of the loans in the Norfolk district, and
his executive Ce ites, Robert B. Tunstall, chairman; C. W.
Grandy, Jr., and W. A. Cox, served to bring Norfolk into promi-
nence with the large overtopping of all her quotas. pee nie ete
bond campaigners during the Third Loan threatened to publish
all names of firms and corporations refusing to buy bonds.”
Such a policy was not necessary for subscribing the quota, but
was resorted to lest any Norfolk firm should believe it had done
its part before its capacity subscription was given.

When we consider the complication in the machinery of sell-
ing several million dollars worth of bonds in a short time, the
success of Norfolk is highly notable. The cost of advertising
the Fourth Loan was $3,155.75; and when contributions were
solicited to cover this expense, the resultant fund was $3,477.47 ;*
thus showing the spirit of local pride of Norfolk firms and of
individuals in having their city stand among the most loyal.

The War Savings Stamp campaigns in Norfolk were also
highly successful. Whe Home Guards conducted a canvass of
the city a War Savings Stamps ;!® the Rotary Club instituted
a special campaign ;!* the Central Labor Union appointed a com-
mittee to a in the W. S. S. drive ;!8 and on February 3—with

 

‘Report of Temple Sisterhood, ‘Report of Norfolk Boy Scouts.

Ohef Sholom Temple. Nor- Norfolk Files, Vol. III., Va.
folk Files, Vol. I., Va. War War Hist Com.
Hist. Com. Virginian-Pilot, April 17, 1918.
"Report of Women’s Auxiliary of Virginian-Pilot, April 5, 1918.
the National Catholic War “Virginian-Pilot, April 24, 1918.
Council. Norfolk Files, Vol. Virginian-Pilot, Nov. 1, 1918.
I., Va. War Hist. Com. “Virginian-Pilot, March 10, 1918.
Report of Norfolk Section, Coun- 'Virginian-Pilot, Dec. 21, 1918.
cil of Jewish Women. Nor- “Virginian-Pilot, Jan. 15, 1918:

Ollila bales) “Vole L., Vas. War
Hist. Com.24 NorFOLK IN WAR TIME

 

the greatest of the stamp drives to begin the next day—the min-
isters preached Thrift Stamps sermons in all the churches.1®
Mr. H. M. Kerr was director of the stamp campaigns, but Mr.
M. G. Long served as a valuable assistant. He, with his fellow
workers, established about 350 selling agencies in Norfolk, and
the schools particularly undertook to sell War Savings Stamps.?°

Norfolk was pledged to sell about $1,700,000 in stamps during
1918.°1 A driv was held from June 24 to June 29, but the re-
sults were not gratifying.** Thereafter (July 19, 1918) Norfolk
retail merchants agreed to take $260,000 worth of stamps and to
keep them on sale indefinitely, without attempting any drive.?3
In this way the quota was filled. Probably the largest single
subscription list of stamps sold by an organization was that of
the public schools, which amounted to something over $400,000.24

AGRICULTURE, FOOD PRODUCTION AND
CONSERVATION

The question of food conservation and production was an
important one in Norfolk during the war. As a center of the
trucking industry of Virginia and North Carolina, the city was
in a position to see with some accuracy the price rise, the need
of certain foods by the government, and the movement of food
to the North. Freight rates on fruits and vegetables were in-
creased during the spring of 1917, and the Norfolk produce
shippers appeared before the Interstate Commerce Commission
in a strong protest.1_ Norfolk was not even then ready to stand
the heavy changes in the cost of doing business—changes which
the war brought about. Truck di dnot move as well in 1917 as it
did in 1916, for, although from January 1 to August 3, 1917,
Norfolk handled the large number of 1,101,069 barrels of pota-
toes,“ the total number of packages of truck handled in 1917 was
4,098,558 as against 5,224,096 for 1916.3 The decrease is obvi-
ously large. Car shortage, high prices, labor conditions, govern-
ment contracts—all contributed to the change, and Norfolk busi-
ness men were anxious to get perishables moving by the priority
act," if it were possible. As late as May 30, 1918, truck ship-
ments were unusually light: only eight crops were moving—
peas, 456 baskets; cabbage, 1,260 barrels; beans, 392 baskets:
beets, 238 crates; cucumbers, 58 baskets, and carrots, 47 crates.°
Norfolk and Tidewater credit men, hoping to return to the 1916

 

“Virginian-Pilot, March 31, 1918. “Report of War Work in the Pub-

“Virginian-Pilot, Jan. 18, 1918. lic Schools of the City of Nor-
“Virginian-Pilot, June 19, 1918. folk. Norfolk Files, Vol. I,
“Virginian-Pilot, June 29, 1918. Va. War Hist. Com.
“Virginian-Pilot, July 19, 1918.

"Virginian-Pilot, May 1, 1917. “Virginian-Pilot, March 20, 1918.
“Virginian-Pilot, Aug. 3, 1917. “Virginian-Pilot, June 1, 1918.

“Virginian-Pilot, Sept. 9, 1917.A Community History 25

movement of foods, expressed a hope that the government would
place an inspector of perishable foods in Norfolk to insure the
more efficient handling of truck. And it was this difficulty in
handling whatever quantities (decreased since 1916) did come
into Norfolk, that somewhat influenced the government to build
its own terminals at Bush Bluff.

So much for the movement of food which was, to say the
least, lessened because of decrease in production and because of
lack of facilities for handling.

In the matter of prices, Norfolk differed not at all from
other cities. In April, 1917, local bread prices had not changed,”
but by May 9 the price had gone to 10c for an 18-ounce loaf.8
Sugar followed the rise of bread during the summer, and on
August 11 was rated at 9%c to lle a pound: grocers at that
time expected it to go even higher.®? In September flour, and
therefore bread, became more costly than before. Norfolk bakers
said that $2.20 wheat meant $12 flour, and that in turn would
mean a 16-ounce loaf of bread for 10c.!° Following this condi-
tion in such staple foods as bread and sugar, milk sold for 18c
a quart. Dairymen explained the increase by declaring that there
was more money in beef than in milk, and since the government
was buying all the beef it could, former dairy firms had quickly
gone into the beef cattle business.1! Toward the end of the
year the sugar situation was somewhat relieved, when 350,000
pounds of that commodity, stored in Berkley, were ordered by
the Federal Food Administrator to be distributed.!”

This general condition of prices, while not peculiar to Nor-
folk alone, was perhaps more intensely felt because of the sud-
den increase in Norfolk’s population. Her facilities were in-
adequate for handling the multitude who flocked to war-time
industries and government plants.

In January, 1918, plans were drawn for what was known as
the Seaboard Ice and Cold Storage Corporation, a $1,809,000
plant.’* It seems that such provision would have enabled Nor-
folk to meet any subsequent summer demand for ice or cold
storage. but on the last day of May, 1918, ice began selling at
a decided increase. Manufactures and food administrators in
conference decided upon a fixed price of 55c per 100 pounds,
which went into force on June 3.14 During the whole of the sum-
mer that followed, Norfolk plants were unable to supply the
demand for ice, so that in August the supply became low enough
to bring about what was termed a famine. This condition was
not definitely and finally relieved until August 11, 1918, when

*Virginian-Pilot, Sept. 19, 1918. Virginian-Pilot, Nov.

1, 1917.
"Virginian-Pilot, April 27, 1917. “Virginian-Pilot, Dec. 21, 1917.
“Virginian-Pilot, May 9, 1917. Virginian-Pilot, Jan. 25, 1918.
*Virginian-Pilot, Aug. 11, 1917. “Virginian-Pilot, May 31, 1918.

“Virginian-Pilot, Sept. 1, 1917.26 NorFOLK IN War TIME

 

large shipments of ice were imported from the neighboring
Gitiess.+

The flour situation during the first of 1918 became acute
enough to cause Norfolk bakers considerable worry. On Jan-
uary 29, 1918, they appealed to the National Food Administrator
for some relief from the flour shortage,’® and although the sit-
uation was counted grave, the bakers weer optimistic, believing
the difficulty to lie in traffic delay and a shortage of mill fuel.17

Aside from food for local consumption, Norfolk was most
interested in the movement of truck from her docks. Realizing
that employment advantages of the cities had drained the farm
of its minimum of required labor, the State Council of Defense
through its Norfolk division, and the Johnson Motor Corpora-
tion with the permission of the Department of Agriculture, made
arrangements to provide Ford tractors to any farmer who wished
to buy one without the usual agent’s profit. Whether or not
this plan had any effect on food production is not recorded, but
many farmers did take advantage of the offer and somewhat
avoided conditions arising from the pronounced labor shortage.8

Food conservation in Norfolk was not unlike that of most
cities. During the first three or four months after the United
States had declared war, the matter of conserving food had been
a recognized need, but suggestions as to its direction were largely
general. In the summer of 1917, however, a campaign, unsup-
ported by laws, began, in which citizens were advised to cultivate
gardens in their back yards and to take care not to waste food.
The Director of the community garden movement, C. A. John-
son, circulated certain pamphlets on home canning and drying of
fruits and vegetables.19 Later Mrs. Kate Drew Vaughan, pro-
cured by the Virginian-Pilot, conducted a Conservation School
at the Granby Theatre. Her object was to teach all sorts of war
cooking, and to emphasize the use of substitutes for meat and
eggs.°° Just about this time, September, 1917, agitation by cer-
tain organizations for “meatless” and ‘‘wheatless” days was be-
gun. Norfolk Retail Merchants’ Association on October 11,
1917, advised a strict conservation of food.?!

In the middle of October, 1917, the second food conservation
campaign began.** It was the object of the workers to pledge
14,000 citizens to the most rigid economy of food.?? The Norfolk
hotels were already observing the ruling of meatless Tuesdays,”#
and from all appearances the campaign seemed a success. The
local Food Administrator, Mr. H. K. Wolcott, directed the Tide-
water Wholesale Grocers’ Association to be on the lookout for
profiteering or hoarding. He made it perfectly clear that restric-

“Virginian-Pilot, Aug. 11, 1918. “Virginian-Pilot, Sept. 11, 1917.
“Virginian-Pilot, Jan. 29, 1918. “Virginian-Pilot, Sept. 11, 1917.
“Virginian-Pilot, Jan. 30, 1918. “Virginian-Pilot, Oct. 14, 1917.
“Virginian-Pilot, May 20, 1918. “Virginian-Pilot, Nov. 1, 1917.

“Virginian-Pilot, Aug. 5, 1917. “Virginian-Pilot, Oct. 23, 1917.A Community History Zi.

tions of a rigid sort had been placed on all wholesalers and that
they would not be allowed to hoard food, but must sell strictly
on a basis of cost.?> 5

There was comparatively little trouble from profiteering in
Norfolk. In March, 1918, one hotel was found guilty of over-
charging.*° In April, 1918, heavy fines were levied on eight re-
tailers for violation of the food laws, and of these fines $1,085
was given to the Red Cross.*7 Even later—August 18, 1918—
three small firms in Norfolk were closed on account of violation
of the wheat and sugar rulings.28 But at that time the food sit-
uation was extremely grave and required the most rigorous
enforcement of the ordinances connected with it. Such restric-
tions as the elimination of rolls and biscuits from bakers’ counters
in April, 1918,°° while seemingly foolish—especially since house-
wives were allowed to make such forms of bread—in reality saved
a considerable portion of flour. In the matter of meat, there
were no restrictions placed on local butchers regarding the kinds
of cuts of meat they should sell, although the Food Administra-
tion strongly advised, and intimated the possible necessity of, the
substitution of pork for beef.*° Following this suggestion, on
June 20, 1918, the proprietors of fifty hotels in Norfolk, Berkley,
and Portsmouth unanimously decided to eliminate all beef
dishes from their menus until September 15.3!

As time passed and the matter of food conservation became a
serious enforced necessity and not a matter of being patriotic,
restrictions grew more and more rigid: sugar regulations were
being very thoroughly enforced during the late summer of 1918,32
and the most stringent food regulations of all went into effect at
just about the first of November, 1918.%3

As for the success of Norfolk’s conservation programs, we
find that the local Assistant Food Administrator in January,
1918, declared Norfolk during December had saved 350,000
pounds of meat and 43,160 pounds of flour during four meatless
Tuesdays and four wheatless Wednesdays.** The further con-
servation of food in Norfolk saved in January, 1918, 727,000
pounds of meat and 63,918 pounds of flour.*®° Another evidence
of the success of food conservation in Norfolk is to be found in
the decrease of garbage waste. During the last six months of 1917
the city collected 852.82 tons of garbage less than during the
same time in 1916, and 1,188.75 less than in 1915.36

 

*Virginian-Pilot, Nov. 2, 1917. * Virginian-Pilot, June 20, 1918.
“Virginian-Pilot, March 3, 1918. “Virginian-Pilot, July 19, 1918.
* Virginian-Pilot, April 19, 1918. *Virginian-Pilot, Oct. 20, 1918.
“Virginian-Pilot, Aug. 18, 1918. “Virginian-Pilot, Jan. 19, 1918.
“Virginian-Pilot, April 24, 1918. Virginian-Pilot, Feb. 5, 1918.

