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WWI
Defense Council
McLean County, Illinois
(Transcribed by: Teri Moncelle Colglazier)

A previously unwritten and yet one of the most important chapters in the history of the late war, is the part taken by the McLean County Council of Defense. It is but common justice to pay tribute to the patriotic body which performed its mission so unobtrusively and without ostentation and yet which was one of the most efficient and essential organizations of the nation. Victory was achieved and the enemy capitulated to the most stringent terms of surrender that history records. For America, the actual arena of the war was 3,000 miles overseas, and, into this arena, the Government of the United States threw 2,000,000 of the most superb troops that the drama of warfare has known and, what is more to its credit, got them there on time and made possible the final smashing blow. The organization, transportation and clocklike delivery at the eleventh hour of these irresistible citizen armies of the republic of the western world, is an epic in itself, a story in the making of which all who served, are miraculously fortunate to have borne even a small part. The sacrifices that have been made on this side of the water, should be counted as nothing, unless, indeed, they should be held as benefits conferred, for, in the philosophy of sacrifice, there is gain for every human being. None who participated in the war, either abroad or at home, will ever again move on as great a stage or be so close to the chemistry of high events. Those who have had the most to offer have been the happiest. There need be no repining, whatever the material cost may have been. The war has been won and the world is be ing remade. The nations that have been aligned upon the side of a decent civilization will have their share in the remaking, and the logic of events will, no doubt, bring a contribution to the world 's future welfare, even from those defeated countries in which new and better forces are arising, we hope, out of the ashes of empire, empire perverted and gone awry. But here at home, there were armies also and they performed a mighty task. They were created without mandates; they were welded into cohesive form by suggestion rather than by order; they were gal vanized from beginning to end by the mighty force of voluntary co operation; and they served with an efficient power which nothing could have stopped. They were the armies of production, not alone of guns and steel plates, soldiers, shoes and the like, not alone of visible things but production of energy of thought that made the bayonet a flaming thing; of optimism to offset the stupid pessimism of people who criti cized, but had nothing tangible to contribute; of the immortal spirit of "carry on," of, above all unification. For it has only been within the period of the war that this nation completely realized that, after all, it is properly introduced to itself, and is but a partnership of 100,000,000 persons. Out of all of this grew the great lesson of the war to America; the independency of social effort which, in the last equation, must keep a nation wholesome in peace and which must furnish the continuing tireless force behind the cutting edge in time of war. This then, broadly, was the task of those at home. In the vast work of unification, in the carrying from Washington to the people, the messages and measures of the national government and in the transmission back to Washington of the moods and aspirations of a people at war, the council of defense system with its more than 180,000 units set down in every county of the country, played a definite, stirring, and highly fruitful part. Launched May 2, 1917, the Council of National Defense forged into action immedi ately. The McLean county organization was as follows: Mayor, E. E. Jones, Chairman; B. F. Hiltabrand, secretary; E. C. Baldwin, John Normile, W. T. Wolcott, D. G. Fitzgerrell, J. J. Condon, and Elmo Franklin, directors. This board appointed the numerous committees divided by chairmen, as follows: Finance Committee -- Will L. Moore; Neighborhood Dr. Theodore Kemp; Food D. O. Thompson; Boys Reserve -- B. C. Moore; Publicity -- L. O. Eddy; Federal Fuel -- Spen cer Ewing and Bert Franklin; Women 's Organization -- Mrs. F. O. Hanson ; Liberty Loans -- Harris K. Hoblit; War Savings Stamps -- Judge James C. Eiley; Legal Advisory Board -- Judge Sain Welty and E. E. Donnelly; Four Minute Men -- C. B. Hughes; Red Cross -- Campbell Holton; Y. M. C. A. -- H. O. Stone; Civilian Relief -- Mrs. Jacob A. Bohrer; Non-War Material Conservation -- A. E. Pillsbury; Merchandise Conservation -- Milton Livingston; Knights of Columbus -- James Flavin. It was the task of these committees and their aides to carry out the programs of the War, Navy, Agriculture, Interior, and Labor Depart ments; the Food and Fuel Administrations; the Shipping Board; the United States Employment Service; the Childrens Bureau; the Bureau of Education; the American Red Cross; the National War Savings Com mittee; the several Liberty loans; the Commission on Training Camp Activities; the suppression of the German press and abolition of German from county schools: loyalty cards, handled by neighborhood commit