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One of the recurring sections in Frank Leslie’s Weekly was Questions of General Interest, a column in which the newspaper staff would answer questions submitted by readers. These are a few of the questions from 100 years ago this week – the all have a motor or mechanical theme:

Removal of Truck Restrictions

D. F. D.: “I understand that the restrictions on passenger-car output has been lifted considerably so that 75% of production during the same period as a year ago is now permitted. What regulations cover the truck output?”

Truck makers, through a recent order of the War Industries Board, may return to a production of 100% of their output of a year ago. Of course, the truck industry was not so seriously curtailed as was the passenger-car business, and therefore about the same proportion of return to normal can be expected in each case.

(Frank Leslies Weekly for November 16, 1918) – When Germany is decisively defeated or surrenders unconditionally to what extent shall she be punished? Wide difference of opinion upon this point is developed in connection with the discussion of the fourteen paragraphs of the President’s speech of January 8 last as the basis for peace. Criticism is most acute of the famous third paragraph, which would remove as far as possible all economic barriers and establish an equality of trade relations among all nations.

Secretary of the Navy Daniels is quoted as saying that if we do not stand unitedly on these fourteen principles which our allies have accepted, the sincerity and good faith of America will be questioned. We cannot agree with Secretary Daniels, nor does the President, himself. In one of his recent notes to Austria Mr, Wilson said that conditions had so changed since last January that the pronouncement then made concerning Austria’s subject races no longer held. Professor George Trumbull Ladd of Yale, in an analysis of the fourteen points, argues that they are so vague and indefinite that a “complete acceptance would only be a bid for further parleying,” and that in such an event it would not be Germany but the United States that would have “to eat her own words.” In England special concern is shown regarding the President’s phrase “the freedom of the seas,” and the British Navy League has called a meeting to protest against making this a principle to be discussed at the peace conference.

In the 1910s, Frank Leslie’s Weekly had an increase in news by and about women. Kate Upson Clark* and the paper’s “In the World of Womankind” page is a good example. After sharing news tidbits from around the world, she would respond to letters from readers:

FOR A EUROPEAN TRIP

Dear Mrs. Clark: I am going abroad for a six-weeks’ trip. I take a steamer trunk, two suitcases and a hand-bag. Please advise me about what dresses to take. I have a good tailor-made suit, and a charmeuse (short) dinner-dress. Our party will travel, stopping only a few days in any one place. Is this enough? I shall have three or four blouses to wear with the skirt of my tailor-made gown.—L. B., Trenton, N. J.

That supply should serve for so short a trip. Take stout, comfortable shoes, and new underclothes.

Whether or not the Federal Suffrage Amendment is ratified by a sufficient number of the States in time to permit the women of every State to vote in the next Presidential campaign, there will be 15,492,751 women eligible to vote in 1920. Leaders of women in this country are endeavoring to increase the number to 29,000,000, by securing the ratification of the Federal Amendment by thirty-six States within the next few months.

Sixteen States have ratified the amendment since its passage by the Sixty-sixth Congress last June, within two weeks after the Republicans returned to power when eighty-six percent. of the G. O. P. members of the Senate voted “for” the resolution, and forty-six percent of the Democrats voted “against.”

On February 26, 1919, President Woodrow Wilson signed an act of Congress establishing the Grand Canyon National Park. The bill making the Grand Canyon a national park was passed after having been before Congress for thirty-three years. A few months later, in the summer of 1919, the Geysers-to-Glaciers Trail opened. The goal of this highway was to connect America’s Western national parks. Frank Leslie’s Weekly ran this story about the new road and what Americans could expect on July 19, 1919.

The Geysers-to-Glaciers Trail

On June 20 the first link in a great motor highway connecting the national parks of the West was opened for regular automobile transportation. Over this road, which has been designated as “The Geysers-to-Glaciers Motor Trail,” ten-passenger motor busses will be operated on regular daily schedules. A fleet of 275 cars has been placed at the disposal of tourists, to carry them between Yellowstone and Glacier Parks .

The second link in the park highway is now ready for motorists. This is the road connecting the Rocky Mountain Park with the Yellowstone. It is the aim of the United States Government to develop a well-defined motor highway joining also Glacier, Mt. Rainier, Crater Lake, Yosemite, Mesa Verde, Sequoia national parks and the Grand Canyon of Arizona.