Virginian-Pilot, June 14, 1918. "Virginian-Pilot, Feb, 10, 1918.28 NorFOLK IN War TIME

 

INDUSTRY

To understand the industrial movements in Norfolk during
the war, it is necessary to get the picture first, of a comparatively
small seaport town, and then of this same town suddenly made
the location of government plants representing millions of dollars
investment and of private enterprises of equally large expendi-
tures. In other words, Norfolk’s industrial life was marked
primarily by unprecedented growth, and was divided distinctly
into two classes: the government plants in and around Norfoik,
and the privately owned corporations which developed or were
placed in Norfolk during 1917-1918. Although Norfolk’s main
industries before the war were those connected with shipping, the
period from 1916 to 1919 was little less than a stupendous de-
velopment of her manufactures.

The following are some of the firms which were placed jn
Norfolk between June, 1917, and June, 1918: The American
Chain Company built its plant at Bush Bluff.‘ On the 29th cf
June the British-American Tobacco Company rented four large
buildings in Water Street for the manufacture of cigarettes for
the Orient. Employees were said to be needed to the number of
600, of whom twenty-five per cent would be white women.? By
August 25 one million cigarettes a day were being manufactured.*
In December, 1917, the Water Street location was destroyed by
fire and the plant took new quarters at Twenty-second and Monti-
cello Avenue, employing between 700 and 800 men and women.
At that location in March, 1918, four million cigarettes were
turned out every day, and plans were being then made for
equipment and force large enough to raise the daily output to
twelve or fourteen million cigarettes.* | In September, 1917, the
Ek. I. DuPont de Nemours and Co. leased a large building on
the corner of Granby and Ninth for the storage of cotton linters
which were to be shipped directly to Europe or to the DuPont
plant in Hopewell, Virginia, as a basic material in guncotten.®
In September of that same year the Credit Men’s Association in
Norfolk, in remarking on local prosperity, pointed out that the
Texas Oil Company had in Norfoik at the time a storing capacity
of 25,000,000 gallons of oil—22,000,000 more than it had three
years before. During the fall of 1917 the Linde Air Products
Corporation acquired property on the Norfolk and Western Rail-
way near Colonial Avenue, with the expectation of building a
plant for the manufacture of oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen and
argon.‘ Just about that time the A. I. Root Company, manu-
facturers of bee-keepers’ supplies, placed their Washington plant
—the largest of its kind in the world—in Norfolk in order to
acguire the city’s superior commercial advantages. The Vir-

‘Virginian-Pilot, June 29, 1917. ‘Virginian-Pilot, Sept. 1, 1917.
“Virginian-Pilot, June 29, 1917. *Virginian-Pilot, Sept. 13, 1917.
*Virginian-Pilot, Aug. 25, 1917. ‘Virginian-Pilot, Sept. 13, 1917.

“Virginian-Pilot, March 3, 1918. “Virginian-Pilot, Sept. 22, 1917.A Community History 29

ginia Coal and Navigation Company, during September, 1917,
located nearby, Berkley, and began the manufacture of briquets
from waste coal, an industry which was of considerable aid to
the consumer during the coal shortage. Although these various
manutacturing enterprises were coming to Norfolk unsolicited,
a group of business men in the city organized the Norfolk In-
dustrial Corporation with a capital of $300,000, for the purpose
of bringing big manufacturing plants to Norfolk.1° To this
organization is due much credit. since they sanely, quietly and
efficiently informed prospective firms of local facilities for manu-
facture and transportation. But there was no great need for
solicitation, since Norfolk soon outran her facilities and felt a top-
heaviness of plants lacking necessary labor. Norfolk was not
equipped to care for the business which descended in great floods
upon her. But that situation of inadequacy did not develop in
the fall of 1917, when more and more plants found places in
Norfolk. The Hampton Roads Shipbuilding and Drydock Com-
pany, a million dollar corporation, located on the western branch
of the Elizabeth River, expected to employ from 1,200 to 1,500
men.'* In the spring of 1918 the National Concrete Boat Com-
pany acquired for its plant fifty-five acres on the southern branch
of the Elizabeth River between the Navy Yard and Gilmer-
ton.” During March, 1918, building operations in Norfolk
amounted to $643,005.1* Five years before a whole twelve months
amounted to only $3,000,000. In May, 1918, the Standard Oil
Company opened a fuel station at Bush Bluff, the site of the
Army Base, with three tanks having a capacity of 8,000,000
gallons of fuel oil.14 In August six new fuel oil tanks were
added, and two for kerosine and gasoline, making a combined
capacity of 2,250,000 tons.’ The increased business activity
of Norfolk in June, 1918, made it necessary for the Chesapeake
and Potomac Telephone Company to double the size of its ex-
change and operating force in Norfolk. Ten thousand new tele-
phones were installed, and the Norfolk exchange became the fifth
largest in the South.1° The enlargement of the Norfolk Ship-
building and Dry Dock Company in Brambleton—the largest
plant doing repair work in the district excepting the Navy Yard—
may be counted in Norfolk’s industrial development, for in 1916
it employed forty men and by June, 1918, this number had
reached 700, with an increase going on as the magnitude of the
work grew.!4

Among Norfolk’s business houses which had government
contracts and received certificates of citation were the follow-
ing (this list does not include innumerable smaller firms from

 

whom the government bought materials): Fosburg Lumber Co.,
"Virginian-Pilot, Sept. 23, 1917. “Virginian-Pilot, May 26, 1918.
"Virginian-Pilot, Oct. 13, 1917. *Virginian-Pilot, Aug. 11, 1918.
“Virginian-Pilot, Nov. 6, 1917. *Virginian-Pilot, June 7, 1918.
“Virginian-Pilot, April 11, 1918. ‘Virginian-Pilot, June 16, 1918

“Virginian-Pilot, April 7, 1918.30 NorFOLK IN WAR TIME

Nansemond Brick Corp., North Carolina Pine Emergency Bu-
reau, Southern Building Material Co., John L. Roper Lumber
Co., Odenhal Monks Corp., Atlantic Electric Co., Berkley Box
and Lumber Co., Atlantic Creosoting Co., Old Dominion Steam-
ship Co., Norfolk Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Corp.’®

The second great source of Norfolk’s industrial growth was
the operation of the government in the locality in 1917. Gov-
ernment holdings were represented already by the following:
Navy Yard, St. Helena Training Station, Marine Barracks,
St. Juliens Magazine, the Naval Hospital, and Fort Norfolk.
Equipment and property in these stations were valued at $14,-
350,000. To this the government added the Naval Base at Pine
Beach—the old Jamestown Exposition grounds—and the Army
Base at Bush Bluff. Of the two only the former was built
with the idea of permanence.

The government bought the property of the Naval Base for
$1,200,000, and spent several hundred million in building and
equipping it.1? Although as a Naval Base it was not supposed
to train recruits, but to limit its activities solely to supplying
the Navy with food and equipment, nevertheless the Base at
Pine Beach finally possessed a training station containing some
sixteen or more schools for naval officers and tradesmen, an
aviation training ground, and a submarine base: all this in addi-
tion to its duties as a source of supply for the Navy.?° The
building of the Naval Base brought with it the employment of
several thousand men and the usual business inflation which fol-
lowed the expenditure of millions near the city. The transporta-
tion facilities (discussed in detail later) were inadequate to move
the workmen from Norfolk to the base and necessitated con-
siderable adjustment on the part of the electric line and finally
the railroad. Furthermore, the sudden growth of the suburban
plants placed such a strain on the local water supply that Norfolk
had to revolutionize her water system. In September, 1917, she
was furnishing the Naval Base alone with 230,000 gallons a day.*?
Later, as the development of the Base progressed and barracks
were enlarged to accommodate 20,000 men, the water supply
again proved inadequate. And it was the continuation of in-
sufficient service from Norfolk that occasioned the threat of
the Navy Department to divide the appropriation for the Base
and to build a unit at Yorktown. Secretary Daniels said Norfolk
could have the full appropriation if she could furnish the light,
water, and transportation necessary for its expenditure in further

 

“Certificates of Merit Awarded to “History of Naval Operating Base,

Prime Contractors (Virginia). Hampton Roads, Norfolk, Va.

_Files of Va. War Hist. Com. By Rear Admiral A. C. Dil-
‘History of Naval Operating Base, lingham. Norfolk Files, Vol.

Hampton Roads, Norfolk, Va. I., Va. War Hist. Com.

By Rear Admiral A. C. Dil- ™Virginian-Pilot, Sept. 22, 1917.
lingham. Norfolk Files, Vol.
I., Va. War Hist. Com.A Community History 31

 

developing the Base.** Norfolk, it must be understood, was not
at all negligent Or parsimonious regarding the extension of its
facilities to the government plants.22. The sudden drain upon her
resources was such that the surprising thought is that she finally
did supply all the demands made of her. although the adjustment
was att imes involved and doubtful. Needless to say, naval
officials did not divide the appropriation for enlarging the Naval
Base with Yorktown, but gave the full amount to Norfolk.?4

The Naval Hospital, built in 1828 was developed and en-
larged by a $1,500,000 appropriation, and its capacity increased
to 3,000 patients.*° The Navy Yard and Naval Base in April,
1918, received a combined appropriation of $8,000,000."" This
appropriation made the Navy Yard one of the finest in America.*!
Later (July, 1918) the yard was further enlarged by the pur-
chase of 200 acres from a Portsmouth firm, and with this added
space, room was to be had for new warehouses and railroad
tracks.“ In August, 1918, the United States Shipping Board
commenced work on five dry docks costing $3,200,000 and ac-
commodating _12,000-ton ships.2® In addition to these plants
built by the government, there was the Army Base at Bush Bluff,
a project costing $20,000,000, and in September, 1918, employing
9,000 workmen.*° The fuel, oil, and gas supply station on the
Elizabeth River near Bush Bluff—part of the old Jamestown
Jockey Club—was planned in October, 1917. to cost ultimately
$2,000,000.*!

With even a cursory glance at these figures above, one may
readily perceive what government operations in and around Not-
folk amounted to industrially. The difficulty Norfolk had in sup-
plying the needs of these giant projects is totally excusable when
consideration is had for the efficiency with which service was
finally given. In the case of the insufficient water supply, Nor-
folk leased for $200,000, with an option to buy for $900,000,
the plant of the Norfolk County Water Company and installed
electric pumps, thus increasing the supply of 9,000,000 gallons
daily to 22,000,000 gallons daily. Electric power, which had also
been inadequate because of increased industrial demand, was
finally acquired by an enlargement of the local plant and by con-
nection with Richmond.

An integral part of all modern industry is the coal supply. To
understand industrial development one must study the matter of
coal and transportation. Assuming facilities to be found in a
seaport, we may postpone the latter topic to the next subdivision
of our main heading. But concerning the matter of coal supply

in Norfolk there is much to be said.

“Virginian-Pilot, Aug. 22, 1918. “Virginian-Pilot, July 11, 1918.
“Virginian-Pilot, Aug. 22, 1918. “Virginian-Pilot, Aug. 26, 1918.
“Virginian-Pilot, Sept. 6, 1918. "Virginian-Pilot, Sept. 15, 1918.
“Virginian-Pilot, May 26, 1918. “Virginian-Pilot, Oct. 5, 1918.

“Virginian-Pilot, April 21, 1918. “Virginian-Pilot, June 14, 1918.

“Virginian-Pilot, May 12, 1918.32 NorFOoLK IN WAR TIME

 

The Norfolk and Western and the Virginian Railways were
the arteries of coal. They were dumping several thousand tons
of coal a day from their piers: coal for use in vessels, coal to
run the vast war-time plants in the city. In eleven months ending
December, 1917, these two roads dumped ten million tons of coal
in Norfolk.?? But the time was that of war. Industrial needs
were such that the coal supply could not equal the demand,
whereupon the question of conservation entered. What was the
status of coal and coal conservation in Norfolk?

In May, 1917, coal was selling for $8.50 a ton cash, and
$9.00 for payment within thirty days. At the same time in 1916,
any quantity could have been bought for $7.50 a ton. But in
1917 Mr. G. B. Ferebee, vice-president of the Nottingham and
Wren Company, said that the coal supply was inadequate and
even higher prices could be expected.** By December the short-
age was most acute in Norfolk, but temporary relief came on
December 11, 1917, when 54,590 tons arrived in one day. Of
this quantity 23,588 were shipped away by sea.*° The relief fur-
nished by this shipment did not last, for the shortage was felt
again in January of the new year.®® Lightless Thursdays and
Sundays had been in force since December 20, 1917, but the coal
saved was not appreciable in relation to the demand. On Jan-
uary 4, 1918, J. W. Hough, local Fuel Administrator, opened a
coal yard only to users of hard coal. He declared that the diff-
culty of obtaining anthracite necessitated special aid to those
families whose only source of heat was a Latrobe.*’ Further evi-
dence of rigorous methods may be found in the police order that
all idle draymen should haul coal?* when the need became urgent
because of an inability of either plants or homes to carry reserve
supplies. On January 21 Norfolk began the ten weeks’ observ-
ance of the ‘close down” order which required cessation of all
activity in industrial plants every Monday.*

In March, 1918, Fuel Administrator Hough increased the re-
striction of the Federal Administration from two lightless nights
a week to every night a lightless night on Norfolk’s main streets.
By this ordinance he hoped to save two tons of coal each night.*°
Immediately there was a protest. The Church Street Improve-
ment League complained ;*! the Retail Merchants’ Association
threatened to turn on the lights in spite of the order ;** but the
Fuel Administrator was immovable from his decision. There
ensued a struggle which lasted much longer than was necessary.
The business men appealed to the State Fuel Administrator, H. F.
Byrd, who, after weeks of delay, finally upheld Mr. Hough’s
action, much to the rage of the business men.*? Mr. Hough,

* Virginian-Pilot, Dec. 30, 1917. “Virginian-Pilot, Jan. 18, 1918.

