“Pages of history” features excerpts from The News Journal archives including the Wilmington Morning News, The Evening Journal and the Every Evening.
April 3, 1917, Every Evening
U.S. actually at war; Congress certain to back Wilson’s stand
The United States really is at war with the German Empire today, the action awaiting only the formal recognition of Congress.
The administration resolution declaring a state of war exists with Germany and directing President Wilson to prosecute a war…was presented to the Senate today.
Sen. Hitchcock, for the Foreign Relations Committee, asked unanimous consent for its immediate consideration. Sen. La Follette objected and it went over under the rules for one day….
House leaders predicted unanimous support to the President….
Every agency was moving to gird the nation against the German government which President Wilson in his address to Congress last night characterized as a natural foe to liberty.
The cabinet, at a war session today, was to discuss the extension of credits to the nations already at war against Germany; the raising of money by taxation for use of the United States in the war; the equipment of the navy to the fullest state of efficiency to cope with the submarine menace and the raising of a great army – the first increment of which is to be 500,000 men….
April 5, 1968, The Morning News
Dr. King slain by sniper in Memphis
The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Nobel Prize-winning civil rights leader, was shot fatally in Memphis last night while leaning over a second-floor railing outside his motel room.
Four thousand National Guard troops were ordered into Memphis by Gov. Buford Ellington. A curfew was imposed on the city of 550,000 inhabitants….
The 39-year-old Black leader’s death was reported by Frank Holloman, director of Memphis police and fire departments, after King had been taken to St. Joseph’s Hospital.
Police broadcast an alarm for a “young white male, well dressed” who was reported to have been seen running after the shooting….
Police reported that a Browning automatic rifle with telescopic sights had been dropped by a fleeing suspect.
King had come back to Memphis yesterday to organize support once again for 1,300 sanitation workers who have been on strike since Lincoln’s birthday. Just a week ago, he led a march on behalf of the strikers that ended in violence with a 16-year-old Black killed, 62 persons injured and 200 arrested.
Violence erupted again shortly after King was shot….
April 6, 1929, The Evening Journal
American and Mexican soldiers in border fight
Naco, Ariz. – American and Mexican soldiers clashed in battle here today, climaxing a night of violence along the international border, during which the Southern Pacific Railroad line to the east was found strewn with bombs.
While the Americans and Mexicans were exchanging shots, the rebel army of General Fausto Topete hurled itself in force against the Naco, Sonors loyal garrison, defended by 1,200 troops under General Lucas Gonzalez.
The clash between the Mexicans and Americans occurred at a Southern Pacific Railroad tunnel eight miles east of here. Border patrolmen of Troop E, Tenth United States Cavalry, reported that they were fired upon from the Mexican side of the line as they approached a cache of bombs…..
American soldiers said there were 75 bombs, contained in 15 sacks, along the railroad tracks….
Catch up on history:The News Journal archives, week of March 13
April 7, 1973, The Morning News
Meat prices hold, so do boycotters
Housewives picked up marked-down weekend meat specials in some supermarkets yesterday, but there was no general drop in prices on the sixth day of the national meat boycott.
The consumer activists appeared to hold their ranks on what is traditionally the heaviest grocery shopping day of the week. Sales of pork and beef were off substantially in many cities.
Boycott leaders planned to meet in Washington next Wednesday to decide whether to continue the protest.
Rep. Benjamin S. Rosenthal, D-N.Y., who called the meeting, said the boycott “has been incredibly successful in terms of the numbers participating” but had not succeeded in its major objective of rolling back meat prices substantially.
Recent inflation news:Wondering why egg prices are high in Delaware? Here’s everything you need to know.
Two eastern food chains, Grand Union Supermarkets and the Big G Discount Food Stores, yielded to pressure and cut prices on many meat items. A Grand Union official yesterday said “traffic and sales seem to be a little better than normal.”
Spokesmen for Jewel Food Stores, National Tea Co. and A&P in Chicago said they found it impossible to cut meat prices because they already were operating on slim margins….
The boycott took an increasing toll in terms of meat industry layoffs and packing plant shutdowns. More than 20,000 packing plant workers have been laid off….
Two Oklahoma State University agricultural economists yesterday said President Nixon’s ceiling on meat prices was unnecessary if not harmful and the housewives’ boycott was a futile exercise. If cattle ranchers had known two years ago what prices would be today, they would have had more calves on the market, but there’s nothing they can do about it now. It will take another year. Prices are high now because Americans have a large meat appetite and there is not all that much meat available….
Reach reporter Ben Mace at rmace@gannett.com.
