The Elk Mountain pilot., 1920-02-12
Shall Chaos or Reconstruction
in Europe Follow the Great
World War?
NEW, GREAT FORCES AT WORK
Demand for New Order Of Things 10
Universal and Reaetionaries Merely
Swell the Rising Tide Of
Discomfort.
Article w.
By FRANK coMERFoRo.

By FRANK coMERFoRD.
The most obvious thing In Europe is
the changed attitude of the people,
and yet there are many. particularly
who refuse to see. There are none so
blind as these. While they close their
eyes and minds to the obvious. the
change goes on. 1t is not idle rhetor-
ic to say that new great forces are at
work. OF course you cannot sec the
forces any more than you can see the
grass growing. but you can see the
effects, You can measure the charac-
ter Of the forces.
Everywhere found people talking
about a new Order. Men separated
by hundreds of miles are thinking and
talking the same ideas. It startled
me to hear the same ideas up in the
Balkans that had heard in France
and England. did not meet any one
who was able to give me q clear, COM
plete meaning Of the phrase. but 1t Is
ON the lips Of everyone. 1t has q
meaning, and time will produce plan.
The people are forward looking-they
are thinking. waiting for something to
happen. They have faith that It will
happen and that 1t will bring great
good to the human race. Every one
seems confident that some great com
pensation must and will come out OF
the siege Of suffering through which
they have passed. II they were not
so earnest. SO sane. SO determined
about It should have interpreted
their enthusiasm as fantasy.
A meaningless minority OF reaction.
aries scorn and scoff at all talk Of
new Order. These nre the backward.
looking men Of big business, the stand
patters in politics. They are out OF
touch with the times; they think the
real world is the little circle in which
big business. They smugly set down
all talk Of change as bolshevism
Fortunately the real leaders Of bust
ness are breaking away from this
point Of view. Progressive. human and
open minded, they see and know that
unrest is a problem and that It must
be solved. They are paying heed tc
the complaints Of the workers. They
admit that there Is Justice back Of the
complaints. Instead Of arguing coer
cion, they are talking concession. They
know q change has come. they want
to meet It.
New Order Must Come.
A new Order will come. The ont
question that Is bothering the minds
of men who are awake to the change
is, will 1t come through revolution OF
through evolution. The greatest FRIEND
of revolution Is the stubborn employ
er who refuses to see the change. &C
cepts things as they are. and insists
upon the use Of force as the only cure
for unrest.
Money Is a gross thing when com
pared with human life. To mentor
Europe's financial losses in the same
breath with her dead and wounded
seems sordid. but 1t is an everydn,
world and in 1t money has its logical
place. Since the war some people are
thinking that money has had too i'm
portant q place In the world. 1t has
been charged with pushing man out OF
his place, but bills must be paid and
billions and billions of dollars. NIL
lions of men had to be clad and shod
billions and billions OF cartridges and
shells. rifles, cannons, airplanes. ships
were made. Europe owes the money
How will she pay 1t: where will she
get II? It Is a question that even the
wisest and most optimistic of men II
Europe hesitate to answer. Somt
wonder, Is there an answer?
Europe has borrowed until her In
terest charge today is almost as large
d her whole cost of governmental ad
ministration was a few years ago.
heard Lloyd George say that England
faced a yearly interest charge Of three
hundred million pounds. Another off
cial told me that this interest charge
that England must pay each year IL
nearly one hundred million pounds
year larger than the cost of admins
tration was at the time of the Boer
war. Only the other dny her interest
was due on some loans from the United
States and she was forced to default
and our government charged the In
terest to the principal and passed thu
day OF payment on. In the meantime
the pound IL going down In value
When l was on the Continent It had
reached $4.14 To-day It is under 1881. |
and steadily going down.
France II in even q worse plight
The banks are loaded with government
paper. She has made no provision