“Virginian-Pilot, May 6, 1917. Virginian-Pilot, March 1, 1918.
Virginian-Pilot, Dec. 20, 1917. "Virginian-Pilot, March 2, 1918.
*Virginian-Pilot, Jan. 1, 1918. "Virginian-Pilot, March 5, 1918.
"Virginian-Pilot, Jan. 4, 1918. “Virginian-Pilot, March 28, 1918.

*Virginian-Pilot, Jan. 5

; LOLS:A Community History 33

wishing to accord as much as possible with the wishes of the
majority of the business men, went somewhat unexpectedly to a
meeting of his opponents. He went with compromise in mind,
knowing that he could afford to be charitable after his action
had been definitely upheld by Byrd. When he was announced to
the meeting, the assembled business men were so indignant that
they ordered him to wait while they deliberated over the advisa-
bility of permitting him to speak. But he was admitted and did
speak, agreeing to light half the street lamps from Twelfth Street
through the business section. The merchants were satisfied, the
difference of opinion was removed, and by the half-illumination
order twelve to fifteen tons of coal were saved every month.**

During the summer of 1918 the coal shortage continued.
Prices stood as follows: Pocahontas nut, egg, and lump, $8.50;
Pocahontas run of the mine (soft), $7.50, and Pennsylvania
anthracite, $10.4° During the fall of 1918 J. W. Hough ordered
that there should be no joy riding on Sunday in order to conserve
gasoline. The people complied willingly; but those who wished
to use their automobiles for going to church were allowed to do
so only after they had attached to the car a red placard indica-
ing their destination.*® Thus with campaigns and ordinances to
conserve coal and gasoline, a final order came in November, 1918,
which required that on account of a severe shortage of electric
power, retail stores should close at 4:30 P. M.™

COMMERCE AND TRANSPORTATION

Both commerce and transportation were important questions
in Norfolk during the war. Primarily on account of her locality
was Norfolk most concerned over shipping. It was no small duty
for the Norfolk Chamber of Commerce to supervise the equipping
of the city for the tremendous war-time demands ; but the Nor-
folk Chamber with its efficient president, Barton Myers, rendered
service which was not always advertised. In his official capacity,
representing the Chamber of Commerce, Mr. Myers was chair-
man or member of numerous committees relating to Norfolk’s
commercial development: Special Belt Line Committee which
negotiated with the Norfolk and Portsmouth Belt Line Railroad
to extend its lines around Norfolk to the Elizabeth River, thus
serving the entire water front, embracing the Jamestown Exposi-
tion property and Pine Beach; Dock and Belt Line Commission
of Norfolk, which acquired land for construction of rail and
water terminals; agent for the War Department in purchase of
land for Pig Point Army Ordnance Depot; aided in securing
government plants; authorized by the government to secure land
of 400 acres which was called East Camp of the Naval Training
Station: aided the government in obtaining land for the Army
Base: secured transportation facilities for the Government Rail-
“Virginian-Pilot, April 25, 1918. “Virginian-Pilot, Sept. 5, 1918.
“Virginian-Pilot, July 16, 1918. "Virginian-Pilot, Nov. 9, 1918.34 NorFOLK IN WAR TIME

 

way Yard and the Army Base; participated officially in Liberty
Bond, Red Cross, Y. M. C. A., and War Camp Community Ser-
vice drives; kept constantly in touch with Navy and War of-
ficials in order to facilitate the vast war activities in Hampton
Roads ; served as a member of the National Foreign Trade Coun-
cil, headquarters in New York, which sought solution of com-
mercial problems, and recommended to the Administration and
to Congress legislation in relation to War Risk Marine Insurance,
transfers of foreign-built ships to American registry, measures
to stabilibe foreign exchange, the Webb-Pomerene law permitting
co-operation of those engaged in foreign trade, and various other
important measures for promoting foreign trade during and after
the war.’ Beyond such activities the Chamber of Commerce
dealt with the food situation by conferring with representatives
from various farmers and urged volunteer farmers during sum-
mer vacations to grow a diversity of non-perishable Crops ait
also attended to the building and improvement of certain import-
ant highways in the Norfolk district, particularly those connect-
ing the government plants with Norfolk.*

The matter of transportation in Norfolk was a serious prob-
lem. The years 1917 and 1918 were times of considerable un-
rest in Norfolk city government. The necessity of settling the
difficulties arising from a turnover to the city manager form of
municipal government, made Norfolk somewhat tardy in war
matters. Business had greatly increased in Norfolk: Postoffice
receipts showed a gain of $8,817 or 25% over July, 1916;* the
Norfolk Bank for Savings and Trusts increased its capital stock
trom $100,000 to $1,000,000 and changed its name to the Trust
Company of Norfolk;> bank clearings for 1917 were $327 ,297,-
048 ;° on January 1, 1918, $400,104 in dividends was paid to
stockholders in Norfolk banks, and this amount was $42,850 in
excess of the 1916 dividends ;7 a new firm, Bankers’ Trust Com-
pany, with a capital of $1,000,000, was organized in January,
1918;* the Council appropriated $10,000 to a civic advertising
club which planned an extensive publicity program for Norfolk ;9
on March 5, 1918, cotton had reached 32c, the highest price in
her history, almost twice the figure (18 1 8) quoted on the same
day of 1917 ;!° and Norfolk’s imports for 1917 represented some-
thing over $20,000,000.

In spite of all this prosperity, Norfolk had serious transporta-
tion difficulties in both ship and rail service. In the latter the
car shortage was most keenly felt in Norfolk during the fall of
1917; and in the spring of 1918 truck growers lost thousands of

“War Work of the Chamber of *Virginian-Pilot, Sept. 21, 1917.
Commerce, Norfolk, Virginia. *Virginian-Pilot, Dec. 30, 1917.
Norfolk Files, Vol. 2, Va. "Virginian-Pilot, Dec. 30, 1917.

 

War Hist. Com. *Virginian-Pilot, Jan. 18, 1918.
*Virginian-Pilot, May 22, 1917. *Virginian-Pilot, July 10, 1918.
“Virginian-Pilot, Sept. 4, 1918. Virginian-Pilot, March 5, W918:

“Virginian-Pilot, Aug. 3, 1917. “Virginian-Pilot, Dec. 27, 1917.A ComM™MuNITY HIstTorY 35

dollars by delays in the shipment of vegetables to New York and
other Eastern cities: both rail and steamship service were inade-
quate.12 The government plants experienced considerable diffi-
culty because of the inability of the local electric railway company
to supply cars during rush hours. In the summer of 1917 the
officials at the Army and Navy Bases demanded all extra service
cars for transportation of government workmen. The public
was curtly told to ride the regular cars.1* In January, 1918, the
government made plans to run a train from Norfolk to the
Naval Base, but the actual operation of the train was postponed
when the electric service improved. Finally the difficulty was
somewhat avoided in October, 1918, when the Railroad Admin-
istration gave thirty cars to the electric line between Norfolk and
the Naval Base.”

We have already mentioned the loss sustained by truck
growers when their produce could not be shipped by ‘boat to
Northern cities. This shortage in steamship service was widely
felt in Norfolk. Foodstuffs were being moved before other
materials, and the great quantity of the latter arriving in Norfolk
had to be stored indefinitely. The Norfolk and Western Railway
stored in sheds for some distance along its tracks many tons of
metal supplies for European countries—supplies which could not
move on account of the demand on vessels for transportation of
food, munitions and men. In addition to the ship shortage, bad
weather during January, 1918, completely blocked all the traffic
of Norfolk Harbor. For several days no boats could move in
the ice-filled water.15 During the spring the Merchants and
Miners Steamship Company threatened suspension, but the Rail-
road Administration promised the Norfolk Chamber of Com-
merce that transportation would be maintained to Providence,
R. I. even if the M. & M. withdrew. Later (April 12, 1918)
the government took over the Merchants and Miners, the Clyde,
the Mallory and other Southern lines for the duration of the
war? In April, 1918, the government also appropriated $1,940,-
000 for harbor work in Hampton Roads, of which amount
$1.540,000 was used on Norfolk itself.1* The United States Ship-
ping Board agency, under E. E. Palen, which was located in Nor-
folk, served to keep water transportation as efficient as possible.*”

The following is a report of Major-General Peter C, Hines
for the season of navigation, calendar year 1917 i

Steamship lines in Norfolk: regulars to New York, Philadel-
phia, Boston, Providence, Baltimore, and Washington—18; 6 to
New York, 6 to Baltimore, 3 to Philadelphia, 3 to Washington ;
many coastwise vessels. On these vessels was carried a total of

Virginian-Pilot, April 8, 1918. "Virginian-Pilot, April 12, 1918.
*Virginian-Pilot, June 12, 1917. “Virginian-Pilot, April 11, 1918.
“Virginian-Pilot, Oct. 13, 1918. “Virginian-Pilot, July 4, 1918.

“Virginian-Pilot, Jan. 5, 1918. Virginian-Pilot, Oct. 27, 1918.

“Virginian-Pilot, April 9, 1918.36 NorFouK IN WAR TIME

 

12,614,722 short tons of freight, valued at $2,961,587,213, and
675,988 passengers.

Steamers and gasoline boats plying between Norfolk and in-
land towns carried 2,452,524 short tons of freight, valued at
$185,827,198, and 59,147 passengers.

Coal piers of N. & W. capacity of 1,250 tons per hour.

Coal piers of Virginian capacity of 1,500 tons per hour.

Chief articles of import and export: beams, $1,183,300 ; nitrate
of soda, $20,173,720; agricultural implements, $1,072,000; canned
meats and vegetables, $1,386,500: coal, $52,345,520; linters,
$7,001,200; flour, $1,523,520; manufactured iron and steel, $1,-
726,020; peas and beans, $1,415,700: steel billets, $4,093,670;
tobacco, $184,800: American gold coin $11,852,000.

Total freight received and shipped, 34,870,321 short tons,
valued at $4,119,087,948, including cargoes using waters of Nor-
folk harbor.

VESSEL CLASSIFICATION

Arrived Departed
Coastwise Number Tons Number Tons
PNM G ean ots. s 5. 1,633 2,919,259 1,739 2,990,293
HOneoTibee ees ss L233 2,855,595 481 1131-518
Foreign
PAO CATIG 2) ose 85 223,759 239 838,623
GRO TOT ese oe) oe 862 2,206,792 1,659 4,040,904

Steam ferries (between Norfolk, Portsmouth and Berkley)
carried 10,650,335 passengers and 928195 vehicles during the
calendar year of 1917.

LABOR

Labor conditions in Norfolk during the war constituted one
of Norfolk’s greatest problems. The matter divides itself into
three heads: the labor demand and shortage, strikes, and housing.
We shall consider each of them in the order named.

Three hundred and sixty-two manufacturing plants in Nor-
folk in 1913 employed 15,000 workmen. With the growth of
war-time contracts and with general business inflation the latter
figure increased to an unbelievable degree, for in April, 1918,
there were 18,000 men employed by the government plants alone
in and around Norfolk... Thus the original figure was unques-
tionably trebled.

The labor shortage was first considered serious in May, 1917,
when the entrance of men into service caused vacancies, and
when there were migrations of workmen northward to plants
paying higher wages.2 This shortage was particularly hard on
the Norfolk truckers, and they lost $100,000 worth of perishables
in one week.’ The city paving work was discontinued on account
‘Virginian-Pilot, July 4, 1918. Virginian Pilot, June 23; 1917
*Virginian-Pilot, May 26, 1917.A CoMMUNITY HIsToRY 37

 

of the combined labor and car shortage: gravel was delayed and
few men would stay on the job at city wages.* The Old Dominion
docks lost 200 men in various ways, and could have used 500
at once.® The government plants were seriously handicapped
during the first of 1918 by their inability to obtain workers, and
W. A. Cox, secretary of the Chamber of Commerce—lest Nor-
folk fail to provide the necessary facilities for keeping the plants
up to their capacity duty—led a campaign to recruit men for
work in the government operations.® ‘The situation was not re-
lieved by March, whereupon the government established an em-
ployment bureau of three divisions in Norfolk: one to recruit
laborers for the Army and Navy plants, one for farmers, and
one for business firms.* The securing of workmen became al-
most as serious a business as recruiting an army. Labor agents
lured many men to Norfolk with tales of enormous wages. Two
hundred and ninety-four boys and young men from Evansville,
Indiana, were brought to the city in May, 1918, and deserted by
the agent who secured them.’ Hundreds of girls, enchanted by
the tales of wages and city comforts, left their small-town and
country homes to come to Norfolk and to find themselves harshly
disillusioned. At the Naval Base the government established its
own labor board and did away totally with contract labor.’ In
August, 1918, Norfolk was asked to furnish 300 women workers
for the Penniman plant.!° The government employment bureau
began importing laborers from Minnesota, Kansas, Texas and
Kentucky. But the supply was caught up immediately. The
Naval Base on September 31, 1918, needed men and women for
many positions, and 500 colored laborers were sought for imme-
diate important employment.!? In October 250 woman clerks
replaced as many men at the Army Base.’* The Norfolk negroes
rendered valuable service to the city at this time: in a cam-
paign instituted by them negro womien canvassed the town, round-
ing up all colored idlers and bringing them to the United States
Labor Employment Service.! Toward the end of October, 1918,
there were rumors of recruiting negro women to take places in
industry vacated by men.’°

There is no difficulty in seeing the conditions which the labor

shortage brought about. Manufacturing plants clamored tor
workers. The men themselves, sought after and exalted to a

position of such importance, frequently became insolent and
shiftless. They wandered from job to job seeking the highest
wages. Such a condition among thousands of workmen resulted
in a type of transient, volatile, undependable element in the popu-
lation: a group without love for the city or regard for its future.

