Yesterday in La Crosse
The start of “The War to End All Wars,” 100 years ago
On this day in 1917, Congress voted to declare war on Germany, allowing American troops to enter a European war which had started three years earlier. The conflict would become known as the World War…and eventually, the First World War. The vote came four days after President Woodrow Wilson asked for the declaration. Only six Senators voted against going to war, and one of them was Wisconsin’s Fighting Bob La Follette.
Colleges decided to suspend sports events ‘for the time being’ when war was declared. The Rose Bowl football game was still played for the next two years, but only military teams competed, rather than regular college teams.
In Wisconsin, button companies had plans to cut pearl buttons out of clam shells in the Wolf and Fox Rivers. The shells would be sent from the eastern side of the state to factories in La Crosse. Pearly shells 100 years ago, 1917, Yesterday in La Crosse.