French Broad hustler. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1916-1919, 1918-07-11

in six weeks or six months. To bleed
each other white, when both combat
ants are pretty well matched, and
when there are millions of men in re-
serve, is an affair of years. But
when all the business is suspended,
and the reapers have been SUNNI
moned from the farm to the battle
field, it will be impossible to carry
on this wal on this scale: for years
without utter collapse and CHASTITY
famine. Hence the embattled mil
lions will fight with the grim and des-
iperate energy OF men who know
that, like Judas, what they do they
must do quickly. They will strike
terror. All the tourney rules of civil
lfzed wal will be in danger Of going
by the board. It will be a contest OF
Titans waged with the r~uthlessness
of friends. The next war will be in
danger Of degenerating into the
nineteenth centuryyyersion Of the
horrors Of the thirty years war on q
tscale far ore gigantic, and there"
fore characterized by crimes far
more colossal"
And this was written and publish
ed three decades ago. How nearly
correct the writer was we may now
Judge by a perusal of the paragraphs
quoted and the happenings OF cOn
itinental Europe today. A timely
warning, but not taken seriously.
Even our greatest public men weFe
completely deceived by German in
trigue. Germany and America were
supposed to, be on exceptionally
friendly terms. A statute Of Fred
erick the Great was presented to the
United States and accepted by Presi.
dent Roosevelt in q speech which was
pronounced the highest eulogy Of the
HohenzOllerns as the guardians OF
peace that language could possibly
express. So many years had passed
since the Bismark u~tterance and
Germany had advanced so wonder
fully. in the arts Of peace, doubtless
a part Of the Bismark theory, that
the world was lulled into q feeling
Of security and became blinded to
the powder mine over which it slum1
bered. For years and years the talk
in America has been Of German
music, and German art, and German
manufactures, and Germamn admin
istration Of cities, and attending
German schools, and touring Ger
many and seeking German titles.
Therefore, it has not been a difficult
task at all to convince. the average
American that an article made IN
Germany was absolutely all right.
But nobody appeared to notice the
enormous military machine Germany
was straining every nerve to main
tain. Even England, her next door
neighbor, vas busy making money
and apparently shut her eyes to the
k~aiser's claim to divine right.
OF course it is useless to COM
plain nov when the civilized world
is in a death grapple with the arch
enemy of human ideals. But the
present experience is valuable to the
extent Of putting peoples and nations
on notice when a country begins to
prepare for war. Had the European
nations realized thirty years ago the
daRReE that threatened them through
the contamination Of the plans out
lined by Bismark there would have
been very different story to relate
today.
Hereafter, there is not likely to be
any Indifferent neighbors like: those
with whom Prince Bismark discussed
his plans Of conquest thirty years
ago. The world is not apt to fall
asleep again at the same switch and
leave a dragons claw at the throat
of civilization. Really nobody ia to
blame for this frightful war except
Germany, but if the nations Of the
earth had fortified themselves
against such entertainments of brutal
power long ago, the fearful, catas-
trophe might have been averted. The
human race learns in the hard school
Of experience, but it generally learns
well. It is a duel to the death that
!! we are in and the nations involved
are, indeed, being "bled white as
veal" But victory will eventually
come to America and her noble Al
lies and the world may then remain a
fit place in which to live. Germany
PLANNED we'll, but she failed to in
clude America in her calculations
and it is America that will prevent
the perfection of her plans for world