‘Virginian-Pilot, June 29, 1917. *Virginian-Pilot, Aug. 28, 1918.
‘Virginian-Pilot, June 27, 1917. Virginian-Pilot, Sept. 2, 1918.
*Virginian-Pilot, Feb. 5, 1918. “Virginian-Pilot, Sept. 30, 1918.
‘Virginian-Pilot, March 2, 1918. Virginian-Pilot, Oct. 4 1918.
‘Virginian-Pilot, May 2, 1918. “Virginian-Pilot, Nov. 3. 1918!
*Virginian-Pilot, May 6, 1918. ‘Virginian-Pilot, Nov. 1, 1918.38 NorFoOLK IN WAR TIME

 

And yet Norfolk had to house, feed, and clothe these thousands,
and to transport them to and from their work.

The independence felt by working men very naturally led to
strikes. There were no less than eight strikes in Norfolk during
the war and even more threats. In May, 1917, there was a
sharp controversy between the Old Dominion and its marine
engineers for more pay.® During the same month barge masters
struck for an increase of $15.00 per month, and by their action
tied up twenty-five or thirty barges in Hampton Roads. The
Owners soon agreed to the demands and normal conditions were
restored.‘ In September, 1917, the yard and freight office clerks
of the Seaboard Air Line Railway struck. The government acted
as mediator and the clerks returned to work believing they had
won a great victory.'* Also in September 4,100 men at the Navy
Yard struck for higher wages. The difficulty was removed when
Wages were adjusted according to local scales.1® When the
American Cigar Company had to close down because of a strike,
the officials threatened to move the plant from Norfolk if work-
men continued in unreasonable demands.”° In October 400 negro
oyster packers and shuckers, organized under the Longshore-
men’s Union, struck; but the strike failed and the men returned
gradually to their jobs.2!_ The Atlantic Coast Line clerks struck
and were reinstated at the request of President Wilson.22 In
October, 1917, negro domestics, in demanding one dollar a day
for a six-day week, threatened a strike.23 In April, 1918, 4,000
men in the building trades, 2,700 of whom were at the Naval
Base, walked out in spite of promises to grant their demands. A
day later they returned to work awaiting the government’s decis-
ion on their action.2* At just about that time barge masters and
mates went on a strike for a minimum salary of $150 per month.
Asa result of this move half the barges on the Atlantic coast were
idle.2> On April 1, 1918, union men at three of the government
bases planned to strike for a minimum of 62Y%c an hour, but
conciliation with the government stayed any drastic action.26 In
July, 1918, fifteen men of a Virginian Railway pier struck and
stopped 20,000 tons of coal a day from moving."

The most serious difficulty caused by the influx of labor into
Norfolk was that of housing. Comparatively late did the problem
reach grave proportions, for it was in the latter part of November,
1917, that Mr. John A. Lesner, president of the Board of Trade,
appointed a committee to investigate the housing situation.28 The
committee found that not only laborers were in need of houses,
but also many service men stationed in Norfolk who had brought

“Virginian-Pilot, May 25, 1917. “Virginian-Pilot, Oct. 4, 1917.
“Virginian-Pilot, May 2, 1917. “Virginian-Pilot, April 2, 1918.
“Virginian-Pilot, Sept. 9, 1917. “Virginian-Pilot, April 3, 1918.
“Virginian-Pilot, Sept. 27, 1917. “Virginian-Pilot, April 1, 1918.
“Virginian-Pilot, Sept. 25, 1917. “Virginian-Pilot, July 16, 1918.

“Virginian-Pilot, Oct. 10, 1917. “Virginian-Pilot, Nov. 27, 1917.
“Virginian-Pilot, Nov. 29, 1917.A Community History 39

 

with them wives and families. The demand for light house-
keeping suites seems to have been most urgent. The Community
Welfare League aided in securing homes for 1,500 workmen who
came to the Naval Base.*® The Norfolk Chamber of Commerce
and Board of Trade sent a committee consisting of John A. Les-
ner, N. R. Hamilton, W. L. Baldwin, Barton Myers, W. A. Cox,
and J. C. Prince to negotiate with the government regarding the
expenditure by the government of $9,000,000 for housing around
Norfolk and Portsmouth.°° This plan did not materialize until
October, 1918, when the government began building 4,000 homes
(costing from $2,500 to $3,500) in Norfolk for war workers.*?
So that during the first three seasons of 1918 the housing situa-
tion remained extremely uncertain. This condition brought about
such complications as profiteering and commandeering. In March,
1918, Admiral Harris, chairman War Board Control of Hampton
Roads District, warned landlords against exorbitant rents.** But
the owners of property in Norfolk weer as eager for high rents
as their tenants were for high wages; but Charles A. Nicholls,
government representative of the Bureau of Industrial Housing,
declared he would fight rent profiteering.** In July, 1918, Otto
M. Eidlitz, director of housing in the Department of Labor, said
that there were 18,000 workmen for the Army and Navy Bases
around Norfolk, with 43,000 really required. He declared that
25,000 houses were needed—12,000 in the city of Norfolk.**

The profiteering of rents become so prevalent that on July
15 Judge Graham Egerton, solicitor of the Navy Department,
was sent by Secretary Daniels to investigate the rental difficulties
then said to be going on in Norfolk, Berkley, and Portsmouth.*°
That there was profiteering in rents in Norfolk is unquestionably
true, and the efforts made by the Secretary of the Navy to put a
stop to the practice accomplished some good. But the solution
was yet to come.

Finally, September 11, 1918, a Housing Bureau was estab-
lished at 149 Atlantic Street.** With such an office many renting
problems were solved and profiteering seems to have largely dis-
appeared. But another difficulty arose: many government em-
ployees and service men who had rented houses in Norfolk re-
fused to move at the expiration of their leases when owners of
the property demanded it. H. O. Nichols, of the Bureau of
Housing and Transportation, publicly declared that government
employees would not be permitted to impose upon civilian prop-
erty holders, but must act in accord with leases.*‘ This pro-
nouncement had little effect. Many offending tenants had heard
that the government could commandeer houses if it wished, and
they believed it would do so for them. The Chamber of Com-

*Virginian-Pilot, Jan. 16, 1918. “Virginian-Pilot, July 4, 1918.

"Virginian-Pilot, March 3, 1918. ‘Virginian-Pilot, July 14, 1918.
"Virginian-Pilot, Oct. 6, 1918. “Virginian-Pilot, Sept. 11, 1918.
"Virginian-Pilot, March 23, 1918. ‘Virginian-Pilot, Sept. 16, 1918.

"Virginian-Pilot, May 4, 1918.f
'
|
i
i
i

 

 

40 NORFOLK IN WAR TIME

 

merce investigated and found that the number of such cases was
large.** The Retail Merchants’ Association declared that service
men, besides causing trouble in renting houses, were not paying
their bills.*° The situation was extremely tense: the government
commandeered a few houses, and every service man seemed to
think he was specially privileged to demand a house in spite of
the owner’s opinion. A case was finally carried into the courts
and a decision delivered in favor of the rights of the owner to
contfal his own property in accordance with law.

3y Wctober, 1918, the government began building 4,000 homes
in Norfolk, and the housing situation was improved.?°

SOCIAL CONDITIONS

Norfolk possessed a more cosmopolitan population than any
other city in Virginia. The characteristic population of any sea-
port is very naturally somewhat transient, especially where naval
training stations are located. In Norfolk there were, of course,
a good number of solid, dependable citizens whose pride in their
city and whose knowledge of its traditions served to guide and
stabilize the tremendous war-time growth. But Norfolk’s popu-
lation doubled in about four years. The large majority of the
newcomers came for personal gain and cared nothing for Nor-
folk or its people except to the extent to which high wages were
maintained. The presence of these people greatly upset the tone
of Norfolk: the city became a great unwieldy body of workers
who were interested in little more than getting a large share of
the war wages. This lack of homogeneity of feeling made most
civic problems particularly difficult for those who had the city’s
good ever at heart.

Added to the peculiar character of Norfolk’s people, there was
the usual war exuberance and nonchalence. The impression of
impermanence and uncertainty which resulted from contempla-
tion of any activity during 1914-1918, naturally influenced many
citizens to ignore almost all necessary civic developments. Thus
the real control of Norfolk was carried on by a relatively small
group of older, more conscientious citizens. To them great credit
and honor is due.

The effects of the war on class and social groups in Norfolk
were similar to those in other cities: barriers of wealth, social
position, religion, and political party were temporarily let down,
and here, as elsewhere, all effort was pointed ultimately toward
winning the war. Such effects were temporary: human nature of
war time is not human nature of peace. Society reverts to
class distinction and social groups just as soon as the unifying
power of enthusiasm disappears.

During the war the negroes in Norfolk did much, but not

“Virginian-Pilot, Sept. 18, 1918. “Virginian-Pilot, Oct. 6, 1918.
“Virginian-Pilot, Sept 19, 1918.A ComMMuNITY History 41

more than was expected of them. At parades and mass-meetings
they pledged their loyalty to the government; in the purchase
of war securities they proved more tangibly their patriotism;
in the campaigns for war workers they served magnificently.
But if there were any letting down of class barriers between
them and the white people, then no record has been kept of
such change.

The five per cent of aliens in Norfolk and the neighborhood
were peaceful and industrious. A letter to the Virginian-Pilot
from B. K. Basho stated that the Hungarians of Southampton
County were loyal to the United States.1. There was a time when
all aliens were distrusted, and those in Norfolk were commanded
to give up all firearms.° But Norfolk never had the slightest
trouble from them and continued to live amicably with them.

*Virginian-Pilot, April 20, 1917. *Virginian-Pilot, April 13, 1917.CEANP TER Wal

The Red Cross

The Norfolk Red Cross Chapter before 1914 was organized
for purposes of nursing and not of such war relief as was needed
when the war broke out. The people of Norfolk were at first
skeptical about the American Red Cross activities because they
disliked the thought of service being given those countries for
whom they had no sympathy. Later, however, this hesitation dis-
appeared, and on the first of October, 1914, twenty-seven women
met at the home of Mrs. A. L. Roper and decided to work every
Thursday making hospital supplies and refugee garments. Later
letters of acknowledgment for supplies came from France and
Saloniki. The organization continued its work and grew from
a membership of twenty-seven to three hundred. Quarters in
the Y. W. C. A. gave greater working space and also storage
room. In nineteen months thousands of hospital supplies, gar-
ments, and knitted articles were supplied.

On June 15, 1917, a meeting was called in one of the Norfolk
banks by Mrs. A. L. Roper, and the Norfolk, Virginia, Chapter
of the American Red Cross was organized with the following
officers: Chairman, Robert B. Tunstall: Vice-Chairman, Mrs.
J. Jett McCormick; Treasurer, Hugh M. Kerr; Secretary, Hugh
B. Galt.2 Three directorates were marked out: military relief,
embracing hospital supplies, surgical dressings, and knitted arti-
cles; civilian relief, comprising care for and aid to all soldiers
and sailors as well as their families (under a subdivision known
as Home Service), and a second subdivision to include all nurs-
ing, training classes, etc.; Chapter activities, embracing finance
committee, committtes on publicity, motor service, membership,
etc:

The first drive for funds came June 25, 1917, and from the
generous response of Norfolk people $112,711.96 was raised. Of
this amount one-fourth remained in the treasury of the local
chapter.

The Norfolk Chapter had jurisdiction over Norfolk City,
Norfolk County, and Princess Anne County. At first auxiliaries
were established in Berkley and South Norfolk, and careful in-

 

‘Report of Pre-War Red Cross McCormick; First Annual Re-
Activities in Norfolk, Va., by port of Norfolk, Virginia,
Mrs. A. L. Roper. Norfolk Chapter, American Red Cross,
Files, Vol. III., Va. War Hist. by Robt. B. Tunstall; Second
Com. Annual Report of Norfolk,

“The following account is adapted, Virginia, Chapter, American
except where indicated, from Red Cross, by C. W. Grandy,
the following sources: The Jr. Norfolk Files, Vol. III.,
Story of the Red Cross in War Hist. Com.

