Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1916-07-31
WHAT WE READ
TWO YEARS AGO
And Some of the Strange Things
We Said and Thought and
Did When War Broke
Out

Out
JLTHAT were the important events Of
w the last week in July two years ago7
We know now. But two years ago, with
the temperature up in the nineties and
vacations on, we read lazily and thought
lazily, and the greatest catastrophe Of
our time was on our heads before we
knew It.
The important events as disclosed In
the newspapers were the failure of the
Ulster conference and the death of four
rioters in Dublin, the preliminary matches
for the Davis Cup in tennis and the trial
of Nine Caillaux in Paris. For week
these events had been brewing. To be
sure, on the very day when President
Wilson was compelled to withdraw the
name of Thomas ID. Jones for the Federal
Reserve Board and Colonel Roosevelt was
sued by William Barnes there were two
items of foreign news which attracted
little attention. One was the ultimatum
sent to the diplomatic corps at Durazzo
by the Moslem Albanians and the other
was the ultimatum sent by Austria to
Serbia. Neither on tha- day nor the next
was there any indication that these two
events were not equally important.
1t seems silly now, but quite frankly.
what did we Americans Know or caro-
about Serbia? Were there any serblans
in America? Then they were 'hunkles,"
nothing more. Vaguely we recalled
something about the Balkan wars, but the
last thing most of us remembered about
Serbia was that her King had been assas-
sinated years ago. Had Austria sent an
ultlmatum? Well, the Serbians had an
army of a sort, but they wouldn't dare to
fight the Dual Monarchy.
Localizing the Trouble
Presently 1t seemed that Serbia had
rejected the utimatum. Just how or
why was not clear. In fact, it was not
known that in the ultimatum Austria
had demanded share in Serbia's internal
Jurisdiction. So we went on, watching
the extraordinary squirt of the Boston
Braves, and suddenly a menacing word
appeared in the public prints. 1t was
"localizaton." 1t seemed that without
any of those preliminary declarations
dear to our romantic hearts Austria and
Serbia were at war and there was a dam
ger. If Germany and France and Russia
were trying to localize the conflict, to
keep 1t down along the Danube, then
there was a chance-but no real danger.
London and Berlin and Paris were bring
ing pressure to bear, Russia was asking
for time, Jusserand said it would not
,,t nf lo5 4.
prepared Cthe word didn't have the same
significance them for everything, so
France and Russia were mobilizing
quietly.
Mobilization meant little in our young
lives then. We couldn't see why Ger
many kicked up such a fuss about It,
while she was doing 1t herself. We
trusted Sir Edward Grey, with a passion
ate faith in good AngloSaxon honesty,
when he invited all the Powers to quiet
down and come to n council as of friends.
Poincare had just seen the Gar and re-
port had it that he was met at Stockholm
by the Kaiser. Little by little we got
round to Wilhelm. We remembered that
he had been called the War Lord. We
saw pictures of him with the captions
telling us that he could unleash the dogs
of war. And there were little boxes
with statistics proving that the war
would cost s54,125.000 day. Yet he was
sending his relatives to talk to the Car
and warning Russia not to interfere, and
having the most amlcable relations with
It is certain that on the 3Oth
of July; 1914. when the world had hardly
60 tla nF A,taf
Serbian" war, not one man in ten thou
sand foresaw world in arms. But two
years ago today things had happened.
London Hoped for the Worst
It was a Friday morning and you sat
down to your paper with little thrill.
The whole first page was about war.
Battles had been fought in Serbia. but
worse yet, and more thrilling, Germany
was threatening Russia, England was
beginning to be nervous. Two German
lieutenants had been defeated by An
thony Wilding and Norman Brookes in
the internationals. What has happened
10 the Germans we do not know, but
has died since. a soldier. We.
no more than he, were disturbed that
DAY. lI6n lIOIl l@OilNlOh new
word: Armageddon. We hadn't heard
it since the campaign, and there were
many who wanted to know what con-
nection there was between the Pro-
gressive party and world war. London
was confident of the worst, but Paris
was hopeful. Russia was still only partly
Germany was dark. but not
openly threatening. The war was still
Austria and Serbia.
That is where we were two years ago
today, in that attitude OF mind. We
wonder now that it could be so, that We
could have been so simple-minded and so
We think Of the two terrible
years. in which we. also, have had share.
and we are aghast at our own stupidity.
But 1t is not altogether stupidity. not al