by Richard van Pelt, WWI Correspondent

The month closed with continued confused and conflicting reports from Europe. The Capital Journal headlines reported:

ACCOUNTS WIDELY AT VARIANCE
According to the Allies the Expulsion of Germans From France Is Near
GERMANS CLAIM ALL ASSAULTS REPULSED
It Appears Though the allies Are Gaining and that German Line Must Fall Back

GREAT ARMIES FACE EACH OTHER ALONG RUSSIAN FRONTIER
It Is Estimated Five Million Soldiers Are In This Battle Zone Alone
JUST WAITING ORDERS FOR KILLING TO BEGIN
Big Austrian Army Gathered and Is Strongly Supported By German Troops

SITUATION TODAY IS AGAINST ALLIES AND ALSO RUSSIANS
Expert Finds Nothing in News to Justify Claims of German Retreat
DISPATCHES SHOW GERMANS ADVANCE
Cold Weather Will Soon Stop Russian Advance and Free Northern Armies

HE WANTS ANTWERP AS ZEPPELINS BASE
Kaiser Said to Want Antwerp and that Quickly and So Being Bombardment

RUMOR PERSISTENT THAT GERMAN RIGHT WING WAS BROKEN
Claim Made that Heavy Reinforcement of Allies Overwhelmed Germans
FIGHTING GENERALLY STILL INDECISIVE

War from the air was a new concept, which the editor equated with cold-blooded murder:

The attack on cities by aeroplanes and Zeppelins is not war, but cold-blooded murder, cowardly assassination. Soldiers in any decent cause do not make war on women and children, nor do they slip out at night to pot-shoot a lot of harmless and sleeping non-combatants. The dropping of bombs from the skies on peaceable cities is something that would and should justify the putting to death of every person doing it. Nothing is gained or to be gained by this kind of so-called warfare. It does not help either side toward ultimate victory, and in fact is cold-blooded murder, neither more nor less.

The editor of the Statesman addressed the growing stress Americans were experiencing:

Chewing Gum and Grief

The war has increased the American tobacco and chewing gum business 10 percent. There is a theme for philosophy.

The war has got on the nation’s nerves. The nervousness must be calmed or worked off somehow. The men puff and puff and the women chew and chew, while they discuss the great conflict or pointer it alone, with tense lips and furrowed brows. It is humorous, in a way. And it is tragic, too.

It is proof that even in our peaceful isolation the world calmly has “got to us.” It is a spiritual burden that cannot be shaken off. It weighs on our hearts with the oppression of universal sadness. Even in our cheerful moments thought as the men in the trenches intrude like ghosts. Processions of wounded disturb our sleep. The fierce struggles of millions in combat spread strange terrors. The grief of the woman and children of a continent is like a pall over the earth.