Norfolk, Va., by Mrs. J. JettA ComMMuNITY History 43

structions were given all workers for the making of surgical
dressings and garments of all sorts for hospital and refugee use.
he mass of work was divided among forty-eight working units,
located in as many church and secular organizations, to whom cut-
out garments were sent. These units and also the auxiliaries
sewed the garments together and returned them to the central
office where they were packed and shipped directly to New York.
Later there were, besides the forty-eight working units, twelve
partly self-supporting auxiliaries: Berkley, South Norfolk, Edge-
water, Tanner’s Creek, Kempsville, Bayside, Virginia Beach,
Hickory, Twentieth Century, Y. M. A., Naval Base, and Eliza-
beth Hobson (colored).

In the fall of 1917 the Junior Red Cross was organized with
Mr. G. T. Ridingsvard as chairman. Under his direction it grew
until it comprised thirty-one schools—twenty-four city public
schools, three country public schools, two private schools, one
Sunday school—and numbered approximately 14,000 members.
The Junior Red Cross supplied all the packing cases used in ship-
ping Red Cross materials from Norfolk.

During the winter of 1917 aid—social, medical, legal, and
financial—was given in the number of 2,425 cases assisted, and
$15,555.33 was expended in loans or grants. Information was
secured regarding the families of all Norfolk men in the Fourth
Virginia Infantry and in the local artillery company, so that rela-
tives could be kept posted on soldiers’ movements and where-
abouts. Similarly information regarding all drafted men was
gathered by the Red Cross. Canteen service was not deemed
one of the Norfolk Chapter’s most important activities, yet during
the influenza epidemic canteen workers rendered valuable aid to
stricken families. The first annual report of the executive com-
mittee of the Chapter counted its membership, including the
Junior Red Cross, as 27,107, its total receipts $25,022.14, and
expenditures $5,895.01.

In the spring of 1918 a drive for funds was begun under the
direction of Judge Wilcox. The allotment was $150,000, but
$223,153.52 was subscribed. Of this amount one-fourth re-
mained in the local Chapter, and special gifts to the Chapter
amounted to $22,425.95. Contributions were made from all
classes and types of people. One woman brought twenty dollars
saved in her family by going without meat for a month except
on Sundays, and a feeble, aged man wandered into the office to
give fifty-seven cents of his tobacco money “to help the boys.”
Such demonstrations of willingness to serve must not be over-
looked in the giant quotas subscribed by thousands of wealthy
citizens.

During 1917 the Chapter was sub-divided as follows: Depart-
ment of Surgical Dressings, Department of Hospital Supplies,
Department of Knitted Goods, Department of Home Service,
Department of Nursing Service, Department of Finance, Depart-
ment of Motor Service, Department of Information, Department44 NorFOLK IN WAR TIME

 

of Canteen Service. The various sections clearly indicate by
name the work done.

In July, 1918, Mr. Tunstall resigned as chairman of the
Chapter and was succeeded by Mr. C. W. Grandy, Jr.

In the fall of 1918 when the influenza epidemic was raging,
the Red Cross, without ceasing its regular activities, established
an emergency hospital at the Walter Herron Taylor School and
conducted it as long as it was needed.

During the war the Chapter spent $80,713.22; it made 466,211
surgical bandages, 7,141 knitted articles, and 65,948 garments and
hospital supplies. In May, 1918, $260,000 was raised in the
National War Fund. The membership of the Norfolk Red Cross
finally numbered 36,000. At Christmas, 1918, 5,462 boxes were
sent to friendless service men. In January, 1918, during the fire,
the Red Cross supplied efficient canteen service to soldiers sta-
tioned about the damaged building, and this was extra to the
canteen service carried on under the Chapter’s department.

In all drives for the Red Cross Norfolk people proved to be
generously responsive. They subscribed their money and gladly
gave their time and energy whenever required. On December 23,
1917, the Norfolk Chapter, with the aid of many workers, com-
pleted in three weeks and two days 100,000 surgical dressings
which were due on December 29. In October before that, 20,000
persons, representing practically every organization in Norfolk,
marched in a great parade for the Red Cross.* Unquestionably
Norfolk was solidly behind all the activities and drives of the
Red Cross. When we discover 36,000 members with only 25,000
asked, we have a fair estimate of the success of the Red Cross
in Norfolk.

*Virginian-Pilot, Dec. 23, 1917. ‘Virginian-Pilot, Oct. 20, 1917.CHAPTER Vile

War Work and Relief Organizations

CAMP SERVICE

Since Norfolk had in its vicinity a large number of govern-
ment plants, Camp Service was one of the largest activities
occupying the interest of local organizations. And it was not
only in camp service, but also in the regulation of local conditions
arising from war that engaged the energies of numerous societies.
The following are the organizations which rendered valuable
service to the government in war work, especially at the various
camps:

The Norfolk Boy Scouts aided the Y. M. C. A. Service
Committee, secured books and magazines for sailors, distributed
propaganda literature, worked with the War Camp Community
Service, and served as messengers for the Red Cross. The
Ladies’ Aid Society of the Young Men’s Association (Catholic)
opened the Y. M. A. Building to soldiers for dances, entertain-
ments, banquets, card parties, sings, etc., and its members served
as counselors and companions to the guests.?7, The Norfolk So-
ciety of Arts in the United Service Club, Miss Helen Wood
Rogers, chairman, entertained and housed service men in their
building and made of it a service men’s club. The Women’s
Auxiliary of the Norfolk Branch, Navy Y. M.C. A., Mrs. Barton
Myers, chairman, housed sailors, fed them, entertained them with
religious services, and directed them generally. During 1918
877,210 men made use of the Association Building.* The Na-
tional League of Women’s Service, with Mrs. E. B. Hodges as
president, rendered remarkable service in supplying money, gar-
ments, food, confections, tobacco, entertainments, and sundries to
soldiers and sailors in camps. Large quantities of all sorts of
luxuries and necessities were supplied.®5 The Daughters of the
American Revolution, Nannie Dryden Kensett, regent, sent sup-
plies to the camps and to France, sold $400,000 in bonds, and en-
tertained soldiers in their homes.6 The Department of Public

‘Report of Norfolk Boy Scouts.
Norfolk Files, Vol. III., Va.

‘Report of Women’s Auxiliary
Norfolk Branch Navy Y. M.

War Hist. Com. C. A. Norfolk Files, Vol. II.,
*Report of Ladies’ Aid Society, Va. War Hist. Com.

Young Men’s_ Association. ‘Report of National League of

Norfolk Files, Vol. II., Va. Women’s Service. Norfolk

War Hist. Com. Files, Vol. II., Va. War Hist.
*Report of Norfolk Society of Com.

Arts War Work in the United
Service Club. Norfolk Files,
Vol. II., Va. War Hist. Com.

*Report of Great Bridge Chapter,
Daughters of American Revo-
lution. Norfolk Files, Vol. I1.,
Va. War Hist. Com:46 NORFOLK IN WaR TIME

 

Welfare, Dr. P. S. Schenck, director, assisted the government in
the prevention and treatment of disease, in giving medical aid
to soldiers’ families, in providing the right character social af-
fairs." The Norfolk Branch, National Woman’s Party, Mrs.
Walter Adams, chairman, besides its duties of giving political
aid to the Democratic party, did canteen work. The Virginia
Rebekah’s Lodge, No. 13, I. O. O. F., gave books and entertain-
ments to soldiers, supplies to refugees, and sold Liberty Bonds
and War Savings Stamps.® A number of fraternal organizations
formed, under the presidency of John L. Degge, a body which
gave entertainments to soidiers.1° The Norfolk Public Library,
Miss Mary Denson Pretlow, librarian, tried faithfully to supply
the overwhelming demand by the soldiers for reading matter. It
sponsored a canvass of the city and secured 12,000 books and
25,000 magazines, which it sent to camps around Norfolk.11 The
War Camp Community Service, with John A. Lesner as chair-
man, established five military clubs, one of which was colored ;
entertained 25,618 service men weekly with dancing, singing,
boxing, and auto rides. It conducted Sings in camps, clubs, in-
dustrial establishments, theatres, and out of doors. It furnished
hospitals with confections, fruits, and an occasional entertain-
ment. It helped the work of the Travelers’ Aid Society.12 The
Jewish Welfare Board, Moe Levy, chairman, maintained a hut
and a representative at each camp, gave entertainments to sol-
diers, engaged in religious and hospital work.13 The Y. M. C. A.,
with G. Benson Ferebee, president of directors, and J. Wilson
Smith, general secretary, did a large and varied work: in Novem-
ber, 1917, in one campaign it raised $40,600: forty Y: MAGA
men entered war work, and the war work recruiting committee
consisted of W. S. Royster, C. W. Grandy, Jr., and Tazewell
Taylor. Five hundred soldiers and sailors used the Central As-
sociation building daily, and all privileges of membership were
granted them. As branches of the Naval Y. M. C. A., seven
buildings were erected at the Naval Base, and the original build-
ing, at Brooke Avenue and Boush Street, housed in 1916, 33,000
men; in 1917, 92,000, and in 1918, 175,000. Together with
churches’ societies, the Y. M. C. A. sponsored for service men,
athletic contests and entertainments, and rendered aid in help-

‘Report of the Department of tion of Norfolk, Va. Norfolk

 

Public Welfare. Norfolk Files, Vol. II., Va. War Hist.

Files, Vol. II., Va. War Hist. Com.

Com. “American Library Association,
"War Work Report of Norfolk Report of Norfolk Public Li-

Branch, National Women’s brary. Norfolk Files, Vol. II.,

Party Norfolk Files, Vol. II.,
Va. War Hist. Com.

“War Work Report of Virginia
Rebekah’s Lodge, No. 13, I.
O. O. F. Norfolk Files, Vol.

II., Va. War Hist. Com.
Organiza-

*Report of Fraternal

Va. War Hist. Com.

“Report of War Camp Commun-
ity Service. Norfolk Files,
Vol. II., War Hist. Com.

“Report of Jewish Welfare. Nor-
folk Files, Vol. II., Va. War
Hist. Com.A Community History 47

ing correspondents to find particular soldiers. Further service
from the Y. M. C. A. may be seen in the work of sixty volun-
teer women, under the direction of Mrs. William Sloane. In
the post-office during the seven months prior to December 31,
1918, they handled 103,536 pieces of mail.14 The Naval Y. M.
C. A. also undertook to supply ships of all kinds with magazines,
games, stationery, testaments, etc. The Y. W. C. A., in which
Miss Nonie Wilkinson was president of the directors and Miss
Maude D. Hobbs, general secretary, was most active during the
war. It found its original quarters in College Place thoroughly
inadequate, although in 1918, 22,000 persons used the building.
The new residence in West Freemason Street accommodated
40,000 in a year’s time, but proved too small. Aside from en-
tertainments for service men, the Y. W. C. A. undertook the care
and direction of thousands of girls working in Norfolk or visit-
ing their relatives who were in service. Rooms were secured
in private homes for transients and regulars so that during 1918
alone 2,000 girls were aided in this way.!° The Sodality of the
Blessed Virgin Mary (Sacred Heart Church) conducted a strong
campaign for the conservation of food in Norfolk and enthusi-
astically aided in the drive for books.’® The Sisterhood of Ohef
Sholom Temple, Mrs. A. B. Seldner, president, gave religious,
musical and literary entertainments to service men and donated
a service flag to their church.17 The Y. W. H. A. raised money
for the Red Cross by giving entertainments, and all its members
joined the Red Cross, workers visited Naval and Army Hospi-
tals in the vicinity, taking refreshments to the men. Jewish en-
listed men were invited to the homes of members of the Y. W.
H. A. during Jewish holidays. A Victory Dance, given in De-
cember, 1918, to men of all faiths, was attended by over 400
soldiers and sailors. The Council of Jewish Women, under the
leadership of Mrs. D. E. Levy, kept in close association with
many of the larger war-time service organizations, taking part in
all the main activities, such as Liberty Loan and Stamp Drives,
collection of Books, Red Cross work, hospital visitation, food con-
servation and Jewish War Relief.’% St. Mary’s Guild of Interces-
sion, Christ Church, with Mrs. Frances C. Steinmetz as president,
furnished all sorts of supplies for soldiers—confections, books,
tobacco, clothing, writing paper and all such things which it was
customary to send to soldiers. The Guild donated an illuminated
Files, Vol, I., Va. War Hist.

“Report of the Young Men’s

Christian Association. Nor- Com.

Files, Vol. II., Va. War Hist. “Report of the Sisterhood of Ohef

Com. Sholom Temple. Norfolk
*Report of the Norfolk Y. W. C. Files, Vol. I., Va. War Hist.

