Mary was promoted to supervisor today at AT&T. She mainly works at the PBX (private branch exchange) area.
The newspapers have the usual directly war-related headlines, but also domestic issues related to the war. The U.S. Senate, after "protracted and bitter debate" regarding freedom of speech, has just passed the Sedition Bill. According to The Philadelphia Inquirer, the bill prohibits "under penalties of twenty years imprisonment and $10,000 fine, for language or acts of disloyalty, or obstruction of the Army Draft and Liberty Loans.... the broad inhibition of words or acts which 'support or favor the cause of the German Empire or its allies, or oppose the cause of the United States''.... It would also punish wilful and 'disloyal, profane, scurrilous, contemptuous or abusive' language about the American form of government, Constitution, military or naval forces, flag or uniform,' and wilful utterances designed to curtail production of essential war materials."
The Evening Public Ledger carries an article about the burial of a German who was lynched by a mob the week before in Illinois.
The Philadelphia Inquirer also carries the following article:
Headlines and newspaper articles in 1918 in addition to using "German" also often referred to Germans in derogatory terms. "Hun" derives from a speech given by Kaiser Wilhelm II which referred to Attila the Hun. "Boche" is said to be derived from the French Parisian slang "caboche" meaning big, thick head (The Telegraph) although other sources indicate that it more simply means "rascal". The Teutons were a Germanic or Celtic tribe that fought the Romans, later being used as a derogatory reference to Germans generally.
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