The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1921-11-10
The War Literature

The eleventh. of November marks
the third year Of our peace. No more
is heard the tramp Of armies; the
wall of women has ceased; the last
of our lads has returned from lover
there The world has undergone q
test in those three years, as severe
q test as that Of our eighteen
months of war. Rigid changes have
taken place in many things and one
of these things has been the change
in American literature.
One of the things that marks off
the past conflict from all others Is
the incredible expenditure of paper
and ink which it has brought in its
wake. The roar Of guns on the fir
ing line has been scarcely louder than
the roar of the presses behind the
front. Nothing like it has ever been
seen before in history. 1t is i'm
possible to compute the volumes and
pamphlets that have been printed i.
The English Civil Wars, the Napol-
comic activities, we are told formed
the subject of $4,000 contributions.
Beside this later flood of literature
former records sink into insignifi-
canoe. Moreover, we are only be-
ginring; what future generations
will bring forth in the way of war
literature the imagination trembles
to conceive.
All this conflict Of words then
leads to what end? What is the ad-
vance in our thinking? Which Of
our old ideas and ideals have stood
the test? What new thing has come
into the world? AS one inspects
book after book fresh from the press,
as his patience is exhausted by folios
and pamphlets he finds but one
thought left-an answer is impossi-
bic.
It required little enough consider
alton TO know that q great deal of
this literature has no thought at all.
Much Of it is mere emotion. A
great deal of it is devoted to de-
scrjption. We have endless descrip-
lions of what a soldier wears ard
eats, how he is clothed and armed,
h"w he is cared for in Sickness.
Whether, apart from the satisfaction
Of curiosity. this has any effect upon
the mind one doubts.
Beyond all this there Is still anoth-
er class of books and articles all in
formed with the problem which has
emerged as a great issue Of the day.
In, q multitude of phamplets on "De-
mocracv VS.. Sovereignty" there is a
note which dominates all these. It
commands the attention Of all men,
il was the issue Of the past war. It
is what may be called the relation
Of the government and the govern
ed or "What is to be done with the
mob?
Connected with that, nv recent
writer's is the ulterance that peace
has IFS Dangers "a we'll as war. TIE
ideal of the American is that of the
uncommon quality latent in tire COM
mon man. But there is a danger,
that difference in refinement, culture,
intellectual ability are apt to be too
much emphasized, for we are trying
to invest the common man with
sovereignty. The war has decided.
to certain extent, this issue but ex-
tremists on neither side are success
full.
Then finally, there is the flood of
literature in regards to the peace
propaganda. All the questions of
universal peace, via the League of
Nations route, which have heer
threshcd out in print form a raft of
war literature. But the new note
struck in the books of todav, which
will he carried out more and more
in future word is the widespread ard
growing interest in the proofs and
conditions Of Immortality. The new
regeneration of our literature match
es the regeneration of our life. The
public taste. like the public heart
has been purified by pain. There is
a return TO saner standards. Per-
hans in the future. we may see a
great Elizabethan of Victorian flow
ering-who knows? At least we are
demanding and getting from litera-