The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-07-20
OUR BELGIAN VISITORS.

Inc presence OF the belSldH ullSSlOIl
in this city can scarcely fail to bring
to the minds of Topeka citizens why
these gentlemen are here.
Three years ago Belgium basked in
the prosperity of a peace guaranteed
by the leading powers of Europe. The
little country was hive of industry
end contentment. Its condition was
we'll described by the Los Angeles Ex-
press on the occasion of the commits
sion's visit TO the Southern California
city:
AT Liege the zinc output was mount
ing rapidly. The manganese of Namur
was yielding rich returns. The great
coal and iron deposits of the country
were under scientific exploitation.
Tourney, with its carpets and it's
porcelain; the cloth of Verveins, the
foundries and machine shops at Liege;
Antwerp with its cotton and wooden
mills, were reaping profits from all
the world.
Agriculture thrived. The harvests
promised abundance. Even the areas
cut on the moorland wastes of the
Campin, redeemed by the necessitous
poor or by convict labor, offered the
prospect of reward. In the high lands
of the Ardennes. where still the pri-
meval forests run, and where the stony
soil battles even Belgian agricultural
skill, droves of svnne wandered under
the great oaks or herds of hardy
horses ranged and grazed. In rich
South Brabant, in the two Flanders
nd in Hainaut. the far-stretching fer
tile fields were like carefully tended
gardens. There the spade was still the
farmers chosen tool. tho pillow and
harrow were not unknown. Small
tracts, intensively cultivated, with a
skill and painstaking labor to which
we are strangers in our land of plenty
and wide spaces, offered the certainty
or abundance. In all Belgium, two
thirds and more of all the land was
IN cultivation; practically nine-tenths
Of it in use of some profitable pro-
ductive sort.
Everywhere, m field and factory.
was heard the hum of contented in
dustry. The traffic of the land moved
busily on rail and river and in tie in
Vulnerable canals. On either hand
were states with which trade thrived.
Powerful Germany on the east bought
ard sold across the border in neigh.
horly fashion. France to the south
offered rich market. Good neigh
bors these, with whom it was pleas
ant to do business-neighbors who had
Joined in guarantees that safeguarded
forever the peaceful security of those
happy July days. The women sang
ut their looms; boys frolicked in their
hours of play. the men toiled content
edly at their FORCES, on their lathes
or in their smiling fields, and there
when the evening angelus rang out on
the still air, they crossed themselves
and blessed God for the even tenor in
which their lives ran peacefully.
Yet few weeks and came the Ger
man army, and with the scythe of
'frtghtfulness" gathered a monstrous
harvest. Cities were p1undered and
burned; the smiling countryside was
devastated. In blood and flame terror
-eaped upon the peaceful, unsuspect-
ing land and sword and torch disin-
herited whole people.
Three years have passed-three
years of such continuing tragedy as no
civilized race ever yet has endured.
and though Belgium has been DESTROY
ed, Belgians still survive encountered
and uncomfortable. Germany could
seize hold upon the state; it could
burn and slay: it could overwhelm by
sheer brute force, but in three years
1t has not subdued the Belgian soul.
Men of Belgian blood come to us
today accredited by the Belgian peo-
pie to our confidence. The little we
have thus far haltingly done in their
aid has won from them a gratitude
exceeding our small deserts. Let us
give them now the strong assurance
that if we have been something slack
in conduct while we looked on from
cur safe distance. we are now with
them heart and soul, resolved never to
lay down our arms until the world has
been delivered from the menace that
afflicts it.