Perth Amboy evening news., 1919-06-25

The Hague.@To those who knew
the HsIlander before the war as a
quiet, w~ell-behaved. thrifty and indus
trious soul, content to pursue the even
tenor of, his way and sticking religi-
ously to orderliness and good behav-
Tor, his transformation since the sign
ing of the armistice last November
will come as a genuine shock.
Crime, in the pre-war days, was at
its minimum in Holland. Her stand
ing army of some $1,000 was COM
posed of young men VINO served their
allotted time in the military service
of their country with the minimum OF
grumbling, returning rcheerfnlly TO the
pillow, or the dairy, or the fisheries as
soon as their term of army service
was over. =
Except for an ever watchful eye on
her frontier, Holland lived a calm,
contented existence, turning out her
w~orldSfamols -cheeses and her per-
haps, more infamous gins, her citizens
secure in the feeling That theirs was
a land where the law was observed,
where their chattels were safe even
though their front doors remained I'M
locked and where the infrequent Of
fender against the penal code could
not hope to get his full name in the
papers, much less his photograph with
a pretty border around ii.
Today all this is changed. From a
lard of safety Holland has been trans
formed into a land of danger and the
Hollander-that Is. he who is repre-
sented In the ranks of the pillow boy,
the driver of the horse or donkey
along the tow path, the churner Of the
butter and the cream, the farm hand
or the miller's assistant-has been
transformed into a shiftless, lazy, dis
orderly ne'er-do-wen. whose principal
occupation is burglary!
II Is a New Crime.
Burglary In Holland vas not a usual
crime in the pre-war days. That fact
makes the present wave of lawless-
ness all the more striking. The great
truth that has dawned upon the III
try is that the 100000 Hollanders who
have been doing military service as
non-conbatants since the beginning of
the war have come to hate work and
to hate having to provide for their
own living, after enjoying food, cloth
ing and shelter at government expense
for nearly five years.
When Holland modified her young
manhood, middle-aged manhood and
ful1-grown manhood during the first
six months of the war, when there
was momentary danger of Germany
suddenly getting it into her disordered
brain to Invade and despoil the Meth
erlands as well as Belgium, the Dutch
government provided for the support
Of the families of the soldiers whom
she modified as wen as for the sup
port of the soldiers themselves.
In her welEordered house; Holland
could not see 100000 families in want
because 100000 male supporters were
for the defense Of the father
She provided this support as
.unetiliously and as carefully as she
provided for the thousands of Belgian
and French refugees, R4SS have lived
on the country's bounty from the day
the siege of Antwerp to the day
that Marshal Foch handed his foun-
tain pen to the German nrmistice COM
and said r"Signf"
With the rehabilitation that began
the latter days of last Novem-
Der the discharged soldiers found it
irksome to resume their duties rs FAM
lily providers instead of Letting VIII
helmina do it." The pillow did not ap-
peal nearly SO much as the light field
along the frontier. The
long hikes along the towpaths were
not nearly SO attractive as the short
stretches between sentry posts on the
between Hollands eastern
provinces and the W~estphalian or
Prussian country. 1t was found a
hard matter to get the Hollander back
into q civilian job, not because the job
was not there but because the erst-
while thrifty Dutchman nc longer
cared for the job.
Food Shortage a Cause.
For many months now life for the
law-abiding Dutckman and his family
has been anything but a paradise and
the shortage of food has been but a
small matter in the grand total of this
general unhappiness-
The principal thing that has been
worrying Holland has been the bur
glar. who has since before the Christ
mas holidays become a sort Of nation
al institution, like the cheese and the
gin. Acts Of violence are Of daily, in
fact, of hourly. occurrence in the
country districts as well as In the
cities. Not alone must doors be Sc
curely locked and bolted at night, but
If during the daytime the household