Taft was now President, the economy still booming, the industrial revolution continued and times were good. Or were they? To the trained observer the rumble of guns could already be heard in Europe as Germany prepared for war. The stage was set, all it needed was an incident, and this was supplied by the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand on June 28, 1914. Six weeks later Germany declared war on France, Russia and Serbia. Three days later England declared war on Germany. Woodrow Wilson, who had become President in 1912 promptly declared our neutrality. In the election of November 1916 Wilson was re-elected on the slogan "He kept us out of war". On April 16, 1917 the United States declared war on Germany and its allies.

Daylight saving time was created, probably to give our citizens more daylight hours to worry about the war. As the manpower shortage grew this decade saw women working in factories, on a wide scale, for the first time. Over 2,000.000 Americans were in service before the end of the war. Bethany contributed sixty-one of her sons and all but one survived. Alexander Fish was killed in action and his was the first military funeral ever, in Roseland.

Meanwhile our church continued to grow as people, wearied by the war and disturbed about our country's future, flocked to the churches. Many voices were heard, in Bethany, regarding insufficient space for properly conducting Sunday School and other church related services. The idea of a new and larger church building was the subject of much discussion, getting serious about 1916.

Rev. Steunenberg, our pastor, accepted a call to Kalamazoo, Michigan in September 1912 and Rev. Brooks was again made moderator. He was a great organizer, who served Bethany well, at a time when organization was a prime consideration.

Our call went out to Rev. John LaMar who accepted on December 17, 1912. He is remembered by many of our older people, as a gentle loving man who evinced a care and concern that was just what we needed at that time. These qualities brought many people to us who might not otherwise have come. The Lord always provided exactly what was needed at the time we needed it.

The North End Sunday School Branch (organized July 27, 1896 by Bethany) was thriving. Created for the people of North Roseland it now had an enrollment of eighty members. This was not accomplished without difficulty. A place to meet and sufficient teachers were always a problem. Later, under the aegis of Bethany, this group was to organize the Emmanuel Reformed Church on September 25, 1914. There were 48 charter members with John Bennink as first pastor in 1915. Prominent in this work were Bethany members J.C. Bovenkerk, L.J. Van Vlymen, and H. Teninga.

The Kensington Mission was established in June 1913 with Rev. Malta in charge, who was succeeded later by Dr. Pape. The same three Bethany men were also greatly involved. (More on this in next decade)

Still another institution founded at this time was the Holland Home for the Aged. It was ready and occupied in 1915 and was located on 107th Place near Princeton Avenue. This was built as a joint effort of the Reformed and Christian Reformed Churches.

These years saw the automobile become more popular, boardwalks replaced by concrete, natural gas piped to individual homes and electricity become more widely used. The movie house, of which Roseland had four, with another yet to come, became one of the thorns in the side of the churches. Not only did most churches condemn movies, per se, but they were unhappy with the competition they afforded to Church and Sunday School attendance. But......movies were here to stay. However, after a couple of years, the novelty wore off and people no longer were enamored of the cinema and church attendance rose again.

At the close of the decade Bethany's membership had grown to 550 communicants and 275 baptized and space was now urgently needed. When we would GE it was still a big question.