The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1919-01-02
SUCCESS CROWNS
NATIONS EFFORTS
HAVE WROUGHT GOOD FOR
PEACE LOVERS
PEACE BRINGS WITH It NEW PROBLEMS
A Pertinent And Careful Review OF
The Years Result BY An Author
ity OF High Repute
Especial 10 The Register)

Especial to The Register)
War certainly held the center of
the stage in 1918, and the promise Of
the American executive that 'force
without limit" would be exerted by
this country in the great battle for
freedom was brilliantly fulfilled. So
immersed were the American people
in the conflict that war may be said to
have become their chief, indeed al
most their only, business. Every en-.
ergy was bent to the purpose either
of f%ashioning the weapons of warfare
or of providing men to use them, Of
supplying the needs of the fighting
forces and of the vastly larger number
of those who merely aided these forces
the while that supplies Of food for our
own men and our Allies abroad were
forthcoming without stint, except
where American men, women and
children, on the mere request Of
government, forebore to eat their nor
NAL foods in order that our army and
our Allies armies and civilian popu-
lations should have enough. Thus it
was that ordinary civilian trade took,
as it were, a back seat, that many
non-warlike occupations were curtailed
or entirely suspended, and that every
one could feel hat whether on the
battlefield, in the Office, in the factory
or on the farm, all were engaged in
a common cause and for a commo
end. Then just as the mighty machine
that had been built up for pur-
poses began to function powerfully
and VIGOROUSLY, the enemy's collapse
came, and the remainder of the year
was given over to the process of de-
modifying, the industrie single-mind.
eddy devoted to war were directed to
peaceful lines, and the processes Of
embarrassing trade and of unfixing
prices went forward with as much IL
not greater speed than had the work
of diverting peaceful energies to war;
like purposes. These readjustnents,
which at the time of writing are still
in process, with the unsettlement in
separable therefrom, and the uncer-
tainty prevailing Is to future price
levels, 10 that the great urge Of gov
eminent buying was removed, gave a
quieter tone to wholesale trade and in
dustry in the closing months, while
the influenza epidemic early and nat
ural conservatism bred by displace-
ment of many thousands of workers
later, operated to hold down retail
trade, which was only partly recouped
by an excellent holiday demand in the
closing weeks of the year.
The statement was frequently made
In 1917 that, great as had been our
work of organization for war, there
was very little in the way of surface
indications to show it, and that one
| might almost imagine that no war was
being waged. This was emphatically
not the case In 1918. Wal in many
of it's grim phases was brought home
to us by the sending OF two million
men abroad ard the gathering of an
other two million in American camps,
by the voting by congress Of an army
without limit, by the stripping Of our
industries of its best men, by the ex-
tension of the draft ages to include
all males from eighteen to f~orty-five,
by the operations Of the German sub
marine murderers on our coast, by the
growing lists of casualties, and by the
mounting up of war costs to almost
unbelievable heights. In 1918, too, all
the early decisions as to the causes
and nature of the war were d~issipated,
and it's true character as a life and
death struggle OF decency and civili-
zation against all that was abhorrent
and decadent became manifest. That
the sending owe Of our armies to
France was not merely a question OF
numbers carried but also OF quality OF
fighting material sent. was proved by
the splendid work of u soldiers, who,
our friends the Allies admit, arrived
Just In time to turn the scale of the
conflict and to block the way Of the
Germans to the channel ports and to
Paris, and later, in conjunction with
our Allies, under the supreme COM
mand of the brilliant French Marshal
Foch, broke the German lines, az
PEELED the invader from northern
France and from Belgium, and finally,
by the terms of the armistice asked
for by the beaten fee. established the
Allied line far within the enemies bor-
der, constituting q new watch on the
Rhine" pending a final peace settle
ment. It will probably be the verdict
of history that our full strength had
not yet been put forth when the col
lapse of the roasted efficient Teutonic
combination was registered In the
German surrender and revolt and the
final abdication Of power sy tbs self
styled War Lord and his confederates.
Thus this latest and greatest crusade
|, was won, peace returned to the earth.
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