A. Norfolk Files, Vol. II., Va. Com.

War Hist. Com.
“Report of the Sodality of the
Blessed Virgin Mary. Norfolk

‘Report of the Norfolk Section,

Council of Jewish Women.
Norfolk Files, Vol. I., Va.
War Hist. Com.48 NORFOLK IN WAR TIME

 

Honor Roll to the church and took particular interest in record-
ing facts about members of the church then in service.19 The
Woman’s Auxiliary of the National Catholic War Council, of
which May W. Brooke was chairman, aided most in the solici-
tation of funds for various war needs. In the Liberty Bond
Drives the booth operated by the Council sold $260,000 in bonds,
and during the United War Work Campaign a booth at the
same place collected $34,000.?°

There were many illustrations of generous war work on the
part of smaller organizations than those above, organizations
whose purpose was not necessarily philanthropic or charitable in
its primary object, and also on the part of the public at large. In
May, 1917, the Norfolk Medical Society declared itself ready
for service, and announced eighteen of its members already in
the Medical Reserve Corps.?!_ In book drives for the Naval
Base and other training stations, in Y. M. C. A. and War Serv-
ice Commission Campaigns for recreational funds for soldiers
and sailors, the public responded liberally.22, The book drive;
ending about the last of February, 1918, gathered 1,000 books
and 4,000 magazines.** Friday was called Book Day in the pub-
lic schools, and each week brought quantities of volumes for the
men in the neighboring camps. No complete story of camp serv-
ice could be told without mention of Community Sings held under
the auspices of the War Camp Community Service and attended
by as many as 2,000 people.24 In March, 1918, the Liberty The-
atre was opened at the armory to service men only, and there
they were allowed to see vaudeville, plays, etc., without charge.”5
Later, September, 1918, the War Camp Community Service took
charge of the theatre in the armory and called it the Red Circle
Theatre.*® It proved to be a great success.

One source of recreation and amusement offered the service
men in Norfolk was the privilege of attending dances held in the
armory and sponsored by many of the war-work organizations.
In May, 1918, Dr. F. C. Steinmetz announced his disapproval of
these public armory dances and declared that they were not pro-
vocative of any good.*” The men at the Naval Base, incensed
at the remarks made by the minister, flatly denied his charges.
The dances continued, and the organizations sponsoring them
vouched for the high character of the method in which they
were conducted.

 

“Report of St. Mary’s Guild of ™Virginian-Pilot, May 22, 1917,
Intercession. Norfolk Files, and Dec. 5, 1917.
Vol. I., Va. War Hist. Com. “Virginian-Pilot, Feb. 28, 1918.
“Report of Woman’s Auxiliary of “Virginian-Pilot, March 11, 1918.
the National Catholic War *Virginian-Pilot, March 23, 1918.
Council. Norfolk Files, Vol. *™Virginian-Pilot, Sept. 16, 1918.
I., Va. War Hist. Com. Virginian-Pilot, May 15, 1918
“Virginian-Pilot, May 8, 1917.A Community History 49

RELIEF ORGANIZATIONS

The Armenian.and Syrian Relief Campa..ign was adminis-
tered by the Department of War Work in the Church Federa-
tion of Norfolk, with W. S. Toyster, President, and G. Herbert
Ekins, Secretary. About $25,000 was raised.28 The Jewish
War Relief was handled successfully by the local Council of
Jewish Women. The allotment of Norfolk was $15,000. All
Jewish organizations combined their efforts in raising the quota.”
As for the matter of Belgian Relief, campaigns earlier than
April, 1917, were successfully carried through, and afterwards
the Red Cross was a constant contributor to the needs of Bel-
gium sufferers. A letter from J. P. Andre Mottu, Consulat de
Belgique, to Mrs. Frantz Naylor commended Virginia, and par-
ticularly Norfolk, for generosity in sending a shipload of
supplies to Belgium.*® Numerous organizations in Norfolk
“adopted” French War Orphans. The Norfolk Branch of the
Fraternite-Franco-Americaine was organized to assist the fath-
erless children of France. Miss Virginia Roper headed the lo-
cal branch. The number of orphans was counted as 600,000,
and 10 cents a day was asked as the sum which could care for
one.*! L’Alliance Francaise, Miss Louise Demaison, President,
solicited money and supplies which were shipped directly to des-
titute French families.32 Norfolk people, solicited under the
leadership of Mrs. Charles R. Grandy and Mrs. F. S. Royster,
subscribed $9,679.97 and also contributed 3,600 yards of gauze
to the Virginia State Hospital in Serbia.** When the Halifax
disaster occurred in December, 1917, $5,000 was subscribed by
Norfolk citizens as a relief fund for the sufferers.**

Such organized relief campaigns by no means occupied all
of Norfolk’s interest and service. There were innumerable lo-
cal relief matters which had to be considered, and although many
of them were the result of war conditions, the business of reg-
ulation and adjustment became one of the chief characteristics
of relief work.

The following organizations served somewhat to rectify con-
ditions brought about by the war and affecting citizens in the city
of Norfolk. The King’s Daughters, under the leadership of Mrs.
George H. Moss, had a great number of city children weighed.
If they were to be found under weight, they were sent to a clinic
held for the purpose of improving the health of children among

*®War Work Church Federation of

Norfolk, Va. Norfolk Files.
Va. War Hist. Com.
"Report of Council of Jewish

Women. Norfolk Files, Vol.
le Vaso War bist. Com:
*Report of Consulate de Belgique.

Norfolk Files, Vol. II., War
War Hist Com.
“Virginian-Pilot, May 2, 1918.

“Report of L’Alliance Francaise.
Norfolk Files, Vol. II., Va.
War Hist. Com.

“Report of Virginia State Hospi-
tal in Serbia. Norfolk Files,
Vol. II., Va. War Hist. Com.
Since the date here is May,
1919, the item comes properly
in Post-War Activities.

“Virginian-Pilot, Dec. 25, 1917.50 NorFoOLK IN War TIME

 

the poorer classes. The King’s Daughters also aided the Red
Cross, operated a soup kitchen during the influenza epidemic,
joined in the Liberty Loan campaigns and worked with the
United War Service.2° The Florence Crittendon Home, of
which Miss Clare E. Marshall was Superintendent, aided many
girls who had fallen from approved standards of moral behavior.
They were cared for, directed, taught, and whenever possible
placed in responsible commercial positions.2® The Norfolk Day
Nursery, of which Mrs. A. Moses was president and Miss Clare
E. Marshall superintendent, took care of children during the
influenza epidemic, carried on social work in the homes of the
children and allowed mothers to work while the children were
cared for at the Nursery.2’7 Restover, Mrs. G. F. Moss, chair-
man, served as an aid to girls and mothers of.soldiers and worked
with the Red Cross and the Travelers’ Aid Society in caring
for, teaching and entertaining local and transient girls.*° The
Norfolk United Charities, under the direction of Captain John
L. Roper, gave material aid to needy individuals and families
in Norfolk.8® The Norfolk (Virginia) Branch of the Needle-
work Guild of America, of which Mrs. William A. Thom was
president, supplied local hospitals and destitute families with new
garments.*° The Woman’s Auxiliary of the Norfolk Protestant
Hospital, Mrs. A. B. Seldner, President, offered fifty beds for
government use, and during the fall of October, 1918, opened a
ward of twenty-five beds to influenza patients. The Picket-
Buchanan Chapter of U. D. C., of which Mrs. Norman H.
Slack was president, aided in the Red Cross workrooms, en-
dowed a cot in a French hospital and adopted two French war
orphans.*? The Hope-Maury Chapter of U. D. C., Mrs. Frank
Anthony Walke, President, made 20,000 surgical dressings for
the Red Cross and sold $50,000 in bonds.42 The Norfolk Chap-
ter of the Colonial Dames of America, with Nannie Dryden
Kensett as chairman, sent a Red Cross box to France, knitted
sweaters, sold $10,000 in Liberty Bonds, furnished ten mem-
bers daily, for a time, to ride trains and care for wounded men

*Report of the King’s Daughters. “Report of Norfolk, Virginia,

Norfolk Files, Vol. II., Va. Branch of the Needlework
War Hist. Com. Guild of America. Norfolk

*War Work Report of Florence Files, Vol. II., Va. War Hist.
Crittendon Home. Norfolk Com.

Files, Vol. II., Va. War. Hist. “Report of Woman’s Auxiliary of

Com. Norfolk Protestant Hospital.
"War Work Report of Norfolk Norfolk Fules; Vols Ils) Va:
Day Nursery. Norfolk Files, War Hist. Com.
Vol. Il., Va. War Hist. Com. “Report of Pickett - Buchanan
*Report of Restover War Work. Chapter, U. D. C. Norfolk
Neri IME, Wol ill, \Wo. Files, Vol. II., Va. War Hist.
War Hist. Com. Com.
“War Work Report of Norfolk “Report of Hope-Maury Chapter,
United Charities. Norfolk U. D. C. Norfolk Files, Vol.
Biles, Wola lie Vae Vat Elis Lie Via War Guise, ome:

Com.A Community History ST

on the way to the Westhampton Hospital at Richmond.44 No
story of local relief work in Norfolk could be one-half complete
without a detailed account of the service of the Travelers’ Aid
Society in its work with the War Camp Community Service: no
summary of relief activities can do it justice. The tale is one of
unending toil and hardship in the face of inadequate force and
equipment. The full account reads with the profound observa-
tion that no recognition can be made to reward the Travelers’
Aid for its remarkable service.

The sudden influx of workmen and relatives of soldiers re-
quired the aid of some directing force. The Travelers’ Aid
supplied the need. Primarily in the part it played in caring for
the thousands of girls who came to Norfolk during the war pe-
riod, does the organization deserve most credit. Tempted by
high wages, brought by affection for brothers or sweethearts in
service, hundreds of girls arrived in Norfolk without knowing
where to stay or where to go. The position was, to say the
least, perilous; but the Travelers’ Aid found homes for them,
advised them and saw that they attended to their business with-
out mishap. During 1918, of the 34,918 persons assisted, 10,000
were girls. And by assisted is meant the multitude of duties
varying from furnishing street directions, telephone calls and
railroad schedules to attending to sick persons, arranging wed-
dings and finding permanent homes for many unfortunates. The
officers and Board of Directors deserve considerable credit; it is
wished that all their names and share in the work could be given
here, but we can mention only the officers; Mrs. W. D. Pender,
President; Mrs. D. S. Baum, Vice-President; Rev. Myron Mar-
shall, Second Vice-President; Mrs. E. E. Palen, Recording Sec-
retary; Mrs. Fielding Slaughter, Corresponding Secretary; Mr.

M. T. Friary, Treasurer.*®

NEGRO WAR WORK

Negro war work in Norfolk followed closely the lead of
that of the white people. The combined efforts are marked with
a close spirit of co-operation and constant agreement. In all
the war activities, Bond Campaigns, Red Cross (of which one
of the auxiliaries was colored), Parades, Subscriptions to Re-
lief Funds, the negroes of Norfolk were splendidly loyal. Dur-
ing October, 1918, an emergency hospital for colored people of
Norfolk was opened in the B. T. Washington High School. The
project was aided by the City Health Department, friends, pub-
lic school teachers and professional men and women. Some sev-

“Report of Norfolk Chapter Co- “Report of the Emergency Hospi-

lonial Dames of America. tal for the Colored People of
Norfolk Files, Vol. II., Va. Norfolk During the Influenza
War Hist. Com. Epidemic, October, 1918. Nor-

“Report of Travelers’ Aid Society. folk Biles, (Vol; XSOxXl= Vas
Nortolk Biles) Vol; TI, Va. War Hist. Com.

War Hist. Com. “Virginian-Pilot, April 11, 1917.52 NorFouK IN War TIME

 

enty-one patients were cared for and $300 handled. Dr. P. S.
Schenck, of the Health Department, highly commended Laura
E. Titus, who was president of the hospital board.*® Negro
mass-meetings on several occasions were held for pledging the
loyalty of Norfolk’s colored population to the United States.*7
Drafted negro soldiers were honored by the city and commended
for their promptness in registering and answering the draft call.
Particularly industrious were the Norfolk negro women during
the great industrial boom when workers were scarce. By can-
vassing the city and bringing to employment all idlers, these
women rendered a noteworthy service to Norfolk.CHAPTER VIII.

Post-War Conditions and Activities

Norfolk, like most other cities of any size and importance,
felt the confusing effects of the sudden cessation of hostilities
on November 11, 1918. People knew the war was over; many
anticipated the importance of readjustment to a peace-time status
and foresaw the difficulty which lay in slowing down the tre-
mendous momentum of an economic system in war time to a
steady, balanced organization of the forces of modern life. Nor-
folk’s growth had been unstable in the war boom; her own ex-
pectations of development were far surpassed. Greatness, pros-
perity and importance were thrust upon her; she adjusted her-
self to a 300 per cent increase in population and to the war-time
enterprises accompanying that increase, with difficulty and yet
with success. Such sudden growth had for its foundation the
war. When the war ended, Norfolk’s great development was
without its main support; the situation was even more serious
than that of bringing her facilities up to a tripling of population ;
the situation was unique, for no other city in the United States
was faced with exactly the same problem. Great industries had
located in Norfolk, the government was spending millions there,
war workers came in the tens of thousands; all activity pointed to
war. The numerous enterprises, as they got under way, gath-
ered momentum. By November 1, 1918, Norfolk industries and
organizations were working with capacity output; human ener-
gy as well as machine energy pointed solely to winning the war.
And then came November 11 and the Armistice. The founda-
tions of Norfolk’s prosperity were swept away.

