Evening star., 1934-06-28
1914 and 1884.


significant Bosnian village of Sera-
ievo, shot was fired that plunged
the world in the most terrible war Of
all history. For four years mankind
weltered in blood and tears. AS the
carnage ragged, embroiling finally Asia
and America along with Europe, men
of all nations vowed that it should
be a war to end war. When our own
turn came to be drawn into the seeth-
ing vortex the United States leaped
to arms in the high resolve to make
the world safe for democracy"
What is the picture presented two
decades after Serajevo? Far from
being immunized against international
strife, the world is witness everywhere
to feverish preparations for more war.
The effort to renounce armaments has
proved a ghastly farce. Those ancient
incubatorS of conflict among nations
balances of power, disguised as pacts
of "non-aggreSsion" and mutual as
Sistance," are again in the making.
In Europe avowed plans for the EN-
circlement" of Nazi Germany are in
progress as statesmen envision the
"regenerated" Reich's purpose to
throw off the remaining shackles of
the treaty of Versailles.
The Europe that was to have been
made safe for democracy" is dotted
in all directions with relationships
Popular government is in decay. Old
time political chickering's, rivalries,
suspicious and hatreds are rampant,
and distracted governments see no
salvation except in resort to ever
greater armaments. The League of
Nations, in a series of acid tests, has
failed lamentably to justify the high
hopes pinned on its efficacy as an
agency for composing international
differences and enforcing respects for
world law. Ambitious, militant Japan
defies, unchallenged, solemn cove
nants looking to peace in the Far
East and the territorial integrity of
China. For three years jungle war
has ragged in South America.
In the Western world, within the
not hesitated to default on their
financial obligations to the United
States and to one another, regardless
of the blow thus struck at the credit
structure on which our economic
civilization has been reared. Re-
pudiation now walks along paths once
trodden by sacred honor alone.
All in all, it is disquieting and
discouraging atmosphere in which this
twentieth anniversary of the birth Of
the World War is perforce commem-
Grated. But the diSillusioned peoples
of the earth must not lose heart or
falter in their determination to
achieve the ends they set themselves
after the So-called peace of Versailles
and ST. German.
1t might have been supposed that
the vast depression which has come
upon the whole world in the inter-
vening years would steel the will Of
the nations to lay for all time the
specter of war. Even their economic
sufferings have not sufflced for that
purpose. Perhaps the poignant men,
ories of 1914 and after, which the
Summer of 1884 wildly conjureS up
may at length galvanize statesman
ship in both hemispheres with a re-
solve to grapple with situation
brimming with as ominous posSibil-
tiles as those which precipitated
Armageddon twenty years ago. In
light of the futile past, it seems a
Utopian prospect, yet it is a goal to-
ward which men must ceaselessly
strive, with every ounce of energy and
ingenuity which they can muster.