The Alaska daily empire., 1915-01-08
sW0PE WRITES sToR
 OF RAG ING cCrFAscl

! afI lit % ftH Nii1 lA-At
 OF RAGING CONFLICT
 Herbert Bayord swope, Inc New sYork World war correspondent who lsucceeded in getting Co aee the opef iasion og the German armies on taeir own battle iines nas returnea to tnc United states wiLn his heart fun ol the misery and doaolation in che wake ol tbe war now deyastatlnE Europe.
 Mr swope's trained newspaper mind has grasped the situation and Do snoWa i0l we1 what the United states can do to relieve it. He has wfilten the following description oi ! tho scenes in Europe for che Commit. tee ol Mercy, neutral. nonpartisan organization. headed by Senator Eii. hu Root whose purpose is to aiieyiate x that lspossiblo. the 3ufierng among tbe women, children and other inno. cont non-combatants made hungry by the war Contributions for this par- pose arc now being received by Au- gust Belmont treasurer ol the com mittee. at 200 Fifth Avenue, New York.
 gre any words Of miue can holp the Committee oi Mercy in its noble work ] shall feel that have been partly compensated for tho awful things ] saw-acenes that must bo witnessed personally to feel their horror for oth- orwiBe. they are Impossible Of belief. They hnve left memories that can not do dulled: many or them too terrible to be told.
 q was fortunate enough speaking
 from the standpoint Of Che newspaper men to gee action on two ironta. I vas with lhe the German armies on both tho Russian border and on the' lighting lines againat the French from Belfort to Verdun. # ] had on. ly seen action in a military sense I lhink Che nine weeks ! spent in Ged- many for the New Yorl, World would have brought me no regrets for in the excitement that goes with bat des one loses 9 true perspective and the death of a few thousand soldiers more or less, though actual war means little at Che .lme This may sound brutal but it must be remembered and Killing and being Killed ls the maIn business -of e soldier and 80 the Correspondent looks at it with the fighters Ylew-that it Is an in the days work.
 sBut it is behind the lines, away rom tho slamor of battle. .where theI rifle and canon sing paean of Blood and iron. intoxicating and bestializing, .he war is unfoided in its true color.
 Not in Che Trenohea
 .Not in the fighting trenches, ter- rlble as they ere; not whore the men m uniforms may bo found; not where tho graves of the countless bravo a5eI dug. Is to be seen the real nature ofI war. It must be looked for away from those glorided scenes among ths women and children, Authorizes. 0rotherless. homeless.
 There the falgo colors fell away nnder the eye and you gee war as it lrnly is-a vast terror demanding as the least of Che sacrifices, Love, Life and Wealth. War may cleanse the Inner soul Of a nation but at what a cost In France and Germany to- day there is not a family that has not felt the agony of death and there are too many from which every man has been obllterated lying in uure- corded ditches or lacking even lhat pretense Of burial.
 But death is the least Of the trag- edies that have befalIen those who lived in the direct path Of the war. These have lost their men, who died in battle; the houses that had been their homes for years. that every pos session save Che clothes on their backs end the few poor trifles they could !. aeize in their flight And, in fleeing, 1 these Innocent victims have been hopeiessly scattered so that their fam lilies already shattered by death have ! been lost to one another in the dark i noc3 of the war areas where there Is | no intercommunication, and. because ! Of tho miliary restrictions, search for the missing ones is impossible.
 eThe theme oi Individual atrocities, stark as they may have been. does not need Co be developed to point Q moral: lhe atrocity of the thing in It's big ger side, falling heaviest upon the helpless. is enough; indeed 100 much. War is cruelest to those not directly engaged in iti they gre the ones who pay the price and only they can know bow heavy shnt price is.
 Shattered Black sholla
 "ln East Prussia and over the Rus lian border I saw the shattered. biaei sued shells Of what had been huu- ireds of villages and towns. and
 saw the women who had dweall .n these peaceful little homes, stag sering along the roads miles away from what had been their homes, and falling by the wayside, heavy with sorrow and faint from starvation. What refuge was there for them? EY- sn # they reached Q place of shelter hey had no means of life. it is these hat the Committee Of Mercy will ave; it ls through this work that noge deaths and sufleringa wAl be .hecked.
 And ] saw these scenes repeated .long the eastern border of France