Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1914-12-06
From New York Evening sun.


slider this wholly as financial and In
dustrial crisis The world never saw
the like. An industrious, crowded ma
tion thrown In one month into utter
bankruptcy. It's currency become sud-
denly not worth tho paper on which
! II was printed, Its whole industrial pop
ulation out of work. It's whole pro-
duction stoppcd-that wna Belgium
early In September. when tho Germans
settled down upon 1t. Everywhere
throughout the land the unemployed
sat ut the doors OF their houses and
stared DULY at their conquerors be.
! cause there was nothing else to do.
Brussels was city Of aimIcss, futile
| crowds. The unemployed men and wo-
men alike. gathered in groups on the
sidewalks. talking under their breath,
or drifted across the city In headless.
diHorganizcd mobs. / member vividly
one such mob. Back OF the Palace
! Hotel is small sunkcn park AZ
passed down street nearby, saw
men running. heard the eubducd
clamor of n crowd. L followed. They
| were pushing against the rail OF the
park ], by fdodging and showing, got
to the rail- There was nothing to sec
except three men laying pipe. The
crowd stared at this spectacle for II
while with blnnlt eyes, and drifted
away. They looked like our army OF
the unemployed In an Industrial criais,
only with an added hopclcssness in
their eyes.
Saved Brusscls FROM Louvaln,s Fate.
That night the German garrison was
reinforced by 5000 men sent back from
the front. without newspapers. q prey
to rumors. the people believed that
this meant n German defeat. Tho aim
less crowds grew brisker in their
movements: the thrill OF coming
trouble was in tho air.
Gentlemen said the German COM
mandant, to his Belgian hostages that
'yyn ch 1,nk, xla
part OF your beautiful city, but you
know what we might have to dol"
Tho influential men of Brussels went
from corner To corner, haraneung the
mobs begging the people to go homo.
assuring them that the Germans had
not retreatcd. Tho police cleared all
the public squares. Tho Germans
| trained three machine guns on the
Place de IN Station. The garrison slept
that night on It's arms
Along toward midnight an incident
occurred which might have set of the.
spark. ~ German officer came back
to his hotel very drunk, and shot upt
, the lobby with his automatic pistol.
Fortunately, by that hour, the popu-
lace had gone TO bed. Had 1t happened
| four hours earlier. this tiny break in
discipline would probably have precipi-
tated the riot a small thing to bring
slaughter, burnings and reprisais. but
then the immediate cause of this whole
Subject DeIEians Won't Talk About.
| or course. the war Is horrible beyond
any previous conception w0 have of
war: and the henped-up trenches of
the dead, the human wrcchage in the
base hospitals, the epic sufferings of
the men on the line. do not comprise
all It's horrors. Worse. to any mar
OF sympathetic spirit. Is the blight of
| misery over the European peoples
whom the army has left behind. But
t4there is still nobility left IN war
even such brutal, Wholesale, .mechani-
cal war rs this. There was kind of
! eSultation In tho way the Belgians dis
missed the thought OF their own losses,
II reminded one of tho spirit which
the Californians showed after their
comparatively minute disaster in San
francisco. There, II wasn't etiquette
Tor man to mention that he was
| ruined. SO, tho, with belgium. Tho
people wouldn't talk on that subject.
| A farmer who spoke somo English sat
| near his doorway nenr Aries and spoke
| with mc-canni1y and cautiously--on
| the war. al
al suppose it will be hard winter
| for YOU here" / said.
oh. certainly" said he, and turned
the subject 10 matters which interested
him morc--my news from Mons But
came back to the subject and held
| him to 1t, brutality,
II expect starvation here," / snid.
Certainly, he replied. "My crop Is
gone. So are my cattle. There's only
a fittle grain in town. I have two
sons In the army"--and no went on
talking Of his sons, obllvious 20 his
own hungry future.
| We have found ssince that the prob
lem Of struggling through will resolve
itself in the later stages into this:
Have we the food to keep our peo.
pie alive; have we tho raw material
to make the necessities of WARP" III
the later stages. money Is no good
Belgium has nearly reached that
later stage; she Will probably reach 1t
absolutely by Christmas. Industry
stopped. whcreupon only the prospe-
rous and the saving had any money.
Then came; the stage when even money
would not purchase FOOD, because the
food was not there. a shipwrecked
crew, wrecked on n sand bar, would
have no use for n million doiiars-it
would get them no food ~ y.
Copyright 1914, by the Wheeler Syn-
dtcate, Inc.)