The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-06-28
Two Years Since Europe's Powder Magazine Was Fired

In a cell in an Austrian prison Ga vrio Prinzip, a twenty-year old Bos- nian boy, who fired the shots which killed the Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife and so touched off the European powder magazine, must in duIge in bitter reflections to-day, for this is the second anniversary of the
 mad crime which was to have such terrible and momentous results. Ac- tuated by fanatica1 patriotism, he doubtless conceived his murderous act | in a spirit of religious exaltation, hop l ing thereby to serve the interests of 1 his people. That the deed of a hare brained, needless student should have I been seized upon as a pretext for
 p1unging Europe into the maelstrom
 ton that the conflict was inevitable,
 and Gavrio Prinzip only precipitated the inevitable.
 | /The War of the Thirteen Nations has
 brought death and desolation to many lands, but not even Belgium nor Po- l land have suffered so terribly as Ser i bia, the country which the authors of the assassination plot sought to
 serve. Belgium has at least retained
 a. small strip of territory where her | flag is still defended by her brave sons, | but Serbia has been given over entire l 1y to the wrath of conquerors, and lies supine and crushed beneath the leu l ton heel
 Those who thinle to do evil that i good may come should find solemn warning in the issue of the plans of
 Gavrio Prinzip and his fellow conspi- rators. If they had thought more and hated less they must have known that for years Austria had been jeaI- ous of the growing power of Serbia, and that she awaited only pretext to put into execution her plans for the crushing of that country. The assassination at Sarajovo spelled op-
 portunity to the Vienna government. The Austrian u1timatum to Serbia
 which immediately followed the as-
 sassination of the heir of the flaps
 burgs marked the beginning of con-
 f1ict which speedily changed from its , original character to one more sinis- ter Although AusTia'S announced purpose was to punish Serbia, she joined with Germany in an invasion o1
 Belgium a novel way of se-
 curing revenge upon the Serbs The punishment of Serbia was long defer ) red, but was accomplished with the aid of Bulgaria, which had offered its
 allegiance to the highest bidder.
 It is not so remarkable that the war should have awaited the shot. fired by Prinzip for it's precipitation a!
 that it was deferred so long. II l 1908, when Austria annexed Bosnia Herzegovina in defiance of her treaty , the SIruSS1e was narrowly aVerCed- II
 tearing up the scrap of paper whicI 5 prohibited the annexation, Francis J o seph had the unqualified support O
 the German Emperor In vain tn
 outraged Serbs prepared for war, ant
 Russia, France and Great Britain pro
 tested against the breach of the treaty f The ambition of Austria. to exteni P her sway southward over the Balkans = if persevered in, made war inevitabl = That Austria had the full support O V Germany in this project was apparen
 at the time of the annexation, of Bos n a-Herzegovina- The extent of Ser = bian responsibility for the assa ssina g ton plot has yet to be determined d
 but in any event Serbian hostility to Il ward Austria was the necessary an n logical result of Francis Joseph e complete disregard for the welfare c s his neighbor, and his ambitious pro r jects for Serbian annexation