New Britain herald., 1919-01-01

@@E GXCGDT t WIiNTk V <A2liS9& lSlsai #n, women and children OH the Gre request of our government, for 5re to eat their normal foods in ader that our army and our Allies anies and civilian populations Nould have enough. Thus it was Hat ordinary civilian trade took, as were, a back seat, that many non- Arlike occupations were curtailed or AtireIy suspended, and that every Bel could feel that whether on the @ttlef1eld, in the office, in the fac @v or on the farm, all were engaged @ a common cause and for a com
 8n end. Then just as the mighty @chine tha had been built up for & purposes began to function pow
 Bully and vtctoriously, the enemy S s apse came. and the remainder of
 year was given over to the pro- 1as Of demo Utilizing, the industries sSs sle-m -mindedly devoted to war were HNe Nected back to peaceful lines, and
 processes of unharness1ng trade 5 of unfixing prices went forward
 5n as much if not greater speed lA8n had the work of diverting peace
 energies to Warlike purposes.
 kse readjustments, which at the
 Ne of writing are still in process
 aAh the uncertainty prevailing as to
 Ire price levels, now that the BB |at urge of government buying was M owed, gave a, quieter tone to Hb bIesa.Ie trade and industry in the aSkine months, while the influenza l7emic early and natural conserva-
 bred by displacement of many IaH @ usands of workers later, operated
 noId down retail trade, which was |8v partly recouped by an excellent N day demand in the closing weeks @ he year.
 8 he statement was frequently made #H19 917 that, great as had been our 3 k of organization for war, there |z very little in the way of surface 3 cations to show it, and that one aht almost imagine that no war
 being waged. This was elnphat- S#ly not sthe case in 1918. War in H nv of it's grim phases was brought
 ne to us by the sending of two
 8lion men abroad and the gather M of another two million in Ameri- | camps, by the voting by Congress Ian army without limit, by the @ pping of our industries of it's best
 n, by the extension of the draft
 ss to include all males from eigh-
 i to forty five. by the operation of NJ German submarine murderers on
 coast. by the growing lists of x Mualtics, and by the mounting up of 8 costs to almost unbelievable sAehts In 1918. too. all the early fD ,E @ @the war were dissipated. and it's Ne character as a life and death x 1ggle of decency and civilization @ inst all that was abhOrrent and @sadent became manifest. That the I@ ding over of our armies to France Hss not merely 0 question of num-
 s carried but also of quality of Biting material sent, was proved by M splendid work of our soldiers, No, our friends the Allies admit, Rived just in time to turn the scale N the conflict and to block the way N the Germans to the channel ports @l to Paris, and later, in Conjunc- #1 with our Allies. under the su-
 eme command of the brilliant ench Marshal Foch. broke the Ger 6n lines, expelled the invader from @-thern Franco and from Belgium, &i finally, by the terms of the armi- Aee asked for by the beaten foe, es- 8lished the Allied line far within 8 enemies border. constituting a Nv Watch on the Rhine" pending #lna1 peace settlement. It will prob #y be the verdict of history that our Sl strength had not yet been put # Cf I1a I,N ct efficient TeutOnic combination was 8sistered in the German surrender Ad revolt and the final abdication of Ever by the self-styled War Lord Nj his confederates. Thus this lat and greatest crusade was won, Sace returned to the earth, and the Aparations for the conference at #rsail1es gave peculiar emphasis to A Christmas season and were S,ugfat with favorable auguries for N ushering into the world of My Happy New Year.
 Over Four Years of War Ended.
 With the great war apparently end- a glance over the big events of the str years and nearly four months R1itional that it lasted may not be h of the way First of all. it needs be said that no human being OK eted it to last the length of time it !, nor that the financial costs there (probably $780, 0,00O,000 to bO,000, 0,000,000) could have been so tcessfuly borne by the world. As the cost in life, no definite meas e can be had as yet, but probably tween 9.000,00O and 10,OO0,00O |hting men laid down their 1ives bile massacre, disease and starva- In may have taken as many more Filians. Of our own part in it, it can
 said that while our financial costs I've been great, perhaps 22,000,- D, ,00O to date, our own loss of life, -ectly due to the hostilities or to Bease and attendant evils, possibly c, ,000 men, while regrettably large
 our eyes. was slight compared with