There was no cataclysm, no disruption of a social order fol-
lowing the cessation of all war activities on the part of armies,
no catastrophe. The reason for the absence of such a condition
is not far to seek. The very momentum which all activities had
acquired during twenty months of war caused them to run on
unsupported until an easier, more gradual adjustment could be
made. It was difficult to realize that those energies, once so
cruelly whipped into action, now had no object for their power;
but force of habit kept them hanging “in the air,” as it were,
while reconstruction began. Thus there was no collapse, but a
gradual (though hurried) disintegration of all war activities
and a conversion of such agencies into industries of peace.

There are a number of matters to consider in a post-war
study of Norfolk: we must examine demobilization and the re-
turned soldier; economic conditions must be reviewed with a
eye kept on such things as the high cost of living, housing con-
ditions, growth of local industries; the labor status requires care-
ful inspection; welfare and relief work are to be reviewed ; cele-54 NorFOLK IN War TIME

 

brations of home-coming and Armistice Day are to be narrated;
matters of war memorials, awards, service medals, American Le-
gion posts require comment, and vocational education of soldiers
must be considered.

Norfolk, for all its harbor advantages, was not a port of de-
barkation. Newport News received most of the men discharged
from Camp Lee, and Norfolk saw the demobilization of com-
paratively few men other than local military units. Unlike other
cities, Norfolk did not witness many returning regiments on pa-
rade. Her home-coming celebrations were primarily local.

Immediately after the Armistice had been signed, demobili-
zation was anticipated and people began to think of war in the
past. A patriotic rally held in the Red Circle Theatre presented
a review of all war work overseas, showing particularly the im-
mensity of the service required of relief organizations! In a
spirit of gratitude and awe, thousands of citizens in Norfolk
opened their homes to soldiers and sailors on Thanksgiving Day.”
As for the actual return of overseas men, Norfolk joyously
learned of the appearance of three transports: Rotterdam, Po-
cahontas and President Grant, on November 27, 1918. The
President Grant docked at Norfolk and the men were allowed
to go ashore for exercise. Their presence was indicative to Nor-
folk of the first processes of demobilization. That particular
group of soldiers re-embarked and sailed for Camp Mills, N. Y.3

Although some time elapsed before Norfolk’s military units
returned, the spirit of the city was that of joyousness and wel-
come. Citizens planned celebrations and entertainments for the
returning men; the spirit of Armistice Day itself continued, al-
though somewhat diminished in intensity. On December 9, 1918,
the Italians in Norfolk held a celebration and a parade.t Pub-
lic anticipation ran high for welcoming the service men.

During the first of 1919, the War Camp Community Service,
in attempting to provide entertainments for service men in the
neighborhood, particularly sailors from the Fleet, was severely
criticized by the Church Federation for the dances and enter-
tainments sponsored by it. The W. C. C. S. intended to do what
it could to interest the men, and, together with the Red Cross,
attempted to show moving pictures on Sunday for the purpose
of keeping idle service men out of trouble. The ministers rose
in hot indignation. Such a policy as the legalizing of Sunday
movies was too heinous a crime to be allowed: they descended
with all the authority of their calling on the plans of the two
unfortunate organizations which were completely routed. No
movies were shown on Sundays; instead, lectures and illustrated
talks supplied the restless soldiers and sailors with the proper
edification, and the Sabbath remained unbroken.®

 

Virginian-Pilot, Nov. 14, 1918. “Virginian-Pilot, Dec. 7, 1918.
“Virginian-Pilot, Nov. 24, 1918. *Virginian-Pilot, March 19, 1919.
“Virginian-Pilot, Nov. 28, 1918.A Community History 55

 

Plans for welcoming returning soldiers were undertaken by
the City Council as early as February 18, 1919. On April 22,
1919, the Council appropriated $750 for a “Welcome Home”
electric sign on the City Hall dome, an action which had been
authorized on February 18. On May 13, 1919, the Council be-
gan the laying of plans for “Home-Coming Week,” which was
to take place from Sunday, June 22, to Saturday, June 28, with
Tuesday as a general holiday.® ca

Before this period arrived, however, the 116th Infantry, con-
taining several local companies, arrived in Newport News on the
transport Matsonia. A welcoming committee from Norfolk, on
board the Gratitude, met the Matsonia and made appropriate
demonstrations of Norfolk’s pride in her soldiers.7/ On May
25 the 111th Field Artillery arrived, and with it was Battery B,
formerly known as the Norfolk Light Artillery Blues. Since the
arrival and parade of this contingent took place on Sunday in
Norfolk, many people, otherwise at work, had an opportunity
to witness and take part in the great ovation given the soldiers.®

For “Welcome Home Week” the Council had appropriated
$15,000. This was to be spent as seen fit by the committee in
charge of planning the celebration. And in order to see that
Norfolk’s colored population and colored soldiers were not ne-
glected, $3,000 was set aside for the negro celebration of the re-
turn of colored soldiers. The committee was given valuable aid
by the War Camp Community Service. The personnel of the
committee was as follows: Chairman, Albert L. Roper; Vice-
Chairman, Major C. L. Wright; Treasurer, Alan G. Burrow;
Secretary, Miss May Brooke. The following subcommittees car-
ried out the plans: Plan and Procedure, Finance, Press, His-
torical Memorial and Decoration. Each day of the Welcome
Home Week was marked for a different activity: Sunday,
Special Church Services and “Welcome Home” Sing in Lafay-
ette Park; Monday, Athletic Sports and Parade; Tuesday, Water
Carnival; Wednesday, Picnic and Barbecue; Thursday, Demo-
bilization of Service Flag; Friday, Reception and Ball, Medals
awarded service men from Norfolk. A triumphal arch was built
at Granby and City Hall Avenue. Many fraternal organizations
aided the Committee by managing booths, where soft drinks,
cigarettes and food were given to men in uniform. The whole
week was a great success: citizens found opportunity to wel-
come local soldiers home; organizations merited commendation
for their aid, and Norfolk made a fitting close to her formal
participation in the actual fighting of the war.? The City Coun-
cil commended the Committee on its work and likewise adopted

"Report of City Clerk of Action tion. Norfolk Files, Voletht
of the Council in the Matter _ Va. War Hist. Com.
of Welcome Home Celebra- ‘Ledger-Dispatch, May 21, 1919.

‘Virginian-Pilot, May 26, 1919.56 NoRFOLK IN War TIME

 

resolutions citing the invaluable service rendered by the police
and the Boy Scouts®

The Colored Welcome Home Week came from Sunday, July
20, to Saturday, July 26.7°

Many of the camp service organizations aided in handling
men in uniform who were just discharged, as well as those who
were stationed temporarily: in or near Norfolk. The Navy
YM. C. AW from! July 13; LOS sunt july 12-1919) venter-
tained 710,000 sailors.11 The Knights of Columbus were par-
ticularly active at the Naval Base, while the Fifth Brigade of
Marines were being demobilized. The Knights of Columbus
buildings furnished 5,000 towels, $3,000 in tobacco and sundries
during this time.127 The Norfolk Society of Arts, in addition
to its extended war work, aided many soldiers to get back into
private life.?%

Economically, Norfolk suffered as most cities did when the
end of the war brought about a diminution of the vast business
being done during 1917 and 1918. The city had great trouble
supplying electric lighting power. It required of citizens a mini-
mum of usage in November, 1918, in spite of the development
of its facilities to meet the government and war-time needs.’*
Prices in food and other necessities, feeling the effects of the
sudden end of the war, gradually rose. The latter part of No-
vember, 1918, turkeys and hens sold for 48c a pound. By De-
cember 24 the former had jumped to 80c a pound.1® Eggs
(fresh) were 68c to 70c; bread, 9c to 10c; butter, 69c to 72c;
hams, 42c to 45c; flour, 85c for a twelve-pound sack; potatoes
(Irish), 3c to 3%c a pound.!* But Norfolk’s prices at the first
of December, 1918, were by no means the highest in the State,
for Richmond prices were noted to be 35% higher than those
of Norfolk.1> When all restrictions on local restaurants were
rescinded, those firms continued to give war portions with war
prices1® The new year began with cotton at 3734c, the high-
est price in the history of the exchange. One year before it had
been counted high at 27c.7°

The situation of prices in Norfolk brought an active cam-
paign by the Housewives’ League for the purpose of forcing
prices down.”! After much wasted energy and talk, some 1,600
or 2,000 stockholders were secured for operating a stall in the
market.** The stall may be considered a success, although the
volume of business done was not sufficient to cause any definite

"Report of the Welcome Home “Virginian-Pilot, Nov. 27, 1918.
Celebration. Norfolk Files, “Virginian-Pilot, Nov. 27, 1918.
Vol. III., Va. War Hist. Com. “Virginian Pilot, Dec. 24, 1918.

“Virginian-Pilot, July 3, 1919. “Virginian-Pilot, Dec. 6, 1918.

“Virginian-Pilot, July 13, 1919. *Virginian-Pilot, Nov. 28, 1918.

*Virginian-Pilot, Aug. 24, 1919. *Virginian-Pilot, Dec. 28, 1918.

“Report of Norfolk Society of “Virginian-Pilot, Jan. 4, 1919.
Arts War Work in the United *Virginian-Pilot, Jan. 23, 1919.
Service Club. Norfolk Files, ~™Virginian-Pilot, March 4, 1919.
Vol Tl, Va. War Hist. Com:A ComMmuNITy History 57

change in the price situation. Later a municipal store was
opened at 229 Monticello Avenue, and food, released by the
Navy, was put on sale in the public and Catholic schools of
the city. In one week these schools sold $30,000 worth of food.28
City Manager Ashburner took a different stand on the matter
of cost of food and declared that the city wasted between $100,-
000 and $150,000 daily in food. Considering that the city
government for one day cost $9,000, such a waste was unusually
large. His solution for combating high prices was to conserve
food.** Since April 15, 1918, the cost of living in the United
States had increased 18 per cent; Norfolk was typical.?° In spite
of the control over food formerly exerted by the government,
evidences of profiteering were seen in the Norfolk markets in
August, 1919.°° The fact that other cities in Virginia were pay-
ing less for milk than Norfolk brought about an investigation.
Norfolk citizens paid from 18c to 25c a quart for milk.?* With
high prices on all food, the summer of 1919 reached a climax
when the possibility of an ice famine threatened the city.-* After
considerable effort on the part of the City Manager, the diff-
culty was removed.

By the middle of September, Norfolk had climbed near the
top of the list of cities where prices were highest.-? The govern-
ment undertook, by drastic measures, to secure relief from the
price inflation: it secured the release of certain quantities of
foods and distributed them; it fixed coal prices; it regulated the
sale of fish—all in an attempt to lower the cost of living.*° The
city organized what was known as the Fair Play Committee,
and through it asked coal dealers to reduce their prices.**

When the war ended the government discontinued a great
many activities of which the building of houses for war workers
was one. The workers remained in Norfolk temporarily, but
the problem of housing became more and more serious. War-
time industries kept going, at least for a while; but little build-
ing of houses was done to care for workers. Five hundred
thousand dollars spent for military and naval building during
the first five months of 1919 was unaccompanied by any appre-
ciable private building because of prices and government re-
strictions.22 The need for homes became so insistent by August,
1919, that a group of business men formed a corporation, which
planned to build 1,000 moderately priced homes.** By this method
it was hoped many workers would remain in Norfolk, who would
otherwise go to cities furnishing homes as well as high wages;
for the need for rented homes was most urgent and constituted
the basis for explaining the exodus of workers from Norfolk.**

*Virginian-Pilot, Oct. 26, 1919. Virginian-Pilot, Oct. 5, 1919.
“Virginian-Pilot, May 14, 1919. "Virginian-Pilot, Oct. 7, 1919.
*Virginian-Pilot, Aug. 23, 1919. “Virginian-Pilot, May 12, 1919.
"Virginian-Pilot, Aug. 29, 1919. “Virginian-Pilot, Aug. 29, 1919.
*Virginian-Pilot, Aug. 25, 1919. “Virginian-Pilot, Aug. 6, 1919.

