As American troops settled into their trenches 100 years ago, the Vancouver Daily Columbian’s front page reported on the ebb and flow of the war in Europe.
Inside pages offered another message: If you care about our men in the trenches, send them cigarettes and gum.
It’s the sort of unexpected microfilm find that can nudge someone off the original search. In this case, the objective was coverage of the 1918 eclipse — the last time the U.S. experienced a coast-to-coast solar eclipse — as we look ahead to a similar event on Aug. 21.
Those century-old requests to help the troops represent things we’ll never see again. Gum will never be viewed as a resource to battle the Red Baron.
We won’t be seeing any sort of tobacco-related advertising in our pages. And we won’t be reading headlines quoting distinguished military leaders who claim that “Tobacco is a Necessity for Soldiers.”
That was the message from Gen. Leonard Wood, who explained in the text of the ad: “Nothing gives a soldier in the field more pleasure and contentment than a cool, refreshing smoke after a hard day’s fighting, or while waiting a call to the firing line.”
World War I “marked a big change in tobacco consumption in the U.S.,” said Jeff Davis, a Vancouver author and military historian. “As I recall, the best tobaccos were for pipes, then good cigars, and up to WWI, loose tobacco and rolling papers.”
Cigarettes were a more convenient chance to light up. But they weren’t the only product that claimed to relieve stress. Chewing gum ads worked that angle, including one featuring an aviator in a leather flying helmet and goggles: “Airmen in the Great War are using Wrigley’s regularly. It steadies stomachs and nerves.”
A businessman tells a young man in uniform how Adams gum “will help you keep a cool head in the thick of battle.”
But if you really care about our men in the trenches, consider his final words for the soldier.
“Your job will be here when you come back, Jack.”
Off Beat lets members of The Columbian news team step back from our newspaper beats to write the story behind the story, fill in the story or just tell a story.
