Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1918-10-20
Views and Reviews
The Presidents Fourteen Peace
Terms---A Letter About the
"FM" Epidemic Abroad


with Germany has brought again into proml-
nence the enumeration of the fourteen essen
tia peace conditions promulgated by president
Wilson last January as epitomzlng our war
aims. These fourteen propositions nave been
reprinted in connection with the answer to the
German note, reiterating them in nearly every
newspaper in the land and re-read and re-
studied by everyone trying to keep posted on
the succession of events. The over -shadowing
importance of this document as the basis OF the
final peace whenever it may come, recalls to
me the fact that heard the president person.
ally expounding his declaration and wrote my
impression Of il at the time for this column as
follows:
"While in Warrington | walked in quite
accidentally upon the Joint session OF congress
to which the president was delivering his
address upon peace terms. To the public,
which in this instance included everybody
outside of the inner White House circle, this
announcement was wholly unexpected and
the impression has prevailed that Mr.. Wilson
prepared his statement and rushed to the
capitol to deliver it. But obviously it was not
done so fast as that, for as | came into the
press gallery after the president had been
speaking for not more than five minutes
printed copies were distributed, run off for
newspaper use, as customary on one side OF
the paper duly captioned and dated The
pIcSlucHl Icdu lHc SpceCn from typCWIlllSh
manuscript in quiet voice and rather mod
ulated tone, with practically no gestures at
all, and with only occasional emphasis on the
different points. Particularly when he out
lined his peace program i'll numbered para
graphs, firstly" to "fourteenthly" he recalled
very much lecturing to class of students at
college. as I have often heard him do, the
only difference being the occasional Interrupt
tons by applause, in which no well-ordered
hoI, & at.,Ia .,,I,, t.
seemed to me that Mr. Wilson'S hair was
whittier than when | had last seen him, but
otherwise no outward signs of aging or
worry. | hardly need add that among those
who heard the speech opinion varied widely
as to whether it was calculated to hasten
overtures for peace or widen the breach and
make it more necessary than ever to demon
strate first that our armies are invncible and
all-conquering."
The question suggested in my last sentence
as to whether the fourteen demands we're cal
culated at the time to hasten or retard the
achievement Of our purposes is probably still
open to debate and is likely hereafter to furnish
food for much controversial history--but this
history cannot be written until the heat of the
war conflagratlon cools off.
Apropos Of the "Fu" and the effects of the
war on living conditions here and abroad, a
letter just received from former Omaha girl
now married and living in Switzerland brings
some interesting information. Speaking of the
illness OF one of the children the letter says:
"He was one of the first victims of a
treacherous epidemic that has been raging
here all summer and which has spread rap
idly. 1t came originally from the front, first
spread to Spain and there received its name,
Spanish grip In Spain the victims merely
suffered several days with severe grip, but
here it has taken a more deadly form. The
sickness starts with grip and in most cases
- develops into pneumonia. There were hun
dreds of deaths, no, thousands, especially
among the soldiers. Recovery is very slow.
1t takes weeks and sometimes months. After
our boy was up again, we repacked our trunks
and went to the mountains. Now we are
back but | see he is not vet fully recovered"
As to food and food prices these side lights
will be illuminating:
You quote your prices as high. If you
only knew what we pay. you would call yours
low. Coal we pay 500 for one and half
tons; eggs at present in summer, ST, etc. Our
latest cards are cheese and milk and potatoes.
We are not big eaters but we have to look
closely that we do not run short and most
people grumble. The Swiss are accustomed
to eating big portions Of dairy products, but
now there is shortage Some time ago
Switzerland restricted the entrance of for
elgners into this country unless under special
permit. This principally to hinder people
coming here to get fed up for, as you know
our food supplies are limited. At present it
seems to he we are the chosen people, for we
have American wheat. You can't imagine what
it has meant to Switzerland and can't tell
you what a tremendous effect it has had The
first morning we had white bread-it was not
your white bread, but white in comparison to
the mud-coored and slate-colored bread we
had had-the whole family assembled and
gazed prolonged at that bread. We actually
called it cake. And now we feel so confident
that Uncle Sam will never desert us that we
face the future more cheerfully. This year
more grain was planted than before and I
believe the harvest has yielded sufficient -four
to assure Our bread consumption for seven
months"
To reference to difficulty experienced in
getting news from sister who is living in
Germany, this is added:
"Of course, she can say little of conditions
there, but it must be awful l am surprised
that the people can live"
l may say that the letter is from the younger
daughter of George Heimrod, one of our old
time pioneer citizens of Omaha who she re-
ports, is in good health living in Berne, where
he has remained after retiring from the Ameri-
can consular service.