The Farmington times. (Farmington, St. Francois County, Mo.) 1905-1926, 1919-01-10
The Heart of the World

While the statisticians are busy
with figures, and the statesmen are
bent over the problems that confront
them on the eve of this big hour of
the worlds reconstruction, let US who
wait and who still must "carry oni
think of another thing.
Let us think of the great heart of
the world.
1t will make us think better of our
selves after we have looked deeply in
to the heart of the world, and we shall
also think better of our neighbors--
for the heart of the world is warm,
tender, generous and true.
Together with the history of the
battles that have been fought in the
war, Side by side with the chronicles
of the strategies of the generals, there
shall also be written the deeds of
mercy, of succor and of sacrifice that
were done.
Thus shall history really be what a
great writer says it is. History,
says he, sis the best support of hu-
man hope. The wisdom which comes
from it's perusal is at its best when
it enables one to form hopeful out
look for the world. No cynic ever
read history Alright. No pessimist
reads it with understanding
Therefore, to look into the great
heart of the world now while it is
still aglow with the fervor of it's
boundless generosity will not only
comfort US, but it will serve also to
thrill US with high hope for the future.
1t had come to be a common saying
that the world was cold and grasping,
that it was greedy and deaf to the cry
of need. We do not, however, believe
that this was ever quite true. But it
was a saying banded about so much
on the tongues of cynics and pessi-
mists that it came to be regarded as
true.
1t has been hard world at times
as far as it's head was concerned, but
the heart of the world has never been
hard.
Yet, it has never been so warm as
it is now. Maybe it is because there
was never so deep a call before upon
its sympathy and its charity. Ger
tainly there has never been before
such widespread and universal suf-
fering as we have lately witnessed.
eve learn to give by giving; we
learn to love by loving" said Aris-
totle. We have had much to do and
we have had endless calls on our love
during the past four years.
Side by side with the billions of
dollars that were expended in the war
by Governments for ordnance, ammu-
milton, equipment and supplies must
be set down the billions of dollars that
were expended from the free offerings
of the peoples to aid and succor the
wars victims.
Wide and deep was the impulse that
actuated the worlds great heart. 1t
did not stop at aid and succor for the
soldier, but it reached out until it in
cluded everyone anywhere who suf-
fered in any way, from either the
wars necessities or it's atrocities.
We who know so we'll the insistent
and tireless call that was made upon
our charity in America should know
as we'll that the same insistent and
tireless call was made upon the char
ity of the peoples of the whole world.
The response to that call was in the
nature of miracle.
Wherever there was a hungry
mouth there was a hand reached out
to feed it. Wherever there was a
naked body it was clothed. Wherever
there were wounds and sickness the
hand of mercy never failed to heal
and cure.
In innumerable instances men and
women alike have given the last dol
lar out of their treasure and their
hoardings. They have gladly denied
themselves life's very comforts in or
der that the needy might not go in
want. They have given of the service
of their hands to the common need as
fully as they would give it to their
own flesh and blood.
They spent their money for charity
as though their dollars "were leaves
upon the trees and they were the own
ers of unbounded forests" They gave
till it hurt. They turned their pockets
inside out.
Some day, long after the genera
tions to come have wearied reading
the story of the battles, they will
still linger with tender and tear
stained eye over the story of the fa-
therless children of France and Bel
GUM that the great heart of the world
enfolded in the flame of its love.
Long after the names of the gene
rails are dim memories, history will
still be unwearied of the tale that tells
of the fallen roof that was rebuilded
and of the old and stricken who were
comforted and made whole by the
generosity of strangers.
The painter who dreams now to
make his name immortal will do well
to make pictures not of blazing bat
tlefelds, but of nurses in hospitals,
and relief workers crouching against
the edges of earthly hells with drink
and food for the man who fought.
These are< the things that the man
who fought will himself longest re-
member-not the hate that was before
him where he struggled, but the mer-
cy and the love that were behind him.
1t is the thing without which he could
not have fought at all.
When this war was in full, deadly
swing, it was a common thing to hear
the cynics and the pessimists declare
that Christianity had proved fail
ure after 1900 years of trial.
"But, that's just the trouble" re-