The daily Gate City and constitution-Democrat. (Keokuk, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1917-12-24
DARK PICTURE.

OZARK PICTURE.
An Austrian officer of Slav nationality who
gave himself up on the Rumanlan front gives a
dark picture of conditions in the dual mon
archy. Coffee, tea and many necessaries OF life
are absolutely understandable; and such food as
is still to be had and clothes and footwear have
gone to fabulous prices. An acute financial
crisis prevails. Even Serbian and Rumanian
bank notes are taken in preference to those OF
Austria. Riotings in many cities have caused
the loss of thousands OF, lives. Hordes of de
~serters from the army have taken to the noun
tains and become outlaws. Men between sew
enteen and ffty-four years are conscripted,
even many who have been sent back from the
front as untitled for service by disease OF
wounds. In fine, such a general condition of I'M
exampled misery prev. that the entire popu-
lation receives with e4,ll Indifference news of
victories or defeats, and the whole people are
convinced that the war is lost.
There is no room for doubt that conditions III
the central powers are far worse than is realized
outside. There is a limit to human endurance,
and it is reached more quickly when hope is
lost. When a people begin to believe that
their cause is wrong and their defeat assured
and that continued resistance means only a use
less prolongation of their misery, they are near,
as history has often shown, to the point OF tax
ing matters into their own hands. When they
do this their action is violent in proportion as
their sufferings have been great.
Belief is said to be growing at Washington
that Secretary McAdoo will be chosen govern
ment administrator of railroads, though it is not
expected that he will retire from the cabinet.
But it does not appear that he has any special
qualifications for the place, and a better selec-
ton, and one said to be favored by railroad
men, would be that of Secretary Lane, who be-
came a student of transportation problems
while serving in the interstate com
mission. In any event, the operation of the
roads should remain in the hands of the rail
roads war board, an efficient body composed of
men who know their business. With the right
man acting as government administrator, it
might be even more efficient than it is today,
because there would be no conflict Of govern
ment orders.
The latest-and, it is to be hoped, the last
siege and capture of Jerusalem did not lack for
picturesque features. Nor is it likely that OBJ
servant chroniclers we're absent from the scene.
But it is improbable if any Of them will Guido
the Roman historian ~Josephus, whose story of
the siege of Jerusalem in the first century won
the imperial approval Of ~Vespasian. J%osephus,
though of Jewish birth, took Roman citizen
ship: and he wrote in Greek. Unlike some 9th
ers of his name of whom we wot, he did not
'elaborate' his accounts of warfare.
The threatened shortage Of buttons may
cause uneasiness in some quarters, but the re-
sourceful man will make shift with a Single
nail and smile in the face of fate.
"Do not pay an increased price, " say the re-
fners to the consumers. And that is the only
offset offered to the empty sugarbowl.
The Austro-Germans appear to have left on
the eastern front a force barely sufficient to ne
gotiate a fake armistice.
Crown Prince Rupprecht seems to feel about
his soldiers much as the recent car did about
his mujiks-
#Ht#.