The End of the World News

The end of Western civilization began just ninety-nine years ago, when Gavrilo Princip fired at Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo.

But what was the world thinking in that summer a hundred years ago? Back when everyone still believed in the indevitable progress of mankind; was there really any premonition of what was to come?

Happily, we now have newspaper archives easily available on the Internet—we can follow the news day by day from exactly 100 years ago.

So what was the news on the front pages of June 6, 1913?

In Winnipeg, the city of tomorrow, the fabled Free Press headlines a Highways Bill being debated in the Senate, and a meeting of the Canadian Grain Commission. “Empire and Foreign News” iss relegated to page 10.

The main item there is the “sheer imbecility” of the actions of one Miss Emily Davison, who attempted to halt the Derby by “grabbing the bridle of King George's entry,” in the name of women's suffrage. The Free Press was not impressed. It reports that Miss Davison is still alive in hospital, and is able to take some nourishment. Doctors feel there was some hope of a recovery, and, if she recovers, she is likely to be prosecuted.As is rarely reported of the incident these days, the King's jockey was also in serious condition with a concussion of the brain.

Mr. Churchill

The Marconi scandal, implicating the Liberal whip at Westminster in possible insider trading, is grinding on. Suffragettes shouted down Winston Churchill, First Lord of the Admiralty, as he attempted to speak at a lecture on the Antarctic. In other admiralty news, the Canadian senate has turned down a British request to fund three new dreadnoughts. They are being built anyway, at British expense.

In foreign, as opposed to Empire, news, the lead item is the resignation of the Hungarian premier and cabinet. To maintain order, the parlament has been locked down and is guarded by soldiers at machine gun implacements. During the melee in the house, a former premier was struck with a sabre. Another item, headlined “Bulgarians still making trouble,” implies a serious danger of a further Balkan war because of Bulgarian intransigence in negotiations with Greece. Not the Balkan War we ended up with, though: this one would be Bulgaria and Romania against Greece.

The Wilson Cabinet

Meanwhile, the San Francisco Call is demonstrating that city's bohemian traditions by reserving a part of its front page to note the funeral of the British poet laureate, as well as the death of a surviving descendent of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. President Wilson is in negotiations with Japan over naturalization law—presumably having to do with the right of Japanese to emigrate to the US. Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan announced that Germany had signed on to his proposal for universal peace, joining twelve other nations. All that remains now is to draw up the formal treaty. Italy has appropriated $400,000 for their participation in the Panama-Pacific Exposition scheduled for San Francisco in 1915. The Southern Pacific Railroad is floating a bond issue of $30 million, partly to fund its own participation.

The Call has its own news of the buregeoning women's movement. It reports that Miss Vernie Goff, Joplin, Missouri's new “police matron,” has made her first arrest. It is of a man who greeted her in the street with the phrase “Hello, kid.” The charge is “mashing.”

Darned good thing, that universal peace agreement. Should be a great exposition, too.

HMS Dreadnought