The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1922-01-05
SEVEN HARD YEARS BEHIND.

SEVEN HARD YEARS BEHIND.
The year ended Saturday has drawn
Man over a good many rough jolts on
the way back to normal living. At the
same time, if it has drawn him
through the thicket, it has given him
a glimpse of better things lying
ahead. The normal, when he returns
to it, will be better than the normal
from which he strayed in 1914.
Compare the situation either with
that of a short year ago or with that
of a longer time back and you cannot
help feeling that business, the common
way of life, the spirit of people, every
thing in short, that society shares in
common, is nearer what one would
wish it than at any time these seven
years, and that it has steadily re-
duced the obstacles to its return.
A year ago the credit situation still
caused acute worry. The producers
of goods and of materials had begun
to lay off their employees and to cut
the pay of those who remained at
work. Because living expenses kept
high those first cuts hurt. Entire
regions, notably the cotton belt, faced
hardships because of the collapse in
their markets, and every one, more or
less, had the depressing sense of a
lean year ahead. The lean year has
passed, virtually in the business as in
the calendar sense. Only a little
while to clear up affairs brought to
their term by the years expiration
and we shall be in another period. We
shall enter it with sounder bank ac-
counts, sounder labor conditions, more
reliable and reasonable markets and
healthier hopes than we had enter
tanned in 1921.
As to the ways Of living and Of
thinking, the year has seen progress
made That from a social jealousy,
the hysterical dislike of doing paid
work, has subsidized Whole trades no
longer walk out for spontaneous "holi-
days" from normal exertion at unex-
pected moments. The tendency in
certain lines for people to use up more
than they normally produced has di-
minished. College and technical
schools left empty during the war,
have filled up to overfowing in the
past fifteen months. This case af-
fords a sign of the return to the ma
tural and proper regards for the
thought the expert training and the
schorarly point of view that the war
spirit had for a time caused US to
lose from sight
If one compare this year end with
that which followed the armistice, one
must feel still more impressed with
the favorable movement that has TAX
en- place toward world health The
folly of speculation. The reckless
fevered plunge that would have car
ried US back instantly to blessed
peace, but only dash mans wounded
head against hard rocks-all that is
past. We have come to realize, on the
contrary, that the strength for slow
patient convalescence, which then
seemed lacking in the world after all
And if one go back still farther,
how much better off this date finds
US than did the last day of 1914.
Could the world have supported, if it
had known all that lay before it-mil-
lions Of killed, whole nations destroy
ed, others ruined or grievously MAIN
ed, peace, when it came seeming al
most too late to save anything? All
that experience is behind. There re-
mains only little way to go, for our
selves, only little way farther for
most others to quiet and harmony, to
life in which mankind may prosper
Above all, the road to normal prog
ress, when we rejoin it, will be a bet
ter, more advanced bit of road thar
where we left it. The social adjust
ments between Government, capital
labor, consumer, individual, are now
firmer, work more surely. Demo.
racy has withstood monarchic and
proletarian despotism, has run its
spurs in the most merciless of trials
of strength, Nations have learned tc
talk together in spirit of frank
ness and honest good will. The
time ahead is better than any of the
Seven Hard Years Behind.