President Woodrow Wilson sought a means to end all war in Europe and at the peace conference at Versailles, France, after World War I (1914-1918), he convinced the parties to create a League of Nations. Its charter required that all powers unite against an aggressor nation. This worried many Americans who never wanted to enter another overseas war. Edward Wirt, whose unit was still in France when he wrote this letter, held this opinion and feared that the U.S. would “always be in a stew over here.” He also referred to labor troubles in the United States. Out of patriotic fervor, unions had suspended strike activity during the war, but with an armistice in place, they had begun striking again, demanding that industry share some of the huge wartime profits.
There are ninety letters from Mr. Wirt to Miss Bartlett in the PVMA collectionsome of which are included on this site.
