Polk County news. [volume] (Benton, Tenn.) 191?-1983, 1920-01-29
Shall Chaos or Reconstruction
in Europe Follow the Great
World War;
CHANGE OF SOME SORT SURE
Returning Soldier Feels He Has at
Least Earned a Better Chance
Than He Has Hitherto Been
Granted.
Article III.
BY FRANK coMERFoRD.

BY FRANK COMEHF FOhD.
Europe wears an anxious look. On'
thought is arousing her from tht
stupor of her misery. She opens hei
eyes in wide amazement when she no
tices and notes the striking change
that has come over her children. 1t Is
puzzIing her, although she well knows
what they have gone through, how pa
tiently and uncomplainingly they suf-
fered. 1t isn't strange to her that they
have changed, when she remembers
the peace of the years before the war,
the quiet, sane lives they lived, and the
four years in which they lived in wet,
foul sewers called trenches. slept ID
toinbs on the edge OF strip OF he'll
called No Mans Land, breathed the
smell of burning flesh, saw their pals
Ego west" buried their dead, grinned
at pain, laughed at death. Nerves OF
steel could not stand, what they have
gone through without being changed
by it.
They have put on muft again. 1t
is strange to them The quiet streets
are dun. The demobilized soldier feels
the letdown. The tenseDeSs over de-
preston sets in. During the war he
didn't have time to think of anything
except the job ahead of him. Every
minute. every move was life or death
to him. Now he realizes for the first
time what he has gone through. won
ders why he is alive. Two thoughts
possess his mind; one the memory OF
every minute of the days and nights
Of tue war -4the other, of what ds
ahead Of him. what is he going to do
with his Iifel He Is at a strange scross-
roads. The word job doesn't mean
.sss-.3 4 sf ISM that he Is lazy,
He has III pffieff u - II "a raaIi;se tbnt
1t is over and that he Is back fft'ih iisfs
war
Earned Right to Better Place.
Between the whizz of machine bull
lets and the Shrek of shrapnel he
spent his time thinking, and his
thoughts were not all about the war.
He never got used to the war, but he
learned to forget 1t. He has brought
more than souvenirs and memories
from his experience. He has brought
home thoughts. ideas and ambitions
from the trenches. Many a night, look
ing over No Mans Land, listening to
the "banshee" Of the war, he thought
and resolved that if he ever came
back he wanted. and would have. a
haitian, ~, IN, fl,ig HING po11pI
Lifo lie feels that he has paid for
a place and he has paid. He has
earned ~" light to Il decent place in
the world. for which he fought. He
helped save the world and he looks to
that world to save him from mean
inglesS machine C--'stence. If it doesn't
he has made up his mind to use force.
He is willing to work, wants to work.
but he insists on being part of his
work rather than his work being all Of
him. He sees, feels and measures
things from an intensely human angle.
He feels his humanness. The war
emphasized the value and meaning Of
the human being It was life or death
He is alive lie wants human inter-
est in his work.
Hundreds of demobilized soldiers In
different parts of Europe, in, different
words, in different languages, have
said to me: "If the world isn't going
TO give us Il better chance than it gave
us before the war, then the world
wasn't worth fighting for. When we
fought. they told us it was to make the
world safe for democracy and to make
life worth while. We thought this
meant us and ours. We have learned
that life isn't only question Of Job
and enough to cat we want to he
treated like human beings. A man
wants to feel that his work means
more 10 him than Just wages. He
spends most of his time ut work, the
rest of IT Is spent with his family and
in sleeping so he will be able to work
the next day. Why shouldn't he have
an interest in the business. and why
shouldn't the business have an interest
I'm him? We don't want to run the
business. all we ask Is n say In 1t,
friendly sny in II. Some people think
that To be fed Is to he free--lt isn't
Being free means being treated like .
human being"
have found many good honest men
and women who have lost interest in
work. They say, "We don't get fair
share Of what we make. We fight
among ourselves for Jobs because we
have to or starve, and they pay us as
little as they can" am not reasoning