Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1925-12-20
Close of 1925 Sees Europe on Way
To Long Era of Peace and Unity

when Napoleon went TO ST. Helena
and Europe at Vienna and Paris
recognized peace, rests in my convic-
ton that we have in these y monthS
seen spread out before US one of Thea
great and almost incalculable trans,
formations in human sentiment, feel
ing, even thought. Peace before thiSN
year seemed precariouS or in fact uIf-s
attainable because there seemed lackr5
ing human capacity or Willingness to.
accept it. p"
Older men than myself will doubt
less recall something of the same APP.
peasement which presently followed
the explosion of the Civil War and,
the continuing bitterness of the first
years of reconstruction. Neither the
Northerner nor the Southerner,
changed his mind as TO the rights and
wrongs of the still recent struggle
Nothing changed on the surface and
Yet below the surface there came first
a recognition of the necessity for cou-c.
tinued existence within a union now
beyond challenge and then certain
measure of appreciation of the quail
tiles which were peculiar TO either
section.
Fear Simply Faded Away.
There came a time when ii vas
no longer possible to capture votes or
rouse passion by reference to CivilT
War issues, the North ceased to be
lieVe seriously in a new rebellion the
South to cherish the conviction that itn
was permanently to be prosecuted for
its past action. No one really con
coded anything. yet, presently. nothing
which had been a issue was now or
the same SURPRISING Importance. The
intellectual moral. political blockade ,
broke down like the physical, and pres
emily II became almost impossible 10
recall the very depth and extent of
emotion which had once been stirred
by questions which now seemed res
mote.
l would not for a moment suggest
that the issues which divide Europe
could ever be adjusted with ANYTHING
like the completeness which attended
the settlement of the great debate be
tween the North and the South or that
there is any resemblance between the"
extent of common understanding be-
tween men of the North and South
and between Germans and French
men. l am not seeking to establish
any exact or even approximate analrg
ogy. Yet this is true that whats
seemed to the generation which lived
in 1876 most intensely to be beyond
any accommodation became in less
than half a century, if not a dead
issue, at least not a living cause of
conflict.
Whole Attitude Differs
And in the same sense we have seen
in the current year something of the
same enormous change. Nations are
decorating tenderly the monuments
they raise to their dead of the war.
! but less and less do the speeches made
on such occasions breathe the spirt''
of new war. There is hardly a fields
of conceivable international contact.
where it is not possible to note some
thing of the change in attitude and
point of view, which. if set in sudden
and violent conjunction with the point
of view of no more than three years
ago would show an amazing contrast
In sum, then, 1925 stands out as the
year of appeasement, of adjustments.
The war ended in this year because
millions of men and women. the peo
pie, the statesmen and the iet-Llssuresa
of nations suddenly accepted the fact
that it was done. 1t ended. beyond ails
else because we were able at last to
think of it as over and to think OF
tomorrow without any fear of coHs
flict. And it is to a brief summary of:
the immediate outlook of that tomor.,
row that I shall devote my next
article. ~