tees; Legal Advisory Board with the assistance of the McLean County Bar in filling out questionnaires; Emergency Farm Labor, furnished by D. O. Thompson, assisted by Herman Ochs and others, also B. C. Moore who placed many boys; prosecution of citizens who, by their expressions, appeared to be disloyal, and also those who while financially able, refused to contribute to the war activities. It fell to the McLean County Council of Defense to serve these and other official and recognized agencies united in the common task of war. The draft boards were assisted with volunteer workers, both physicians and clerks, and who aided in the transcription of occupational cards and in bringing out a full registration and the roundup of delinquents. Be fore the draft, the Council of Defense was in the forefront of recruiting. It counteracted destructive criticism of the government's war measures by replacing thoughtless gossip with constructive truths. The publicity organization was unparalleled in the effectiveness and extent of its contact with the press and in the vigor and completeness of the speakers' bureaus; the contact with the people themselves through community councils and war units and the complete enlistment, organization and leadership of the women of America, were a mighty source of power from which rose much of the strength of the local boards. Energies were fused into one great harmonious and efficient power. Non-war construc tion and consumption were curtailed; the welfare of departing and re turning soldiers was promoted, public information was given as to possi bilities provided by the Federal Board for Vocational Education for crippled soldiers; cases reported of unwarranted payments under the war risk insurance law and detection of deserters aided. Enemy owned property was located; enemy propaganda was met with counter propa ganda, and the spread of sedition and disloyalty checked, and at the same time working against lawlessness in the treatment of persons sus pected of disloyalty; the work of Americanization; relieving railroad congestion; facilitating motor transportation, etc., all being a part of the great work of the Council of Defense. It brought to the people a message of economy and. thrift, the conservation and protection of food and in co-ordinating the work of war agencies in the interests of economy of resources and effort. It aided in the collection of funds for the Red Cross, the United War Work campaigns; aided existing social agencies in meeting the strain of the war and in protecting young people from the serious social effects of abnormal times, helped to fight what was vicious and foster what was good and wholesome in our social life. It assisted in the recruiting of nurses to fill the needs of the hospitals abroad and at home; assisted the navy in the collection of optical in struments; in the campaign to secure volunteers for the shipyards. Through speakers, motion pictures, posters, the press and through personal contact, community singing and the organized fellowship of war work ers, the council aroused in the public a desire for service; it brought before the people an intelligent vision of how that service could best be rendered and upheld the faith and enthusiasm through the trying years of the war, thus winning the high title of special guardians of the civilian morale. In evolving measures to increase agricultural pro duction and to combat influenza and conserve the public health, all have led to permanent benefits. A national interest was awakened in the health of the children, in the safeguarding of women who entered the industrial field, and in the assimilation of and Americanization of our foreign born in healthy group recreation and social expression and in wise nonpartisan community organization. Following the war, the Coun cil of Defense assisted in finding employment for discharged soldiers and sailors and in the rehabilitation and care of wounded or sick soldiers; in procuring legal advice and in providing suitable reception to the re turning heroes and in making permanent recognition of their deeds of valor. In other ways, the Council of Defense of McLean county distin guished itself for its superb co-operation unit and which was one of the major assets of the war to America. Elsewhere in this work will be found more extended reference to the various departments and particular reference to the work of individuals. Nothing that can be said, unduly praises. McLean county may justly be proud of its record. In men, money and materials, in products of the farm, and of the factory, and in wholehearted response to every call for service or sacrifice im posed by the time, McLean county gave to the nation and its cause, upon a scale surpassing even its best traditions and its rank in the state of Illinois. The contribution of the McLean County Council of Defense, was of a kind that can not be reduced to tables of statistics or expressed in definite form, for in war time, as at no other time, momentous results are often the product of efforts that can not be weighed, measured, or even approximately estimated. [McLean County, Illinois, in the World War, 1917-1918; by Edward E. Pierson & Jacob Louis Hasbrouck c 1921]

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