KITCHENER — Kitchener started its new year with an election and a riot 100 years ago.

You know, angry mobs, doors smashed, windows broken, punches thrown, mayor-elect in hiding, soldiers rushed in from out of town to restore order, bayonets fixed.

This was Jan. 1, 1917, another crazy day as the First World War raged overseas and tore a city apart back home. A local newspaper called it "the worst disorder that ever occurred in the history of the city."

The Record was at the heart of it. A mob trashed its King Street offices, upset that the newspaper backed the winning candidate for mayor.

Blame the Great War against Germany. Over two-and-a-half years it had claimed 141 local lives but had yet to do its worst. Another 322 local soldiers would be killed by war's end on Nov. 11, 1918. No one knew that then.

What people did know on New Year's Day a century ago is that Berlin had a new name. Kitchener was narrowly chosen in 1916 in a bid to prove that the city with deep German roots was not pro-German.

People also knew that opponents of the name change had banded together to back a mayoral candidate and a slate of council candidates. They called themselves the Citizens' League and squared off against candidates who formed up to call themselves the British League.

The British League accused the Citizens' League of being pro-German even as both camps pledged not to restore Berlin's name.

Rival newspapers backed rival camps. Candidates and supporters hurled insults and accusations, trading claims of loyalty and charges of disloyalty.

The election was held on New Year's Day. The Citizen's League swept it. The News Record hailed the result: "The electors have declared that they wish to exclude extreme men and measures from the council chambers …"

The result seemed fair to a council winner who later said: "We have won a victory and they have the name." Supporters of the losing side didn't see it the same way. When election results were revealed that evening, some went crazy.

Local war recruits paraded, soured by the result. Many shouted: "Are we disheartened?" Someone tried to snatch a Union Jack from a soldier, sparking a scuffle.

By 8 p.m. the editor of the News Record learned that a plan was afoot to wreck the newspaper's offices. The editor demanded protection from police and the army.

A soldier punched a winning candidate. An army officer told the injured politician to hide out at a friend's house until people calmed down. The mayor-elect was similarly directed to hide out at a friend's house after learning that people had come to his home, hunting for him. The army eventually placed guards around the mayor-elect's house and the button factory he owned, both on Water Street.

A mob smashed the front window of the News Record office and brawled with people inside. Military police found hundreds milling about outside. A winning candidate suffered a minor injury in a fist fight.

Another winning candidate, also punched in the fracas, rushed to city council chambers to sound the alarm about the riot. There, he publicly threatened to shoot anybody who came near his home that night.

An army major sent from out of town to keep order during the election telephoned the outgoing mayor, who ultimately requested as one of his last acts that the News Record be put under military protection.

By this time soldiers and civilians were marching on King Street, led by a soldier carrying a Union Jack. The crowd sang a patriotic song: "We'll never let the old flag fall." The army major blocked the procession and persuaded the crowd to disperse.

The major requested army backup from Galt (now Cambridge), which sent a detachment of soldiers by electric train at 10:01 p.m. They reached Kitchener by 11 p.m., fixed their bayonets and marched four-by-four to clear King Street.

Soon they ran into an angry crowd at King and Frederick streets. People hissed and jeered and hollered, refusing repeated orders to disperse. Bayonets fixed, Galt soldiers threatened to charge the crowd. Slowly the soldiers advanced. The mob gradually gave way.

This came too late to save the News Record offices. Before 11:30 p.m. vandals had returned to wreck the lower portion on King Street, busting in through a back door and damaging machines.

It took until 3 a.m. on Jan. 2, 1917, for police and out-of-town soldiers to restore calm and order.

The Daily Telegraph, which supported the losing British League, lamented the election result but warned against the violence that engulfed its newspaper rival. "Lawlessness of this sort, no matter how great the aggravation, must be condemned if the rights of person and property are to continue to enjoy that security which is so highly prized by British subjects everywhere."

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Six days later the new Kitchener mayor gave his inaugural address, no longer in hiding. David Gross Jr. pledged again that he would not try to restore the Berlin name, despite opposing the change in 1916.

Gross said: "During the past year the name of our city has been changed. The agitation for such purpose has raised feelings of bitterness and discord between our citizens. It has led to acts of lawlessness and violence such as were never before known in our city. It has caused the circulation through the public press and otherwise of reports which were in every case distorted and in many cases slanderous and absolutely false. All this has been to the great injury of our city and the reputation of its people.

"It will be part of our duty to try to restore peace and harmony in the community — to repress and punish all lawlessness and to hold to strict account any newspapers or persons who may circulate untrue and unfounded reports against our city and its people."