The Brandon news. (Brandon, Miss.) 1892-1961, 1918-01-24
SENATOR JAMES K.
vARDAMAN'S NEW
YEARS GREETING
TO The PEOPLE OF MISSISSIPPI

-@
The shadows OF worlds disaster
encompasseth us about as a binding
fog. They not only obscure the men
tai vision, but the moral perspective
is distorted as well. Hope is stifled
and we stand and gaze and wonder
what will happen next. Everything
seems abnormal, out of joint, and the
pernicfous predominates.
A large part of the civilized world
have just celebrated the birth Of One
whose mission to earth was to bring
peace to mankind-drive from out the
heart the clouds of unhappiness
sweep away the chilling apprehen
sions of pessimism, and in their stead
fill 1t with hope, great light of joy
and that peace which passeth all un
derstanding. He taught the nations
of the earth the foolishness and fu
tility of war-the wisdom of beating
their swords into plowshares and
their spears into pruning hooks, that
nations should not lift up sword
against nation, or learn the lessons
of war any more. Two thousand years
of planting and cultivating those di
vine precepts seems to have affected
the modern mind as seed sOwn In the
sterile sands Of Sahara, Instead OF
peace, we have plumber; and brutal
ity and hate have taken the place OF
love and beneficent altruism. The
worlds lip service to the Christ is
full actualities. But they tell us that
it is all for the best. God grant that
they may be true. hope that from
the rank weeds Of hate that grow in
the bood-sea<ed soil of war the flow.
ers of love may blossom. hope that
out of the twilight of the Swallowed
past we n ny move into diviner light.
But | do not know cannot tell
l can only wait and hope.
We are told that there are planets
SO remote from this earth that the
light has not reached it, although it
has been travelling since the dawn of
creation The fact that this world
disaster is for the good of humanity,
like the light of that distant planet,
may reach our understanding in years
to come. 1t is prudent and provi-
dent always to hope for the best.
Optimism is a good investment-that
out of all this murder and plumber
extravaganza, graft, personal ambi
ton, vanity for power, greed for gain,
blighted lives and blasted hopes, may
come at last the truth that it swas all
for mans betterment.
The whole world is afire with the
passion of war and America has been
swept into the vortex. Blood lust
seems to have temporarily dethroned
the reason of man and greed for gain
has poisoned the hearts Of our people.
The love of money is the root of many
evils which are perplexing the minds
of statesmen today. And l am afraid
it accounts for much of the sand
which clogs in the grooves of COM
merce. / believe there are men In
America today--patriots for pelf--
who would wrap their WelI-fed car
casses in the American flag, and, with
the words of patriotism upon their
lying lips, scutte the Ship of State or
Insult the Goddess Of Liberty for Pc
cuniary personal advantage.
Collective murder has become the
order of the hour, and he who sue
ceeds in destroying the largest num-
Der of human beings is the interna-
tional hero of the moment. The ge-
MUS of mankind is being tested to de-
wise the most destructive weapons,
and deathless renown is promised to
him who invents the instrument that
sends the most men into eternity.
Rivers of women's tears run red with
the blood of murdered husbands,
sons, fathers and brothers; the cries
of grief, the means of the broken
hearted fill the circumambient air
and drown the very music OF the
spheres, white the accumulated hor-
rors, of war press down upon us like
troubled visions DER the breast OF
dreaming sorrows" It is a time for
retrospection and prayer, and to put
ones self in tune with the Infinite
and to live the spirit of the Golden
Rule is vitality necessary at this mo-
ment. For two thousand years the
world has never aeeded Savior
quite so desperately and deplorably
as now. Never was there so great a
demand for brave men, true men, pa
triotic men, men with a vision as
we'll as a will-never so much did we
need the great woman with her d.
vine intuition which in the darkness
points unerringly the proper way
when reason fails to furnish the light,
as now.
"When wilt Thou save the People?
oh. God of Mercy, Whenf
Not kings and lords, but nations;
Not thrones and crOwns-but men;
Flowers of Thy heart, 0 God! are
they.
Let them not pass like weeds away!
Their heritage a sunless day.
God save the people!"
The old landmarks are torn down
and thrown into the waste heap. A
new order of things is at hand. New
doctrines in government are being
taught. The constitution OF the
United States has been well-nigh sus-
pended-the world has discarded the
Sermon on the Mount-the Golden
Rule has seemingly been forgotten,
and the Decalogue has become but 2
chain of higE-sounding phrases.
I have thought all these matters
over in the anxious moments of the
have gone to the Source
of all wisdom for light and guidance
Il have endeavored to hope for the
best. while the cruel. stern facts
looked me squarely in the face with
q leer of pessimism in the slanting
eye. But in the midst Of it all-in the
very vortex of this disaster, confu-
sion and doubt, sorrow and suffering.
and hypocrisy, greed for
gain, lust for power, have reached
IL. .rraI,,rinn. The. only home for