Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1915-01-06
BY n. G. WELLS
This effect Of chill dkmay, of a

uecpc1lS lis DdIutI lcCOAu pdoScS OA
to tell Of the approach Of winter. 1t
was too much for the great mass OF
those unwilling and incompetent no
MAIDS to realize that an age had ended;
that the old help and guidance existed
no longer: that times would not mend
again, however patiently they held out
They were still in many cases looking
to Paris when the first snOWflakes of
that pitiless January came swirling
about them. The story grows grimmer.
II it is less monstrously tragic after
Barnet's return to England it is, If
anything, harder. England was a spec
tacae of fear embittered housnholders,
hiding food, crushing out robbery, driv-
ing the starving wanderers from every
faltering place upon the roads lest they
should die inconveniently and reproach-
fully on the doorsteps of those who
had failed to urge them onward.
The remnants of the British troops
left France finally in March after ur-
gent representations from the proyi-
sional government at Orleans that they
could be supported no longer. They
seem to have been fairly we'll be-
haved but highly parasitic force
throughout, though Barnet Is clearly Of
opinion that they did much to suppress
sporadic brigandage and maintain So
cial order. He came home to famine
stricken country, and his picture of the
England Of that spring is one of miser-
able patience and desperate expedients.
The country was suffering much more
than France because of the cessation
Of the oversee supplies on which it
had hitherto relied. His troops were
given bread. dried fish and boiled net
ties at Dover and marched inland to
Ashford and paid off. On the way
thither they saw four men hanging
from the telegraph posts by the road
side. who had been hung for stealing
swedes. The labor refugees of Kent,
he discovered, were feeding their
crowds Of casual wanderers On bread
into which clay and sawdust had been
mixed. In Surrey there was shortage
Of even such fare as that. He himself
struck across country to Winchester,
fearing to approach the bomb poisoned
district around London, and at Win
chester he had the luck to be taken on
as one of the wireless assistants at the
central station and given regular ra
tons. The station stood in COM
handing position on the chalk hill that
overlooks the town from the east.
Thence he must have assisted in the
transmission Of the endless cipher
messages that preceded the gathering
at Brissago, and there it was that the
Brissago proclamation of the end Of
the war and the establishment of a
world government came under his
hands.
He was feeling i'll and apathetic that
day, and he did not realize what it was
he was transcribing. He did it me-
chemically as part Of his tedious duty.
Afterward there came u rush of
messages arising out Of the declara-
ton that strained him very much, and
in the evening, when he was relieved,
he ate his scanty supper and then
went out upon the little balcony before
the station to smoke and rest his brains
after his sudden and as yet inexplica-
BILE press of duty. 1t was very beau
tiful still evening. He fell talking to
fellow operator, and for the first time,
he declares, II began to understand
what it was all about. began to see
just what enormous issues had been
under my hands for the past four
hours. But l became incredulous aft
err my first stimulation. This is some
sort of bunkum,' said very sagely.
MY colleague was more hopeful. 1t
means an end to bomb throwing and
destruction he said. 1T means that
presently corn will come from Amer
ica.'
"'WhO is going to send corn when
there is no more value in money? I
asked.
Suddenly we were startled by a
clashing from the town below. The
cathedral bells, which had been silent
ever since had come into the district,
were beginning, with sort of rheuma-
tic difficulty, to ring. Presently they
warmed little to the work and we
realized what was going on. They were
ringing peal. We listened with an
unbelieving astonishment and looking
into each others yellow faces.
They mean it, said my colleague.
"'But what can they do now?' l ask
ed. Everything is broken down."
And on that sentence, with an unex-
pected artistry. Barnet abruptly ends
his story.
From the first the new government
handled affairs with a certain great
hess of spirit. Indeed, it was inevita-
bic that they should act greatly. From
the first they had to see the round
globe as one problem; it was impossible
any longer to deal with it piece by
piece. They had to secure it univer-
sally from any fresh outbreak of
atomic destruction and they had to in
sure a permanent and universal paci-
fication. On this capacity to grasp and
WELD the whole round globe their ex-
istence depended. There was no scope
for any inferior performance.
So soon as the seizure of the existing
supplies of atomic ammunition and the
apparatus for synthesizing carolinum
was assured, the disbanding of social
utilization of the various masses of
| troops still under arms had to be ar
ranged, the salvation of the years
harvests and the feeding, housing and
employment of the drifting millions
of homeless people. In Canada, in
South America and Asiatic Russia
there were vast accumulations of pro-
vision that was immovab!e only be-