The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1918-11-20
PEACE

/ A1 - AA
Through the glorious peace that
/ dawned upon stricken world today
4 is a piece Of victory-of victory al
most dizzyingly complete, Of victory
that establishes all we have fought
the opportunity that lies before us
still that fact, though of the first i'm
portance, is not first in the glowing
heart of the world today.
/ The great thing in the heart Of
the world today is that it is peace;
that the war is over; that the fight
ing has ceased! that the killing and
wounding and burning and destroy
! ing are ended; and that The boys who
are near and dear to us are no long
er il danger.
The fuliness of the victory is vast
er than we had dared dream of so
soon; but that great, burning fact,
so vital to the future of the world, SO
full Of meaning to this generation
and all the generations to come,
takes back seat today for the
worlds deep gladness that killing has
ceased.
i For these two great glories that
the war is Won and that the war is
Over-a mighty prayer and pean of
thanksgiving goes to God on high
today, swelling upward from the
thankful heart of a world that has
/ journeyed now for four years, three
months and nine days through the
Valley of the Shadow. Words are
4 nd croooh &c MT f,,&i1
the task of telling the worlds joy
today; of the leap from darkness to
light, from despair to- hope, from
misery to gladness, that the worlds
heart has taken in a night.
We stand in the glare of tremen-
dous events which, in our great joy,
should send us to our knees in a pray
er of thanksgiving, and make US hum
bly, thoughtful of the terrific forces
arrogant man hampers with to his
undoing and destruction.
| The world hurries at mad but
certain pace to it's mystic destiny.
The war over, the | triumphant
hosts of civilization pause at the
brink of seething crater that the
proud German empire, personal pos
session Of the last contender on this
earth for the divine right of kings.
| The curtain lifted at last shows Ger
many rocking in a volcano of rev.
| olutioa with the proud kaiser hur-
riedly taking his precious carcass to
neutral Holland, hoping to save his
skin though his crown is lost. 1t
shows the kaiser crownless and
| o,,J b;c low bro1roJ boi,.
apparent heir now to nothing but the
worlds contempt. 1t shows the kings
of Germany, great and small, hur-
riedly doffing their crowns to the
might of an awakened people. It
shows the last collapse of the wreck
of empires that has spread westward
across the continent of Europe from
Russia to Greece, from Greece to
Bulgaria from Bulgaria to Austria
from Austria to Germany. 1t shows
the last stronghold of autocracy sack
ed by the people, its occupants
fugitive from a deluded peoples
mighty wrath.
Foch did it-Foch and Pershing
and Haig and Petain and Diaz and
their mea-in the most tremendous
campaign of all history, beginning
with the historic eighteenth of July
and ending in the final rout of the
gray German hosts as the news of
revolution at home penetrated to
their ranks.
But in this great juncture of the
war the pen is at least as mighty
as the sword-ideals and ideas at
least as mighty as force; for the sud-
den collapse of the world war shows
that President Wilson's appeal to
the German people against their au-
tocratic militarisuic government at
the last struck home and brought
down its prey.
/ The war is over!
Peace has come!
Thanks be to God on this greatest
day in the worlds history!
And now, our first delirious burst
of joy over, we must settle down to
the hard task of reconstruction, of
rebuilding an autocratless world, of
fashioni1g new world made for the
common man, and of organizing it
against war and the causes of war.
Though the war is over, our war
work has just begun. Our boys are
through fighting but we cannot ex-
pect them home for long months; and
in the meantime, for their sake and
humanity's sake, we must "carry on"
with new devotion a new consecra-
ton, new determination to sacrifice
and serve to the end that the fruits
OF our great victory shall net be TAX
en- from us in the hour of our tri-
umph.
Duluth Herald.