Newspapers stuffed in walls are stuffed with history, too

Anyone who has ever visited me at the Inter Lake knows that my desk is usually piled high with old papers printouts, applicants resumes, envelopes, copies of the Inter Lake and whatnot.

But for the past week or two, the old papers have been a little different and a little older. In fact, there are several copies of the (almost) Daily Inter Lake from 1917 (Every evening except Sunday) as well as two copies of the Weekly Great Falls Tribune.

A reader from Bigfork found the old, yellowing and somewhat crumbling papers stuffed inside the walls of an old home where they were being used as insulation. He offered to bring them back to the Inter Lake office for a reunion of sorts.

Naturally, Im already a fan of newspapers, but having the opportunity to view the world through the eyes of an editor in Kalispell, Montana, in 1917, reinforced just how important to history the work of we ink-stained wretches can be.

The first paper on the pile was from June 9, 1917, and there was a prominent headline at the top of the page which spoke directly across the decades: Worst Mine Disaster in History of Butte: Fire Sweeps Thro Speculator Levels: 35 Known to Be dead and 167 Missing. In a followup story three days later, the death toll had risen to 171.

The story was of interest from the point of view of Montana history certainly, but there was also in it the human drama that typifies the best reporting and remains relevant long after the urgency is gone:

Shift boss J.D. Moore gave up his own life to save the men under him… Moore was conscious until a few minutes before the rescue… Frequently, during the long hours of their imprisonment he tested the air with his own lungs and would allow none of the others to undertake that dangerous task. In thus providing for the safety of the others he so weakened himself that he was unable to stand the strain. He died as he was being lifted to the cage by helmet men.

In addition to the immediacy of a mine disaster, the old issues of the Inter Lake were also saturated with a healthy helping of news related to the progress of World War I (which the United States had only entered two months previously). These stories are fascinating partly because they are so wide-ranging and partly because they suggest a world where information was much harder to obtain and thus the news was much more speculative instead of smug.

On June 9, for instance, a small item appeared on the front page that said, in full: Secretary [of the Navy Josephus] Daniels issued the following statement this afternoon: The navy department has reason to believe that information of a character most valuable to the enemy which might prove most dangerous to the navy, has reached the enemy.

By the time of the June 12 paper, there was still little enough being reported in the Inter Lake except that Secretary Daniels had said that a letter in the possession of Sen. Frelinghuysen included information about detonating fuses which was highly confidential and must have been disclosed by a spy or traitor.

Because I was not able to follow the story in the subsequent Inter Lakes, because they werent available, I resorted to the modern oracle of the Internet Google and found a New York Times story which told the full and fascinating account of the struggle between Daniels and Frelinghuysen.

Frelinghuysen had been reading from some papers while questioning Daniels in a Senate hearing on premature explosion of shells on several ships, when Daniels exploded that the information was the work of a spy. This is scandalous, he proclaimed.

But Frelinghuysen argued in a later statement that the anonymous letter writer from Detroit had intended to assure that no more deaths would occur from premature explosions of dangerous ammunition. The senator went on to say, Whoever the writer of these letters may be, his purpose is to aid the American and not the German cause. In the words of Patrick Henry, I can only say to Mr. Daniels, If this be treason, make the most of it.

Again, these old newspapers are the conduit to a bit of history that both enlightens and amuses us. It is also quite clearly suggestive that the struggle between the legislative and executive branches during time of war is not something new. Substitute a few facts here and there, and you might easily believe you were reading about a feud between Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Sen. Hillary Clinton about leaks and allegations regarding inadequate body armor during the early years of the Iraq war.

Of course, there is so much more in these papers that I could write a dozen columns on them and not nearly exhaust the material that is stored there that show just how different a world it was then, and how similar. A few examples will have to suffice:

Organizer Ratti, of the I.W.W. [the Industrial Workers of the World], who is languishing in the local jail, where he is confined by the federal authorities on the charge of interfering with the work of the Great Northern railway, has gone on a hunger strike. He says he has had no hand in any unlawful interference with the railway companys work … and that he will not submit to incarceration without a vigorous protest.

In the gasoline economy proof test conducted May 23 by the Maxwell Motor company, in which 2,000 cars participated… [only] 24 cars beat the mileage record made by one of the cars entered by the Flathead Motor Sales company… [T]he best mileage [was] credited to the Weber Implement and Auto company of St. Louis, 49.5 miles. The local companys record was 36.8 miles.

From an editorial by the Minneapolis Journal entitled Socialisms Failure in Russia: The Russian people have entered into that delightful promised land flowing with milk and honey, so long pictured to them by the prophets of socialism. It is a land where each man has as much right to property and to the fruits of labor as his fellow. The peasant has only to seize upon whatsoever acres he covets without regard to its former ownership. The workman has only to require that his wages be doubled and trebled, regardless of the fact that the profits of the factory are thus to be turned into losses. The soldier, now the equal of his commanding officer, must be consulted before orders are given… The result is an economic paralysis of the country, a deadening anarchy that palsies the power of the Russian people to keep for themselves the liberty so suddenly won… [W]ithout law and order and discipline, liberty degenerates first into license, then into anarchy, and finally gives way to a new despotism.

Weather report for a brisk June 11, 1917: Highest temperature yesterday 52, lowest 35.

From global warming (personally Id rather not see June days topping out at 52) to green technology (lets bring back the Maxwell Motor car!) to social justice and the lure of socialism (even before the official advent of the Soviet Union) its obvious that a fuller understanding of todays problems is only possible by immersing ourselves in the history of our country and the world. And its worth remembering that todays newspapers are the vantage point that allows us to gain a better perspective tomorrow.

. Frank Miele is managing editor of the Daily Inter Lake and writes a weekly column. E-mail responses may be sent to edit@dailyinterlake.com