By Richard van Pelt, WWI Correspondent

By Friday following the assassination the Journal reports that war may ensue and that the shock of the murders “may prove fatal to the Emperor.”

Vienna, July 3, – Emperor Francis Joseph was reported alarmingly weak today. He was at the Schoenbrunn palace with physicians attending him.

The bodies of Archduke Francis Ferdinand and his wife, the Duchess of Hohenberg, lay in state in the chapel of the Hofburg palace.

Among the masses of the people; much indignation was expressed because admission to view the corpses was almost entirely limited to the nobility, army and navy officers, civil officials and foreign diplomats.

The emperor, poorly as he was, visited the chapel. It was cleared, just before his arrival, of all but the priests and guards, and he viewed the corpse alone.

There was no elaborate state funeral. The bodies of the archduke and his wife deliberately arrived late at night to avoid any formal funeral procession. The bodies left Vienna late at night the next day following an abbreviated lying in state. The funeral was private, lasting no more than fifteen minutes. The emperor did not attend the funeral and, following the funeral, the bodies of the couple were transported by milk train and boat to the village of Pochlarn, near Ferdinand’s castle at Artstetten.

Anti-Trust Legislation
Nationally, the paper reports that “Big Business Now Back President In His Program.” President Woodrow Wilson asked Congress to act promptly to pass the administration’s anti-trust legislation. Mr. Wilson made it plain that he “fully expected the cooperation of the heads of the big corporations.”

Wilson’s reforms took two forms. First he sought to create a federal body to monitor corporate activity. Secondly, he sought legislation that would define unfair business practices.

The Federal Trade Commission was an agency empowered to investigate corporate practices and, if necessary, issue cease and desist orders to halt illegal activities.

The Clayton Antitrust Act was designed to clarify the existing antitrust law. The Act expanded on existing law by prohibiting (1): predatory price cutting, (2) price fixing, (3) ownership of stock in competing companies, and (4) interlocking directorates (a person could not simultaneously serve on the boards of competing corporations).

The antitrust provisions of the law had little immediate impact because of the outbreak of World War I. The labor protections were honored until the next Republican era in the 1920s.

Independence Day
With Independence Day approaching, the paper reported that “Salem Will Not Celebrate The Day.” Outside of small private parties, Salem will not celebrate the Glorious Fourth this year,” the paper reported, “but will help in various ways to make the Independence Day eagle scream in honor of the birth of the nation.” The paper noted that, instead, “a large number of citizens of the Capital City will make for the country to spend the day beneath the cool shades of the forest, to lure the finny denizens from the mountain streams by way of hook and line, to hasten by auto to the seashore where the cares of the hot city will be lost amid the murmuring and splashing of the ‘sad sea waves.’”

Prohibition
In what would be the major ballot measure in the 1914 election, the Portland Chamber of Commerce reported that Portland businessmen opposed prohibition by four to one. “If prohibition wins this fall it will have to be done outside of the larger cities,”reported the headline. The paper reported that twenty nine general and two local measures would be on the ballot and that “to pass intelligently on, all should take up the study of law, medicine, and metaphysics.”

Reimbursing Colombia
Editorially, the paper commented on “Uncle Sam and Columbia,”noting:

The average American citizen is not losing any sleep over the Columbia Treaty or the proposition to pay Columbia $25,000,000 for the loss of the Panama canal zone and with it the organizing of the republic of Panama out of her soil. The United States government stood behind the revolutionists and really made the rebellion a success. Without our stand the republic of Panama would never have existed. We did our neighbor a grievous wrong, and it is the manly thing on our part since we are so strong and she so weak that she cannot help herself, to make proper restitution, cutting out the apology, since she was blameless. We don’t have got do it, but the obligations placed upon us of being decent and acting the part of a gentleman compels us to this course.

Politically, the nation that is now the Republic of Panama was once part of Colombia, Panama broke away from Colombia, and a Canal Zone was carved out Panama to be administered by the United States. Administration the Canal Zone was handed over to Panama in 1979 and full control over the Panama Canal in 1999.