Foreword; White House History (Number 31) - Photo 1
Tranquillity and commotion often share Lafayette Park, the White House representing the first and the second when crowds gather to express their views. Citizens have taken their opinions here almost since the park was planted about 1824. In early times the mass assemblies were in praise of a popular presidential act—the president was “called out” to stand between the columns and speak. Protest became the rule soon enough, but this scene in 1918 is a reversion to celebration for the armistice that ended World War I—as to whether it was the first rally, based upon false intelligence or the actual one a little later, on November 11, 1918, the record does not say.
