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Page 16 text:
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market report. Then America en- tered the war for the following rea- sons : first, she wished to fight a war to end war and to make the world safe for democracy; second- ly, the War Aims of the Allies as presented to President Wilson seemed to correspond with this idea; thirdly, Germany’s breaking of the Sussex Pledge and our inter- ception of the Zimmerman Note seemed to pledge her as an enemy of democracy; and last, stories of German cruelty, the sinking of the Lusitania, and newspaper atrocities had incited in American citizens a bitter hate against Germany. And so in the year 1917 we found Amer- ican forces helping to push back steadily the lines of the enemy. The rest of the v ar is an old story to us, for there are many who have seen its cruelty, avarice, and selfish- ness, its comradeship, feeling of equality, military courage, and daring. The World War is one not to be compared with any other war in history. First of all, let us review briefly the munitions, gases, and armaments used. In the race of armaments each nation, eager to out do its rival, had perfected its arms. So the soldiers carried “soi- xante-quinze” field guns and gleam- ing bayonets. “Big Berthas” con- tained an explosive charge of one ton, enough to blow up a good sized city at a shooting distance of seventy-five miles. Sailors drilled on dreadnoughts costing from forty to fifty millions of dollars. There were many varieties of explosives, from the hand grenade to 380 milli- metre shells. April 22, 1915 is an important date in the history of warfare, for it was then we had the first gas at- tack employed. It was at the Second Battle of Ypres that the al- lies were taken by surprise and struggled for. the breath of life, strangled by that invi ible murder- er, gas. If the Germans had only kiiov n the force of this attack and used more of it, they v ould have won the war then and there.. But the allies were not inactive, for they v eie experimenting with gas also. For many years scientists had labored to save life by chemicals ; now they were being used to de- stroy, not to preserve. As the v ar went on, the gas became more and more poisonous. A soldier was compelled to wear a gas mask al- ways while at the front. Then came the dread mustard ras v hich eats the flesh av ay. Today we have more gas victims than any other sufferers in our military hos- pitals. It v as th e v crst form of v arfare. Yet when the ArmisPce was signed, we were perfecting the Lewisite gas, the most deadly of all gases, since it was invisible and had such great sinking pov er that it could penetrate the deepest cellars and dugouts and v hen breathed would kill at once not only through the lungs but through the entire system. TIasks were no pro- tection against it. It has been said that a dozen Lewisite bombs might have destroyed with a favorable wind the whole population of Ber- lin. Recently Hamburg, Germany was terrified by an attack of phos- gene gas, which had escaped from the storehouse of a dye factory. Two hundred thousand citizens were driven from their homes, sev- eral were killed, and many died in hospitals. If gas should carry such power in peace times, v hat tremen- dous strength may it not exert in the next war, if we do not gain peace ? Liquid flame, which burned men alive proved of only limited utility. Caterpillar tanks, intro- duced by the British, did not de- stroy life but plowed down wires, trees, and other obstacles, making a path to the front so mat the slaughter might continue. So ten years after we still bear the World War in mind. How can we help it? It is a moving factor 14
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Page 15 text:
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TEN YEARS LATER “All the arguments that justice, decency, intelligence, civilization can muster are against war: war is the fruit of passion, greed, stupid- ity, unfairness.” There is not a pa- triotic American in this United States of ours who can debate v ith steadfast arguments against this statement recently made by Kath- leen Norris, prominent woman novelist. It was ten years ago that we fought the great war to end war. Have we succeeded ? It is yet to be seen and is a question in the mind of every man or woman who is thinking of the tomorrow when, if there is war, his or her children must suffer, bear wounds, and in the majority of cases die a horrible death. It was ten years ago that to the noise of drums and shrill bugles our boys marched to great docks where huge liners waited to transport them to France. With a fierce blaze of patriotism they were ready to face the guns which were already booming in No Man’s Land. There was never a more varied group — the college stu- dent, the street loafer, the earnest man, those who wanted to go, and others who dreaded the time when the order to advance to the front would come. But they went from all walks of life — some because duty demanded, others for the sheer adventure of fighting — and helped to win the war. The World War was a premedi- tated conflict. Ever since 1870 Ger- many had been waiting for “Der Tag” upon which day she would conquer the world so that her “Kul- tur” might be spread to the farthest points of the compass. The war with France in the nineteenth cen- tury had shown Germany the way. It had been easy to take away Al- sace-Lorraine. With proper prepa- ration, should she not be able to conquer more provinces? No soon- er said than done. It was then in 1871, that the race of armaments began. Taxes