Carroll County democrat. (Huntingdon, Tenn.) 188?-1971, 1919-06-20
THRIFTY DUTCHMEN TURNED
INTO DESPERADOES BY WAR
Genuine Shock Has Come to Those Who in Old Days Admired Indus
triOus Holander Whose Only Occupation Now Is in
Deeds Of Daring and RObbeY-County Is
Now Paradise for Thieves


the Hollander before the war as a
quiet, well-behaved, thrifty and indus
trious soul, content to pursue the egen
tenor of his way and sticking rellgi-
ously to orderliness and good behay-
Tor, his transformation since the sign
ing of the armistice last November
win come as a genuine shock.
Crime, in the pre-war days, was at
it's minimum in Holland Her stand
ing army of some $4,000 was com
posed Of young men who served their
allotted time In the military service
of their country with the minimum Of
grumbling, returning cheerfully 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 calm,
c0ntented existence, turning out her
world-famous cheeses and her per-
haps. more infamous gins her citizens
secure in the feeling that theirs was
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 1t.
Today all this is changed. From
land of safety Holland has been trans
formed into land of danger and the
Northumberland 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 asslstant--has been
transformed into a shiftless, lazy, dis
orderly neer-do-well whose principal
occupation is burglary!
II Is New Crime.
Burglary in Holland was not 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 coun-
try is that the 100000 Hollanders. who
have been doing military service as
non-combatants 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
full-grown manhood during the first
six months of the war, when there
was momentary danger of Germany
suddenly getting 1t into her dlsordered
brain to invade and despoll the Meth
erlands as well as Belgium, the Dutch
government provided for the support
of the families of the soldiers whom
she modified as well as for the sup
port Of the soldiers themselves.
In her Weil-0rdered house, Holland
could not see 100000 families in want
because 100000 male supporters were
taken for the defense of the father
land. She provided this support as
and as carefully as she
provided for the thousands Of Belgian
and French refugees, who have lived
on the country's bounty from the day
Of the siege of Antwerp to the day
that Marshal Foch handed his foun-
tain pen to the German armistice COM
missioners and said: "Signl"
With the rehabilitation that began
during the latter days of last Novem-
Der the discharged soldiers found 1t
lrksome to resume their duties as fam
lily providers instead of 'letting VIII