1918 A Significant Year in World History

Gloria Alice and Dearest 1918
 



For Gloria Alice the world was very small consisting of her mother (Sarah Colma) and her father (Leroy Fred Malmrose) and a trip to New Orleans to meet the Southern family (some of this was covered in Post on 1917).  But the larger world was going through major growing pains which would change the world for years to come.



Chicago--Michigan Ave  1918

 

Chicago was considered the 2nd richest city, in the richest country in the world.  At least that is what the Art Institute of Chicago was claiming as it competed with the war and charity organizations for funding.  A near by art gallery bids buyers to come meet the local artists and take home original paintings for their home.  The exhibition had 25 local artists showing and we can imagine that L.F. Malmrose may have been one of them.

 

President Wilson called for the people of the U.S. to sacrifice more for the war effort by suspending all industry using coal and oil.

"The American people, led by the president, entered the war deliberately.  They are staking everything for the realization of a great ideal and the ideal is practical.  We know that democracy must be made a reality at home as well as abroad, that its benefits must be shared by all and its sacrifices borne by no single class."

December 4,1918 is also the year that Wilson went to the Versailles Peace Conference in France with his 14 points for continual world peace.  Of interest to our family was point 8: "All french territory should be freed and the invaded portions restored, and the wrong done to France by Prussia in 1871 in the matter of Alsace-Lorraine, which has unsettled the peace of the world for nearly fifty years, should be righted, in order that peace may once more be made secure in the interest of all."

This was the year that states tried to legislate morality, with Mississippi being the first to ratify prohibition of manufacturing, transporting or selling of alcohol.  This catastrophe lasted till 1933. 

January brought the beginning of the Republic of Soviets, with Leon Trotsky becoming the leader of the Russian Communist.  By August 30, the Marxist Revolutionary, Lenin, became the the leader of Soviet Russia. (In July, Tsar Nicholas II and his family was assassinated by Lenin).



Lenin and the new Communist flag 1918
 





March 8, the first case of Spanish Flu was reported, which is the start of a world-wide pandemic.  In October the Spanish Flu had killed 21,000 people in the U.S. in one week.  One of our ancestors died from this flu but I am still doing the research to find out which one. 

 

But it was on November 11th that the good news was heard around the world that an Armistice (truce) had been signed ending the Great War.  

 

And so it was when Gloria Alice turned 1 years old.  The worry for her parents must have been great and yet the baby was happy and safe through this year of change, chaos and turmoil.  But the family still gathered for celebrations and companionship as seen in this picture of Lee (LeRoy Malmrose) with his baby girl and his father, Johan Malmrose.

 

LeRoy, Gloria Alice, and Johan Malmrose

1918