Evening star., 1919-11-09
FIGHTING ENDED YEAR
AGO, BUT NOT HORRORS
Continued from Third Page)

ment itself may provide the occasions
carried with it no automatic adjust
ment of the rivalry of the Slav ana
the Latin on the east shore or me
Aoriatic; it did not anect IN tne
smallest degree the civil strl1e or po-
litical and economic suicide OF rus
sia. There are still millions OF men
and women in Europe who would
rather engage in new war tnah ~
cept that alien national whlcn tne t
Paris conference es'aonsheo
them. ,;.;s,
Nor is it less true that the BRUSH
and French who died in loyal ana
generous rivalry in stopping the Ger
man attack in Picardy twenty mohths ms
ago are today quarreling over tne
frontiers of Syria, while the saiie
Italians who cheered Mr.. wilson IN
Rome as a savior of the world not
wear ago are today denouncing MN
with a frenzy at least as mad Inc
European police. who had to rescue
Americans from embraces when
threatened trangulation on Armls'ics
day. at least in certain corners VI
Europe. are equally busy guarolns
Americans from assassination De
feating the Germans has not in men
or nations visibly modified human
nature, abolished jealousles, ansers,
dislike. Even worse, all the Spienuoi
of national unity and mutual sacrlnce
for common cause has not MADE
Frenchmen permanently lay asloe 40
mestic feuds or Americans forget ola
political animosities.
Brings Better Appreciation.
Wherefore it is plain that the com
ing of the first anniversary OF the
armistice will be a signal for much
bitterness and not a little recrlmlna-
ton. But by contrast it seems TO me
that each succeeding anniversary ma!
well prove to bring, with broader
perspective, a better appreciation OF
the actual achievement of the war
Much that the cotemporary Worio
momentarily expected Will be ols
missed as a natural consequence OF
the strain of the years. then recent;
will demonstrate more clearly now
great was the danger from which we
all escaped when at last German!
surrendered on November IL. 1919
to be found not in reading the terms
of the treaty of Versailles but those
of the treaties of Bresh. Litovsk ana
acknowledgements which were 10
have served as the models for that
subsequent peace of Paris to be writ
ten by the good German sword. The
world today tends to forget what the
German was going to do and to con-
fine it's attention to what the con-
Querors of Germany have not done.
remember riding last spring in
the Woevre plain, where village after
village had been destroyed, and pick
ing up along the way an old French
peasant woman going back to ex-
from which she had fed four years
before. when the German hordes first
entered France. She did not know
whether there was single stone
left or not, and she had every rea-
son to believe that all had been swept
away. judging by what she saw all
about her
In due time we came to her ham,
let: we rounded the corner and saw
the walls of her home. They stood;
they seemed intact. She leaped from
the car and rushed through the open
door. while we followed at distance.
1t was a solid stone house; the en-
trance seemed sound. the front rooms
from downright fear we changed rap
fdIy to a sense of exultation UNDER
stood by any one who has seen Ger
man destruction.
Had Dug Underground.
But in her final survey. in stone
shed adjoining the house. the woman
found that the boche had driven
deep dusout straight down through
the floor. There was the hole. a
mass of broken cement and seeing II
in single SECOND every sense OF OF
and the Frenchwoman denounced the
Invaders with a fury beyond my fee
BILE French to follow or comprehend
Her house was safe: 1t stood AMIDST
tho ruins of a wrecked town, but the
cowshed was mutilated, not irrepara-
bly,. but visibly. and her rage was
way beyond description. Afterward
in Paris, in the universal execratlon
of the peace conference was more
than once reminded of the woman OF
Etain.
II is easy now to forget the mo-
ments the world lived through before
the Marne, in the first days OF the
Verdun attack. in the terrible week
when I.udendorff drove forward from
ST. Quentin to Mondidier, but. along
with any disappointments which may
come now in perceiving the limita-
thara must he some thought for the