Following the conflict between China and Japan that began in 1937, the German invasion of Poland on September 3, 1939 signaled to the world to prepare for another global war. The editors of the Lookout, SCI's institutional publication, summarized the anxiety of the times with an article that begins with the "tragic message... that war drums again rolled in Europe." Despite the fact that the United States would stay out of the fighting for more than two years after the German invasion, maritime commerce along the New York waterfront would be significantly disrupted with the first signs of war overseas. Shipping schedules were altered, marine insurance rates soared, travelers rushed home from abroad, and the "[g]reat ocean liners, with portholes closed and windows painted black, scurried into port, or steamed apprehensively out into the Atlantic" from New York City's piers. The Lookout editors closed their article with the following: “No man knows what the brooding future may bring, but this we do know; that such humane services as we can render, we shall do so, willingly, for the gallant men of the merchant marine.” See The Lookout 1939 October (http://qcarchives.com/sci/items/show/1216)