The L'Anse sentinel. (L'Anse, L.S., Mich.) 18??-current, 1919-06-27
THRIFTY DUTCHMEN TURNED
INTO DESPERADOES BY WAR
Genuine Shock Has Come to Those Who Old Days Admired Indus
trious HoIander Whose Only Occupation Now Is in
Deeds Of Daring and Robbery-county Is
Now Paradise for Thieves.

The Hague.-To those who knew
the Hollander before the war as a
.quiet, well-behaved. thrifty and indus
trious soul. content 10 pursue the even
tenor OF his way and sticking religi-
5ously to orderliness and good behav-
1or. his transformation since the sign
fng Of the armistice last November
will come as genuine shock.
Crime. In the pre-war days, was nj
5ts minimum In Holland. Her stand
sing army of some $4,000 was com.
posed Of young men who served their
sFlllotted time In the military service
fof their country with the minimum OF
Sgrumbling, returning cheerfully to the
plow. or the dairy, or the fisheries. as
fsoon as their term of army service
Tyas over. -
Except for an ever watchful eye on
her frontier. Holland lived calm
rontented existence. turning out her
tyorld-famOus cheeses and her per
Thaps. more infamous gins, her citizens
.fsccure I'm the feeling that theirs was
n land where the law was observed.
where their chattels were safe even
.hhough their front doors remained un-
rpocked and where the infrequent Of
tfender against the penal code could
anot hope to get his full name In the
papers, much less his photograph with
n pretty border around 1t.
Today all this is changed. From a
11and OF safety Holland has been trans
Formed into a land of danger and the
fIollander-that Is, he who is repre-
Fsented In the ranks of the pillow boy.
the driver OF the horse or donkey
hilong the tow path, the churner of the
butter and the cream, the farm hand
SDr the miller's assistant-has been
transformed into a shiftless. lazy, dis
korderly ne'er-do-well, whose principal
occupation is burglary
] II 10 a New Crime.
Burglary In Holland was not usual
crime In the pre-war days. That fact
mess all the more striking. The great
truth that has dawned upon the coun-
try is that the 100000 Hollanders who
shave been doing military service as
tn0n-combatants since the beginning of
THE war have come to hate work and
TO hate having to provide for their
Down living. after enjoying food. cloth
Eng and shelter at government expense
flor nearly five years.
Y When Holland modified her young
,manhood middle-aged manhood and
tull-grOwn manhood during the first
1six months of the war, when there
4was momentary danger Of Germany
suddenly getting 1t into her dlsordered
tAbrain to invade and despoil the Meth
serlands as well as Belgium. the Dutch
government provided for the support
of the families of the soldiers whom
tshe modified as wei! as for the sup
port Of the soldiers themselves.
In her well-ordered house, Holland
,lcould not see 100000 families In want
! because 100000 male supporters were
taken for the defense of the father
Hand. She provided this support as
xpunctiliously and rs carefully rs she
tprovided for the thousands OF Belgian
-nnd French refugees, who have lived
ION the country's bounty from the day
tof the siege of Antwerp to the day
that Marshal Foch handed his foun-
tain pen to the German armlstice COM
bnlssioners and said: "Slgni"
With the rehabilitation that began
tluring the latter days Of last Novem-
Der the discharged soldiers found II
trksome to resume their duties as fam
lily providers instead Of letting Will