Macon beacon., 1917-09-21
II is a Revolution.

v
crisis in the affairs of the world if
we stop thinking about it as a
which it is incidentally
begin to think of it as revolution,
which it is essentially. Whatever
it was in the beginning, it is no
longer merely a question whether
this or that nation shall conquer
its enemy OF the moment; it is a
question of remaking the world.
SO far the revolution has been
chiefly political in Russia, chiefly
spiritual in France, chiefly economic
in England. In our own country
it has not yet progressed far
enough to disclose its most signifi
cant elements; it seems to partake
enigmatically of all three. In Ger
many and Austria it promises to
work out fundamental changes in
every aspect of national life.
When the war is over, there
will be good many changes to be
made in the aliases; frontiers will
move back and forth across the
map, countries may disappear and
other countries may gain or regain
national existence. But unless
all signs fail, those changes will
not be the great things wrought
by the revolution.
When the disillusioned and war,
weary soldiers come home from the
trenches there will be complete
re ,ad djustment of the prevailing
views in Europe concerning war as
a means OF national sell assertion.
We cannot imagine the nations OF
Europe bending their shoulders
again to the burdens that militar
ism lays upon them. There will
be a profound quickening of the
democratic spirit everywhere, fol-
the people have learned that they
ire the basis of national power and
the bulwark of national prestige.
rhe autOcrats and the bureaucrats
nave blundered so often and Sc
stupidity that they have lost their
lalos. They will never be looked
Up to again as they have been ir
the past.
The unheard of destruction O.
wealth, of economic resources, o
he products of laDor, that this
var has caused will make radica
economic reforms necessary. How
far they will 60 no one can now
predict. That they will lead tow
lrd naturalization of industry
toward Operative instead O
competitive methods, toward &
league of nations that shall admin
lister the production and distribu
tion of the materials for rebuilding
civilization, is probable. The En-
tente nations and the United
States have laid the basis for such
m organization; if, as we believe,
the new alliance is strong enough
to win the war, it will unquestion
ably preserve the machinery that
it has erected. To that economic
league the smaller nations and, W.
hope, a reformed Germany and
Austria will be attracted. From
the greatest of all wars may grow
the greatest of cOnfederacies ant
the most hopeful of all movements
for diminishing the likelihood o
war.
Finally, there will be aspiritual
a religious, revival; a revival tina
may appear as revolutionary a
any that we have known since thu
Reformation. 1t may or may no
directly strengthen the existing
churches; it may or may not deep
ly effect the theologies they teach
But it will give to millions of mel
a deeper sense of the meaning o
life, it will clear their brains o
many ancient superstitions, and i
will convict them of more thai
one kind of individual and nation
al sin. There is a whirlwind o
fire abroad in the world. Whcl
it has passed we shall wonder a
the devastation it has caused il
the framework of things as we hav
known them; and then we shal
wonder at the vigor and the splen
dor of the growth that shall sprin
l up in the path of the tlames.-
Youths companiop.
The High Cost Of Growing Cottor