Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1919-01-01
Richmond-The OLD Year and the New

Richmond-The Old Year and the New
INTO the year that dawns to-day Richmond
passes with Il confident heart and a brave
step. The old year it has put behind it with
mingled feelings Of JOY and SORROW Of pride
and regret. 1t was momentous year--a
year more closely crowded with great events
than any other since time began, IL year more
heavily fraught with fears and hopes than
ever again will be experienced by any person
now living 1t was year to try mems souls
and refine them in the fires OF national peril
|. and personal grief yet withal il was a won
derful year in which to live. Who would
nave missed it, had that been possible? And
to-day. with all its burdens of depression and
citation. fears OF disaster, and JOY in homes
more gloriouslX realized than a few weeks
ago was believed possible. it has passed into
that realm Of things that gone, but whose
deep impress on the national as we'll as the
individual character remains
Richmond greets the new year with high
aspirations and well-grounded homes of what
the new one will bring If the things Of the
year just begun be in any wise a guerdon
for the accomplishments of the one that has
passed, then Richmond has ample reason for
It's confidence. for no city in America has
come through the ordeal of 1918 with u more
meritorious record. Every obligation it has
met in the fullest. To the army and to the
navy IL gave freely Of its very hearts blood
to the national treasury it contributed more
than S2O,OOO,000 in subscriptions to Liberty
bonds, to every organization whose object was
TO relieve and succor the armed forces it
poured forth its means i'll an ever-increasinE
now, to every charity, whether OF war or at
nome, its great heart and its deep pocket
DOCK were generously open. II is record
achieved by few and bettered by none So
with that record to its credit, it welcomes
1919 with no msgivings
The next twelve months probably will be
months or numerous perpexitics and diff
cultles. Tho United States faces the problem
OIL peace, In some ways little less terrible
than war; the shadow OF that Red terror
which is sweeping Europe may threaten even
TINS hitherto protected land, and the vast re-
sponsblity that may come to the nation be-
lore another year shall have passed no one
can 1oreteli What Virginia's part, what
Richmond part. in the coming chapters Of
me mighty world drama may be no one can
know, but this all know, whatever they may
be. they will be met unfinchingIy, fearlessly
and with that supreme confidence born OF the
knowledge that right will conquer in the
future as it has in the past
Richmond looks forward to year OF vast
prosperity 1t will be- Of course, a time OF
reconstruction and readjustment Threads of
peace-time business must be gathered I'D and
strengthened, new commercial and industrial
webs must he woven. and the lessons Of the
war must be applied to tho now tasks with
understanding and vigor. All this cannot be
accomplished overnight and it will be some
tlmc before the great business machine is run
nlng as rapidly and as smoothly as it is des-
tined to run, but all that will come for 1918
with all its trials and demands and vicissi-
tudes, has left Richmond more prosperous
more progressive and with more secure
foundation than it found it,