25 Years Ago

EDITORIALS – Closing Colleges Down – It is not wonder that groups comprising the more sensible and serious students in colleges and universities throughout the country are instituting their own rebellion against the senseless action by college officials and Boards of Trustees in closing down institutions where demonstrations have occurred. In other instances these officials have been manifesting a form of cooperation with the disturbers and dissenters by proclaiming “holidays” on which the rioters and demonstrators can indulge their senselessness without having absences chalked up against them. Now organizations of students comprising the majorities in these colleges and universities are threatening suits against the school unless classes are maintained uninterruptedly. They have paid their tuition, they say, in a serious effort to secure an education, and the school officials have no right to deprive them of that opportunity by such capricious action. It is high time these “silent majorities” are making themselves heard, for the loud-mouthed disturbers have had their say for much too long already. Every one of them should be dismissed from the college or the university forthrightly and whatever force necessary to keep the institution functioning should be invoked. What these college heads need is some backbone, instead of supinely surrendering to the lawlessness of these campus agitators. Community Reporter, May 15, 1970.

50 Years Ago

SURRENDER – V-E Day was observed Tuesday with services being held in our churches in the afternoon and evening with capacity attendances. At 9:15 a.m. church bells brought the joyous news of the surrender of Germany. President Truman announced the momentous news of Germany’s “unconditional an abject surrender.” He called upon the people who have won the war in the west to finish the job in the east, which still is in “bondage to the treacherous tyranny of the Japanese.” Immediately after broadcasting his long-awaited V-E Day proclamation, the President turned his attention to the enormous task of bringing the full weight of the nation’s mighty machine – the greatest ever created – to bear upon Japan. He declared again “the striking power and intensity of our blows will steadily increase” until “the Japanese military and naval forces lay down their arms in unconditional surrender.” Prime Minister Churchill, with a solemn reminder that Japan “remains unsubdued” and still must be brought to justice, formally proclaimed that the war with Germany was ended. Shortly afterwards, King George VI in a special V-E Day broadcast to the British Empire from Buckingham Palace, called upon his people to “give thanks to God for a great deliverance.” Grand Adm. Karl Doenitz announced the end of the Nazi party in Germany and said he would remain as the head of the Reich Government – if the Allies permit him. In a broadcast announcing German’s surrender, Doenitz said the foundation on which Adolf Hitler’s Third Reich was erected in 1933 had collapsed and that the Nazi party “has left the scene of its activities.” The German High Command announced abolishment of the “heil hitler” salute. Doenitz commanded all submarines return to ports and surrender, which means that 300 subs will be at the command of the Allies with many other naval ships. Dispatches from the British 2d Army front said a Russian general disclosed that a body purported to be Hitler’s had been found by Red Army troops in the ruins of Berlin. Yanks bag Reichsmarschal Hermann Goering and Marshal Albert Kesselring, German high ranking officers. Goering was condemned to death by Hitler, but escaped from
his guards. Stalin, Ruler of Russia, says he does not want to destroy Germany, as reports had it. Democratic Advocate, May 11, 1945.

75 Years Ago

Register Title to Autos After June First – The recent act of the Legislature requiring all owners of motor-cars in the State of Maryland to register title to their cars with the Automobile
Commissioner becomes effective June 1. Those who fail to register will be liable to a fine of from $5 to $1,000, and will be unable to secure a license on January 1 of next year. A 90-day period of grace, running from June 1, is given for compliance with the law to all those who are in possession of automobiles on that date, with an exception in the case of those who own cars the engine numbers of which have been mutilated or tampered with. Such owners must file application for legal title, with a full history of the car, within 6 days. The man who purchases a car after June 1 with mutilated or altered numbers must make a report and file his application for title within 10 days. The object of the law, as explained by Automobile Commissioner Baughman, is to close Maryland as a market for stolen automobiles. The blank which must be filled out in applying for title requires the fullest details as to where and from whom the car was purchased and a complete description of the machine. This information must be sworn to and will be subjected to verification by the title department before title is
given. Union Bridge Pilot, May 14, 1920.

100 Years Ago

The Westminster Election – The great interest attending the election of Mayor and Common Councilmen of this city, on Monday last, brought out the largest vote ever polled at a
municipal contest here, 589 ballots having been cast, nearly 40 more than the number at the election in 1890, when the issue was the bonding of the city for $25,000 for street improvements. In the present instance the contest was in relation to the method of lighting the streets, and the ticket in favor of the use of “arc lights, all night, every night in the year,” obtained a majority so decided as to leave no doubt that the preponderance of the public sentiment is largely favorable to that method. The vote was as follows: ELECTRIC LIGHT TICKET – For Mayor – Mayor Schaeffer, 397. For Common Council – Emanuel Mackley, 376; Abraham C. Strasburger, 336; Martin Leahy, 369; John B. Saylor, 404; Charles Hesson, 390. CITIZENS’ TICKET – For Mayor – Edwin J. Lawyer, 191. For Common Council – Jesse F. Shreeve, 213; Gershom Huff, 234; J. Hoffman Fuss, 192; Edmund J. Awalt, 185; John M. Roberts, 217. American Sentinel, May 11, 1895.