The Wisconsin tobacco reporter. (Edgerton, Wis.) 1877-1950, 1920-12-31
AS the New Year Finds the World.

The new year enters in the sweeping
tide of time as softly and silently as all
it's predecessors. In the great workshop
of the Almighty the machinery is so per-
fectly adjusted, and the hand on the
lever that controls it so certain and
deft, that the grand works hum their
marvellous symphony of existence in a
manner which to us seems like the
eternal silence of nothingness. In our
little way we mark the coming of the
new year with pigmy noises in order,
as it were, to make sure that we are
here to watch the looms that weave
the web of time. That, and nothing
more.
The past year has been characterized
wildering form. The world, especially
the Old World, attempting to right
itself after the hurricane of the war,
has expended lot of energy in trying
to find out what is the matter with it.
The old political order in Germany,
Austria, the Balkans and Russia passed
away during the upheavals of war, and
the new order has not yet found itself.
The ships are manned, but the disci-
pline is bad, the rig is in tangle and
the charts are in dispute. The new
thoughts and ambitions born of the war
have not become chrystalized, and the
policies of the made-over nations are
in consequence hazy and in state of
ferment. The economic and financial
conditions of Europe have been in bad
way during the year, and much need
and suffering have been experienced by
the people. AS the truth is gradually
permitted to seep through, the last
news about conditions in Russia is more
assuring than has been anticipated.
Somehow the leaders in affairs over
there are finding way. and the pros
poets are that if they are left to order
their own house without outside inter-
ference, new and better Russia will
rise from the chaos of war and revolu-
tons, different in its organization, per-
maps, than the original leaders planned,
yet better The attempts of the League
of Nations to assist in the reconstruc-
ton of the world did not prove success
full during the past year. No league
could build new Europe on the found
atoms laid in the Versailles treaty.
In our own country the admission of
women to full citizenship privileges, the
presidential election, and the efforts to
make the national prohibition amend
events and movements of national i'm
portance during the year. The results
are in the hands of the future. Abor-
tive attempts at national houseclean-
ing in the fields of industry, commerce
and finance have been made; an enor-
nous amount of information has been
collected, bearing out the need of a
thorough cleaning up, but the process
of renovation is still left to be carried
into effect. The business depression
experienced during the last months has
not yet assumed serious proportions,
and it may not come to that. The ire
mendous wealth of resources, energy
and recuperative power of this new ma
ton under competent, honest and ener-
getic leadership should make it posi-
BILE for the United States to weather
the present storm successfully, and
during the coming year see construc-
tive measures carried through, placing
the nation again on safe and sane
basis of existence. And it must be the
sincere prayer of every citizen in this
country that the new administration of
our government and the representatives
in congress may be guided by such
ideals, such wisdom, and such sense
of responsibility over towards the ma
ton, and towards the world. that new
and better day is dawning with the
coming of the new year.