Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-02-05
World Is Neurasthenic
Vars Hopes Unrealised
Devil Best Press Agent
Fight for Forgetfulness
Trial Of Var Guilty
The Truth About Russia


Of them, busy, and the newspaper gives US
little but column after column OF their MS
deeds. If one wishes to escape from tne
general taint of crime, one has to turn 10
the racing news or the article by the poultry
expert. The rest is all murder and disaster.
The London Nation prints page after page OF
letters from the soldiers who fought the
Great War, mostly young men in the uni"
vcrsities, telling of their profound dlsappoint-
ment with its results. Mr.. John GalSworthy
writes in the Atlantic that unless there is
a change in the worlds ideals civilization
will continue to advance only in the public
press and the mouths of statesmen in all
countries, deeply, if unconsciously, committed
to the devil Nay, it must steadily lead us to
another world catastrophe many times worse
than that we have Just encountered" When
the Germans were thrown back at the Marne
in 1914, Lord Kitchener said to Lord Rob
erts, "Some one has been praying" Now
that great victory has been won, Europe
victorious Europe-is far from that fervcnt
mood. 1t is 'dceply, if unconsciously, COM
mitted to the devil
ENUROPH fighting was filled with great
Ia hopes. Europe victorious is plunged into
the depths Of pessimism. War, though de-
structive, is like a stupendous creative effort
1t raises idealism to the highest pitch. It
wakens faith. 1t stimulates visions. Out of
such vast exertions must come a milenpal
transformation in the state of man on this
earth, call it the League of Nations or what
you will. And it is like a stupendous crea
tive effort in the exhaustion that follows in
the ebb of moral forccs-the despondency, the
inevitable feeling that it was all not worth
while. Men whose physical courage was
/ fo, Ex,o nf hos L.
trenches have not the moral courage to face
tomorrow They shudder at the task of en-
countering the new ideas the cataclasm has
let loose. They shrink from the burden of
restoring the waste that years Of destruction
have brought.
rINHERB is craving for excitement that
i will take the place of the wild excitements
of the last five years, feed the exhausted emo
tions and enable forgetfulness. MarcelIe
Tynaire notes this mood in the woman of
Paris, who knows the world only too well
aud perhaps reflects its mood better than her
sister anywhere else. 'FranticalIy they exert
| themselves she says, physically and NOR
ally. Never before have they SO madly
danced in golden and costly robes. Halt in
| her mad whirl the golden dressed dancer,
| who swings in magic circles as il to esca De
from nefSelE. LOOK IN ner eyes, listen to her
laughter and you will find among her vain
| thoughts a strange fear, sentiment of unrest
and an almost crazy desire to forget yester :
| day, tomorrow and herself"
| q q q
! ITO HELP Europe forget yesterday, to-
l. morrow and herself her rulers are going
TO furnish her the excitemcnts of n trial of
the war guilty Germans. The list comes
out. 1t is going to be first class spectacle,
| IL the powers cannot get the kaiser to punish
| him, they will at least have Hndenburg,
Ludendorff, Bethmann -Holweg, Falken
hayn, Tirpitz, Prince Oscar of Prussia and
perhaps the crown prince. Here is some
thing on which the exhausted emotions may
safely concentrate for while. If there is
any hating TO be done--and it seems in
evitable-bere are worthy aud proper oh
jects. Besides, if guilt may be fastened upon
persons, suspicion of il in mems minds NAV
not attach to the system.
a q q
MEANWHILE the present mood Of deicc.
Il lfl ton, which almost paralyzes all effort,
at recovery, viii pass. II no war could hay,
) pFRduced all the good that in the extrayagan