*Virginian-Pilot, Sept. 12, 1919,58 NorFOLK IN WarR TIME

 

Few houses of those vacant were for rent; most owners wished
to sell.*° The demand for rented houses was such that unscrupu-
lous landlords used the occasion for profiteering. Such a prac-
tice was severely condemned by civic authorities, who promised
to fight it to its discontinuance.*®

The housing difficulty was by no means indicative of Nor-
folk’s development in the post-war period. Her industries con-
tinued to do capacity business. Twenty million tons of coal were
dumped at Hampton Roads in 1918, and during the first ten
months of the year the Norfolk and Western Railway dumped
1,644,438 tons more than in 1917.37 Norfolk itself handled
16,000,000 tons of coal in 1918 as against 15,000,000 in 1917.35
In 1919 coal shipped from Norfolk was counted as 16,932,209
tons, valued at $90,939,848.%"

The tonnage report for the port of Norfolk showed, in No-
vember, 1918, that up to that time 1918 had been Norfolk’s most
prosperous year, for her total was 24,000,000 tons, a figure
second only to that of New York.*#® The more detailed account
is as follows, according to the report of Colonel J. C. Oakes,
U. S. District Engineer: Total freight received and shipped at
Norfolk during 1918, 31,952,843 short tons, valued at $3,039,-
023,886. Regular line steamers in 1917 were eighteen; in 1918
they were twenty-two, six to Baltimore, five to New York, three
to Philadelphia, three to Washington, three to Boston, two to
Providence. A total of 11,833,057 short tons, valued at $524,-
195,209, were handled by these steamers and coastwise vessels
in 1918. Steamers and gasoline boats plying inland towns han-
dled 1,816,762 short tons, valued at $322,061,204, and carried
41,527 passengers. Steam ferries handled 13,328,226 passen-
gers and 880,944 vehicles. The N. & W. coal piers had a maxi-
mum capacity of 9,500 tons an hour; the Virginian, 6,000. In
1917 they were 1,250 and 1,500, respectively. Seventy-three
steamers left Norfolk during 1918 drawing over thirty feet of
water; in 1917 there were only fifty-one. In 1918, 3,634 ves-
sels arrived in the Norfolk harbor and 3,831 left. American
coastwise vessels numbered 2,633 and foreign vessels in coast-
wise trade 994. Foreign ships in foreign trade numbered 540.*!
In October, 1919, it was noted that 669 vessels entered at Nor-
folk, and that this number was 168 more than in September.
Two hundred and ninety-three of them were engaged in foreign
trade and fourteen nationalities were represented.*”

Throughout the early post-war period Norfolk experienced
a large building boom. In the month of April, 1919, she re-
corded 185 building permits, representing $747,254, as against
79, representing $349,378, in April, 1918.48 The following tabu-

“Virginian-Pilot, Aug. 6, 1919. “Virginian-Pilot, Nov. 25, 1918.
“Virginian-Pilot, Sept. 17, 1919. "Virginian-Pilot, Aug. 7, 1919.
‘Virginian-Pilot, Nov. 17, 1918. “Virginian-Pilot, Nov. 4, 1919.
“Virginian-Pilot, Dec. 29, 1918. “Virginian-Pilot, May 3, 1919.

“Virginian-Pilot, Dec. 13, 1919.A ComMMuNITY HisrTory 59

 

lation shows clearly the growth of building in Norfolk :44 1913-
14, 723 permits, $2,139,787; 1914-15, 645 permits, $1,792,917;
1916-17, 596 permits, $1,768,732; 1918-19, 978 permits,
$4,924,260.

The large majority of this building was of a commercial
sort.4? The Norfolk and Hampton Roads Dry Dock and Ship
Repair Corporation increased its holdings by adding a $6,000,-
O00 plant and began the construction of large shops in January,
1919. The project called for 5,000 workmen.* The Norfolk
Glass Manufacturing Company began its construction in Janu-
ary, 1919, with plans for a capacity output valued at $1,000,000
annually.“ The Navy Yard flooded its Dry Dock No. 4, which
was the largest in the United States.45 Eleven million dollars,
appropriated by the government for making the Navy Yard the
greatest in the country, was delayed in expenditure by the short-
age of labor.*”? The Army Base was at last completed in March,
1919.°° A $175,000 ice-cream plant, with a capacity of 10,000
gallons daily, was built on the N. & W. tracks at Llewellyn
\venue.*! Bank clearings for 1917-1918 had been $344,803,994 ;
in 1918-1919 the increased figure was $447,382,327.°°

Labor conditions and employment constituted one of Nor-
folk’s greatest problems. Her city was filled with war workers,
fewer than were actually needed by the many plants. But with
the end of war and the curtailment of all government enter-
prises, returning soldiers faced serious circumstances in Nor-
folk. Certain government operations, notably the Merchant Ma-
rine, needed men constantly; but on the whole a great number
of idle ex-service men would have resulted had not local men
anticipated the difficulty. The local U. S. Employment Bureau
was finding places for many in the Merchant Marine, and in
November, 1918, placed 900 men, a number third in the United
States to Boston and New York.®? In December, 1918, the U.
S. Employment Service Bureau, aided by the War Camp Com-
munity Service, asked employers to assist the government in
placing the returning men.*? Rev. G. Herbert Ekins requested all
pastors to appeal to their congregations for aid in finding em-
ployment for service men.°” The shortage of men in civic work,
i. ¢., street cleaning, garbage collection, public improvements, was
not considered an adequate possibility for returned soldiers be-
cause of the nature of the work.®*® In March, 1919, 200 volun-
teer workers canvassed the city seeking jobs for mustered-out
men. The Executive Committee behind this movement was com-
posed of the following: Major I. Walke Truxton, E. C. Mat-

“Virginian-Pilot, June 30, 1919. “Virginian-Pilot, March 2, 1919.
“There was $75,000,000 invested “Virginian-Pilot, March 12, 1919.
in Norfolk industries. “Virginian-Pilot, March 9, 1919.
“Virginian-Pilot, Jan. 5, 1919. “Virginian-Pilot, Jan. 8, 1919.
“Virginian-Pilot, Dec. 12, 1918. “Virginian-Pilot, Dec. 17, 1918.
“Virginian-Pilot, Feb. 1, 1919. “\7irginian-Pilot, Jan. 26, 1919.
“Virginian-Pilot, Feb. 9, 1919. “Virginian-Pilot, Jan. 25, 1919.60 NORFOLK IN WaR TIME

 

 

thews, John W. Cherry, W. W. Robertson, Guy Webb, Alfred
von Nyvenheim, W. E. Doherty, Moe Levy, Montague Gammon,
Garland Peed, I. L. Sloan.°* The result of the canvass was the
| securing of 1,501 positions for returning men.°* Later these jobs
: were found to be mostly of a sort that few returning soldiers
would desire.*” While successful numerically, the canvass added
practically nothing to a solution of the employment problem.
In April, 1919, the reduction of the drafting force at the Navy
Yard threw out of work a number of tradesmen and laborers.®°
The U. S. Employment Service Bureau really accomplished
an end in dealing with returning soldiers. It was noticed in
‘July, 1919, that 3,000 men, representing 80% of applicants given
positions by the Bureau since January, 1919, were service men.
The Bureau was also handling an average of 125 civilians a
day.*!

In the midst of the difficulty of employment there came nu-
merous strikes and unrest among working men. In November,
1918, 8,000 men of the building trades were out on a strike, de-
manding $1 an hour. And 7,000 longshoremen were ready and
threatening to strike if their service cards were withheld from
them. The U. S. Employment Service Bureau, with its 750
branch offices and 20,000 agents, attempted to fill the vacant
places. And although the Bureau was recruiting 15,000 men a
day for war work, the pressure of strikes could not be reduced.®
Skilled workers were abundant when the soldiers returned, but
the greatest need was for common laborers.®* The government
promised employment to thousands, but all overtime work was

discontinued.
| During the spring of 1919 many strikes took place. Nine
hundred stevedores and truckers were out in April at the rail-
road terminals.“* Three thousand marine workers affiliated with
the Norfolk waterfront federation, employed in the shops of the
Ironmasters’ Association, struck in May.® In June the Norfolk
Western Union telegraph operators went out in sympathy with
the Atlanta and southern strike.°6 In July 500 telephone and
electrical workers of the Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone
Company went on a strike subsequent to asking a 20 per cent ad-
vance in wages.®* During the same month fifty ships of the
U. S. Shipping Board were idle in Norfolk harbor on account
of the strike affecting oilers, seamen, tugmen, water tenders and
others. The strike was settled when the men received higher
wages.°®& In November, 1919, the strike in many coal mines
decreased Norfolk’s coal dumpings from 1,000,000 (expected)

“Virginian-Pilot, March 11, 1919. “Virginian-Pilot, Nov. 13, 1918.
Virginian-Pilot, March 15, 1919. “Virginian-Pilot, April 4, 1919.
“Virginian-Pilot, March 27, 1919 “Virginian-Pilot, May 3, 1919.
Virginian-Pilot, April 4, 1919. Virginian-Pilot, June 6, 1919.

“Virginian-Pilot, July 10, 1919. “Virginian-Pilot, July 22, 1919.
“Virginian-Pilot, Nov. 16, 1918. “Virginian-Pilot, July 22, 1919.A CoMMuUNITY History 61

 

to 800,000 tons,®® and tied up between 250 and 350 vessels in
Hampton Roads.*° During the earlier part of 1919 the govern-
ment settled a great deal of agitation among men in her em-
ploy by declaring that there would be no wage increase on gOv-
ernment contracts, and that if the men struck all work would
abruptly stop.‘

In 1920 labor conditions became much steadier. Strikes
diminished to a negligible point. Workers of all sorts were plen-
tiful, and the exodus of people from Norfolk when some of
the war-time industries closed or finished their large contract
work, removed from Norfolk the danger of a large number of
unemployed.

During the post-war period various relief organizations
and drives were sponsored. Norfolk contributed $10,000 and
3,600 yards of gauze to the Virginia State Hospital in Serbia.72
As many as 400 French war orphans had been adopted by Nor-
folk people.“ In December, 1918, the Red Cross secured ap-
proximately 10,000 members,’* a number considerably smaller
than that constituting Norfolk’s war-time membership. Two
hundred Norfolk Syrians contributed $1,138 to the Syrian Re-
lief Fund, of which the local quota was $43,000.7° In the drive
for $60,000 for the Jewish War Relief Fund, Norfolk sub-
scribed over $70,000.78

The American Legion did not organize early in Norfolk. In
May, 1919, a group of former service men met at the Central
Y. M. C. A. and elected temporary officers prior to attempting
the organization of a permanent post. The officers were as fol-
lows: President, J. Sydney Fitzgerald; Secretary, G. R. Pool;
Committee on Constitution and By-Law, J. M. Paret, W. E. Nick-
erson, W. V. Williams; Publicity Committee, Thomas F. Ma-
fouey. ji, 2: Ee Hord; D) W* Prett< Mimance: he Guava loss
G. R. Pool, A. J. Almon.‘* In June the tentative organization
had difficulty in securing members. It seemed that many sol-
diers were skeptical of the organization and feared domination
by commissioned officers.‘ This difficulty was removed when the
plan of the American Legion was sufficiently explained; and in
May, 1920, the Norfolk Post No. 36 began, under the leader-
ship of Dr. T. V. Williamson, a campaign for members which
firmly established the Legion in Norfolk.“ In addition to Post
No. 36, there was also organized in Norfolk Woman’s Post No.
18, of which Miss Katherine McWilliams was post commander.*?

When the war ended and the primary need for certain of the
eovernment plants was removed, the disposal of those agencies

Virginian-Pilot, Dec. 2, 1919. “Virginian-Pilot, Dec. 22, 1918.
Virginian-Pilot, Dec. 4, 1919. “Virginian-Pilot, Jan. 26, 1919.
"Virginian-Pilot, April 23, 1919. “Virginian-Pilot, Oct. 18, 1919.

“Report of Virginia State Hospi- “Virginian-Pilot, May 3, 1919.
tal in Serbia. Norfolk Files, “Virginian-Pilot, June 26, 1919.
Via Wan Hist. Com! “Virginian-Pilot, May 16, 1920.

“Virginian-Pilot, Nov. 24, 1918. “Virginian-Pilot, May 6, 1920.62 NorFOLK IN War TIME

 

was a difficult problem. In Norfolk the government continued
the operation of most of its plants, yet diminished the working
forces and cut down many extended plans. At the Army Base
all camp activities were taken over by government-paid workers.*!
The Naval Base was built as a permanent project, as was
the Navy Yard. No changes took place there except a cut in
appropriations and a curtailment of activities. The city was par-
ticularly interested in the disposition made of the temporary out-
lay represented in the Army Base, which was not finished until
March, 1919. In November, 1919, the city leased from the Navy
Pier 2 at the Army Base.*~
The question of vocational education for ex-service men was

one answered in part by the work of the Y. M. C. A. and the
Knights of Columbus. The former arranged to give full schol-
arships to three ex-service men and partial scholarships to three
others. Those receiving full grants were J. H. Bedford, in
mechanical drawing and machine designing; E. G. Purdy, in
civil engineering, and W. M. Yost, in machine and toolmaking.**
The Knights of Columbus did a less intensive but a more exten-
sive work than the Y. M. C. A. Under their direction, a free
night school in College Place gave training to 250 ex-service
men.*4
\ In January, 1919, Norfolk boasted, on the estimation of the
4919 edition of the World’s Almanac, that her population num-
béred 225,000.8° The postal officials counted 220,000 and de-
clared that the population would remain at that figure.°° But in
August, 1919, railroad ticket agents said that Norfolk’s popula-
tion was rapidly decreasing and had probably reached 175,000.
They reported further that during the first two weeks of August,
1919, $50,000 more was taken in at the Railroad Administration
ticket office than in 1918.57 Finally the matter was settled by
the 1920 census, which gave Norfolk the count of 115,777.8° The
editor of the Virginian-Pilot believed that this figure represented
Norfolk’s fixed population, unaffected by the vast number of
war workers.*”

“Virginian-Pilot, Nov. 11, 1919. “Virginian-Pilot, May 23, 1919.
“Virginian-Pilot, Nov. 23, 1919. “Virginian-Pilot, Aug. 17, 1919.
“Virginian-Pilot, March 13, 1920. “Ledger-Dispatch, May 24, 1920.
“Virginian-Pilot, March 14, 1920. “Virginian-Pilot, May 25, 1920.
“Virginian-Pilot, Feb. 5, 1919.NIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
LIBRARY
RARE BOOK ROOM

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