were raised, men were trained in arms and called to ranks by the conscription list. After two years of voluntary service, so called, they were free to return to their villages and practice drill. Men to fight must bear arms; so France has a new repeating rifle, and Germany’s guns, being old- fashioned, are cast into the scrap heap or placed in museums; Great Britain launches a huge ne v battle- ship ; a dreadnought floats proudly in a German harbor. Affairs are coming to a climax, — the highest point in the great drama of the na- tions. Arms and munitions are ex- pensive and a nation’s method to obtain her expenditure money is by taxing the people. In 1910 a great part of the average man’s salary went to the tax collector. Two years of voluntary service took away from the business man the in- come received from his shops, and left the farmer with poorly tilled lands, whose only crop was weeds and stringy hay. The people were beginning to protest. But Germany was only waiting for the spark which would ignite her rivals. She was prepared to the “last buckle.” With conscription her soldiers had been taught to obey even to the ut- most brutality. Her railroads had on every one of her trains a military official. At the snap of a button, the army could be mobilized and ready to fight. The murder of a Serbian prince set the fire. Bel- gium, weak and unable to protect herself, was the victim. The Ger- man troops marched through fertile lands, leaving them a mass of de- struction, with Paris as the goal. Seeing in the future glory and pros- perity for the fatherland, German Fritz rushed to arms shouting eagerly; those attacked, seeing no future, went to war bravely with sad countenances. For four years they fought, the battle lines fluctu- ating back and forth like a stock 13
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Page 17 text:
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in every man’s life. When he goes to a movie or play, what theme docs he see presented? The World War. When he opens his newspaper or magazine, what does he read ? New discoveries about the war, and the crime, which has been a result of the war, since morals have been greatly louvered. The citizen feels the loss of a high idealism which had prompted him to give until it hurt, either of physical or pecuni- ary strength. High advertisement had aided and abetted this feeling — but now we are looking into the vdivs ?nd v herefores of the con- flict. Did we gain anything after all? Who won the war? The war made havoc of business. At the end of the v ar more money was owed than the whole world possessed. Certain factories, such as munition factories, useful during the war, went bankrupt. There were hords of unemployed. Re- turned soldiers found positions very difficult to secure, but what they did discover was that while they were fighting for the glory of their coun- try, others, their ov n friends, had heaped up their golden piles, while they had to pawn their medals to buy daily bread. You may go to a fair or carnival and see crippled veterans selling trinkets — broken results of war. There are thousands more in hospi- tals waiting to die. But it is not in our disabled veterans that we find our greatest loss. It is in the graves of those soldiers, buried in France, for they were the finest of the race, the future fathers of a strong na- tion. Each country has been affected by the war. We find Germany a republic with Von Hindenburg at its head, gradually righting herself financially under the Dawes Repa- ration Plan, yet still fretting over French occupation and with a guar- antee of French security by the Treaty of Locarno. France refuses to disarm, for she believes that Ger- many is only waiting foi a chance to stop paying her debts if she evac- uates from German territory. Al- though she is rebuilding her terri- tory almost entirely by American tourist trade, she is still opposing the debt arrangement with the United States, Austria and Hun- gary, now in the hands of the League and controlling only one third of their former property, have suffered a financial collapse and are much worried over Socialist control in Vienna. Great Britain, although having withdrawn her rights from Egypt, has retained her claims in the Suez and is paying her debt to the United States regularly, but is still struggling with uiirest in India, brought about under Gandhi in 1919. Italy under a dictatorship has become a greater power than France. She needs land for her population, as well as coal and iron fields. Russia, under the leadership of Stalin, still a soviet government, is badly in need of capital but re- fuses to pay her war debts. Its gov- ernment is cruel and uncertain and is on strained relations with all na- tions except England, which has broken with her entirely. Jugo- slavia is finding it difficult to har- monize a people who have lived apart for ages and whose disposi- tions are contrary. Turkey has been placed on her feet, but has one port, Adrianople, which is open even to war ships. China is in a state of war — only ten years after the war to end war — -and cannot stop at- tacks on foreigners. Japan, with the great burden of handling her great population, is intensely irri- tated with the United States and other nations v ho refuse to accept her immigrants. The United States, who holds the other nations in her hand, is still asking herself, “Shall I join the- World Court?’’ And so after a decade of preca- rious peace, we find the world more or less discontented. ’ Was the war one to end war? This aim has 15
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