Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1915-08-11
armed peace more exhausting than ans

v 0SbA OAAAAA6 SAOo0s ecu ~
spying suspicion n deceit. envy. re-
venge and the secret plots coun-
terplots in which old fashioned poll
ticians and militarists were helplessly
e%nsnarling themselves and their coun-
tries.
The atmosphere had grown omi-
nously heavy at the opening Of the
year 1914 n the weatherwise ma
tions rushed into the market for money
to fill their war chests. Gold was
sucked up as If by waterspouts. MOI
less than $4,000 900 of that shining
from h United States alone in the
first six months OF the year, when it
poured across the Atlantic in a yell
low current.
Tho Hush Before tho Storm.
Then, in a far-away Bosnian town, a
pistol shot rang out on the quiet of a
June Sunday and ran like q flash of
lightning across the sullen skies. AS
it died ava there followed Il stiffness
that deluded the hopes of humanity. 1t
was only the hush before the bursting
OF the long-pent storm.
Not a syllable or a sound of what
went on in those four silent. fateful
weeks that followed the assassination
OF the Austrian crown prince has yet
been permitted to escape the cabinets
of Europe. But e Americans heard
tIc luIllUlC VI SOlU ldOeIl WAGONS Ill
their streets. as SAG. OO0. 900 of the metal
was hungrily snatched from the Uni
ted States in 20 days.
Yet. while the issue of peace and
war was trembling in the balance, and
the lives of millions were at stake, the
people were not called into conference
anywhere. No legislative bodies were
convoked. No hint of the impending
conflict was communicated through
the press. Nowhere was public opinion
consulted on a problem that involved
the destinies of the human race.
Whatever was m was dom in the
dark by a governing craft of the louis
Quatorze period, men without an idea
under 200 years old.
Turn to the books of varied hues with
which the laundering ministries have
tried to color the facts to suit their
several tastes. and mark the significant
gap ! n them all. That a will not be
filled until posterity. until history
brings out its "black book"
For in the books of red. white and
blue. green. yellow n brown there is
no entry between June %, when a
Serbian boy murdered the heir of the
H~apsburgs. and July %, when the chan
tente began to thunder. the very next
day. Austria roared her ultimatum to
Serbia, and In another week the plot
ting military and naval powers, that so
long a sown the wind with bayonets,
were reaping the whirlwind.
When the Cloud Burst.
AS Austria fell upon Serbia, Germany
babe the powers stand aside and keep
their hands off while lheir ally chas-
slain an Austrian prince. But the fat
was in the fire. Russia declined to let
the Austrians march over a helpless
and PROSTATE Serbia OF the road to
Constantinople, n made ready to go
to rescue of the Serbs. who were also
Joined by their neighbors, the Monte
negrins.
Germany. t%hereupon. drew off to
strike Russia. But. not daring to turn
her back On Russia's ally in the west,
she suddenly whirled upon France,
knocking down Belgium as she went.
aid of her French ally and to the de-
Tense Of the opposite shore of her chan.
mel.
In vain the Teutonic empires APP
pealed to their Italian ally. And their
only other ally was unready to come to
their aid Turkey playing for time while
preparing for war. Japan, on the other
hand. promptly responded to the call
Of her associates in the entente and
aimed her blow at Germany's only
Asiatic possession. a little colony in
China.
A medieval twilight descended upon
civilization. The market places of two
~hemispheres put up their. shutters
against the universal panic. Railroads
that had bound together the nations of
the round earth in hoops of steel were
cut. and ~neighbors who had dwelt and
toiled side by side through half a CEN
fury n q century OF peace, savagely
flew at n another's throats. They
knew not why. nor nave they yet been
told. They only saw their countries