Armistice Day is to be observed in Redlands as a general holiday for most of the business houses of the city are to be closed all day, the city offices, the banks, the schools and the library will be closed.
The library reading room will be open in the afternoon for the benefit of those who want to use it. The post office will make one delivery during the day, mail will be received and dispatched and the windows will be open until noon.
The big celebration here will center around the two football games that are to be played at the University of Redlands. They are to be between the freshman team of the university and the Southern Branch freshmen, also the conference game between the university and the University of California Southern Branch. The first game will start at 1 o'clock, the second at 2:30.
Many of the Legion men of Redlands are to join with other Legion men of the county in the big celebration at Pickering Park in San Bernardino, which is to culminate in a big ball there.
The churches of Redlands are to join tomorrow night in a big program at the First Methodist Church at which time Dr. Walter Dexter is to be the speaker.
Editor's note: In 1924, UCLA was known as the University of California Southern Branch.
Nov. 11, 1924
Once again we have gone to the 11th hour and the 11th day of the 11th month.
Armistice Day.
People of Redlands remember well six years ago when that same hour was reached, the exuberant but impromptu celebration that was a spontaneous expression of the joy of the people in being rid of the Old Man of the Sea, War.
Other Redlands people, boys who for months and months wore khaki, remember the day in military camps in this country, on the sea where the radio told the news, in France where some of them were in the mud of the front trenches, others in the hospitals.
Redlands' celebration today is none the less hearty although a decorous one. The Legion men of Redlands are joining with the Legion men of other posts in the county in a celebration at San Bernardino, an all day affair. There is to be a circus, football game and a ball and other features.
Here at home it is a general holiday. This afternoon two good football games are being played at the University of Redlands. This evening at 7:45 the people will gather at the First Methodist Church where there will be an Armistice Day service with the music in charge of the Methodist church, and the speaker Dr. Walter Dexter, president of Whittier College. The university male quartet will sing appropriate selections.
Nov. 12, 1924
A service in commemoration of Armistice Day was held at the First Methodist Church last evening. Rev. Herbert C. Ide presided, and ministers of the city occupied seats on the platform. The evening opened with prayer by the Rev. Paul Prichard of the Presbyterian church, who thanked the giver of all gifts for having bestowed upon America peace, and for the vision and high-mindedness which is leading on to a permanent and everlasting peace.
The male quartet of the university, Ernest Hemmerling, Walter Tipton, Russell Andrus and Elmer Hall, sang "Soldiers of the Captain" by Spohr. "My Country, 'Tis of Thee" and "America, the Beautiful" were sung by the audience. The benediction was pronounced by the Rev. J.A. Stavely.
The address of the evening was by Dr. Walter S. Dexter of Whittier College whose subject was "The Unity of Humanity." Though he spoke briefly, he developed his subject in a scholarly manner, outlining his points interestingly to bring out the great thought that everlasting peace will come "only when we cease to believe in the atrocious entity which many have been prone to believe inherits the life of an individual, the fighting entity."
"How can we believe that our God would say 'Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself' and continue to believe that he would create a man with enmity in his soul. The Unity of Humanity depends to a great extent upon our point of view. ... The time has come when we in America must quit 'calling each other names,' quit believing that we are pacifists on the one hand, and militarists on the other.
"We are glad that we have been asked by our president to face the problem of peace, and we shall come to appreciate more and more the significance of Armistice Day. The question is before us now 'What was the result of the great World War.' We have the answer to give to the boys who came home to us from the battlefields, and to the boys of the future. If we are unable to decide just what the ultimate results of the sacrifices between 1914 and 1918 were, then we are without hope But if it was a war to end war, then it will be written great in history."
Editor's note: What is now Veterans Day began as Armistice Day, marking Nov. 11, 1918, the date the armistice was signed that ended World War I, then known as the Great War or the World War.