Iron County news. [volume] (Hurley, Wis.) 1913-1950, 1920-02-07
Shall Chaos or Reconstruction
in Europe Follow the Greet
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 coMERFoRp.

, thought IL arousing her from the
! stupor Of her misery. She opens her
eyes IN wide amazement when she no.
tees and notes the striking change
that has come over her children. II is
puZZiing her. although she well knows
what they have gone through. how pa
tiently and uncomplalningly they suf-
fered. II isn't strange to her that they
have changed. when she remembers
L 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 in
tOmbs on the edge of a strip of hell
called No Mans Land. breathed the
smell of burning flesh. saw their pals
go 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 1t.
They have put on mutt again. It
IS strange to them. The quiet streets
are dun. Tire demObllized soldier feels
the letdown. The tenSeness 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
10 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 aud highs
Of the war-the other. Of what Is
ahead Of him. what is he going to do
with his life He is at strange cross
roads The word lob" doesn't mean
much to him. It isn't that he is lazy.
He has 70 pinch himself TO realize that
It Is over and that he is back from the
war
Earned Right to Better Place.
Between the whizz of machine hui
let's and the shrek of shrapnel he
! spent his time thinking and his
thoughts We're not all about the war
He never got used TO the war. but he
learned to forget It. 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
ana resolved that II he ever came
hack he wanted and would have. a
better chance in this queer thing called
Life He feels that he has paid for
n place, and he has paid He has
earned the right to a lecent place in
the world for which he fouglr He
helped save the world and he looks TO
that world 10 save him from a mean
! ingleSS machine existence If II doesn't
/ he has made IN his mind to use force
! Tie is willing 10 work wants 70 work
/ hut he insists on being part of his
/ work. rather than his work being all If
| him He secs. feels and measures
/ things from an intensely human angle
/ He feels his humannpSS. The war
/ emphasized the value and meaning Of
! the human being II was lIfe or death
/ He is alive He wants a human inter.
/ est in his work.
Hundreds of demobilznd soldiers In
different parts Of Europe. in different
words, in different lpnguageS have
said TO me: ''Tf the world isn't going
/ 70 give us G better chance than il gave
us before the war then he world
wasn't worth fighting for When we
fought they told us it WAS to make the
world sNfe for democracy ami 10 make
life worth while We thought this