Ten years to the day after America entered World War I, the New Britain Herald marks the somber anniversary by surveying the ghosts of that era. The front page recalls April 6, 1917—when President Wilson signed the war resolution at 1:11 p.m. with a pen handed him by Mrs. Wilson (which he preserved as a keepsake), and Congress voted 373 to 50 to send American troops to France. The article notes with particular poignancy that three of the resolution's signatories—Wilson, Marshall, and Clark—have since passed away. The great wartime leaders have largely vanished too: Pershing now manages American graves in France; Clemenceau dreams away his days in retirement; Haig has become a country gentleman. Only Hindenburg and Foch remain active in post-war affairs. The piece grimly notes that by 1945, fewer than 4,000 of the 2.5 million who served will be alive to remember. Meanwhile, the Sacco-Vanzetti case dominates the front page: Massachusetts courts have denied a new trial for the two Italian anarchists condemned to death for murder, prompting unusual security measures around judges' homes and court buildings.

This newspaper captures a nation caught between memorial and anxiety in 1927. The war was 'officially' over, but its psychological and political weight still hung heavy—debates about the war's purpose and America's isolationism would define the next decade. The Sacco-Vanzetti case symbolized deeper tensions: a clash between labor radicalism and establishment justice, between immigrant communities and native-born elites, and between those who saw anarchism as an existential threat and those who saw the trial as a frame-up. The simultaneous front-page treatment of these stories—the war's tenth anniversary alongside judicial decisions protecting judges from radical retaliation—captures the paranoia and unresolved conflicts of the 1920s. America was prosperous on the surface but ideologically fractured underneath.

• Janet Rankin of Montana, the only female member of Congress in 1917, famously couldn't vote for war, sobbing at her desk: 'I want to stand by my country, but I cannot vote for war.' She would later face intense backlash and political isolation for this vote.
• The German ship Vaterland was seized and renamed the Leviathan, becoming the 'mighty transport' that ferried thousands to France—it was actually the largest ship in the world at the time, commandeered within hours of the war declaration.
• A Colorado woman killed her entire flock of chickens searching for a lost diamond ring, suspecting one had swallowed it while she fed them. Only the last hen—which she'd hesitated to slaughter out of affection—contained the diamond in its gizzard. A full year had passed since the loss.
• Vice-President 'Tom' Marshall signed the war resolution at noon, adding his signature to a document that would reshape global history. Marshall served under Wilson for eight years but remains largely forgotten today, overshadowed by his famous boss.
• The article warns that 'records show by 1945 there will be less than 4,000' survivors of the 2.5 million who served—a statistical prophecy made casually in 1927 that underscores the deadly toll the war had already taken.

• Marshal Foch's message to the American Legion predicted that 30,000 Americans would return to France in September 1927 to revisit the battlefields and villages where they'd fought a decade earlier—this was the famous 'Second AEF pilgrimage' of 1927-1928, a massive commemorative tour that became one of the era's most poignant reunions.
• The article mentions Peter Koraitis, an unlicensed physician arrested for treating scarlet fever without a medical license—he'd lost his certificate after the 'grand jury probe of alleged quack doctors.' This reflects the 1920s wave of medical licensing crackdowns that would eventually professionalize American healthcare, though not without casualties for practitioners like Koraitis working in immigrant communities.
• Judge Webster Thayer, who presided over the Sacco-Vanzetti trial, required armed guards at his home—Thayer would face intense scrutiny and informal boycotts for the rest of his life, becoming a symbol of judicial overreach to progressives, though he never publicly expressed regret.
• The Herald's circulation for the week ending April 2 was 14,001—this was a respectable medium-sized Connecticut newspaper in an era when nearly every town had multiple daily papers, most of which would vanish within 50 years.
• The Sacco-Vanzetti case mentions 'radicals the world over' rallied to the defendants' cause, and indeed the executions (which occurred just months after this article) sparked international protests, labor strikes, and bomb threats, making it one of the defining civil liberties cases of the 20th century.