Josiah Morrow and The Western Star Newspaper

During my internship this summer at the Warren County Records Center and Archives, I created a few activities for students and teachers to use in the classroom.  As wonderful as government records are, I knew I would need more familiar source types for students to use.  The Genealogical Society next door had a great collection of newspaper clippings from The Western Star, a newspaper that began in Lebanon in the mid-19th century.  From 1907 to 1928, Josiah Morrow wrote for the Western Star.  I loved using Morrow's articles in activities as he told stories of Warren County's past (as far back as the Revolutionary War) and, at the time, current world and national topics.  I particularly enjoyed reading his articles regarding the first World War.  He addresses topics that students today might not consider, such as English becoming the dominant language and the cost of war in the early 20th century. Morrow's articles always made front page news, so I imagine the topics he wrote about were very important to the citizens of Warren County.

In the article titled The Great World Powers And the Language Which is Fast Becoming the Dominant World Tongue (May 29, 1919),  Josiah  explains how world powers are changing, the Treaty of Versailles, and the spread of the English language in relation to the war.  I included this article in the War & Soldiers activity because of the way he discusses these topics.  Of course he is biased and does not cite any of his sources, but the way he writes is indicative of the time and view points of his readers. When speaking of Germany, Josiah says that German militarism "will no longer be a menace to the peace of the world" and if it would have continued, Germany may have been the greatest empire in Europe.  This gives me an idea of how locals, and the nation, felt about Germany and the power the empire held prior to its defeat.  Josiah also addresses the growth and spread of the English language worldwide after the war.  In a chart, he shows the number of English speakers at the start of the war in comparison to other European languages.  English comes in at 150,000,000 speakers worldwide followed by Germany at 120,000,000.  I find these statistics fascinating as I don't think most students realize the influence both Germany and the United States had on the world at this time.  They may know the United States as the world's most powerful country, but the article shows this was not always the case.  I love using local examples like this to help students connect to the larger issue!

Sources:

Josiah Morrow Western Star articles, 1907-1928, The Genealogical Society of Warren County (http://www.co.warren.oh.us/genealogy/)

Full article digitized at:
https://wcrcarchives.files.wordpress.com/2015/07/wwi-articles-discharge-special-papers.pdf