Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1940-11-11
Armistice Day


ty-second anniversary it may seem
that the Armistice of November II,
1918, ought not to have been granted.
Some writer's, statesmen and soldiers
included, have argued that the Allies
should have carried the war to Berlin.
Others, no less qualified to express
their opinions, have insisted that the
costs of that sort of victory would
have been intolerably great. Both
schools of commentators concede the
fact that the people of all the nations
involved were sick Of the conflict.
The demonstrations in Paris, London
and New York, as we'll as those in
Berlin and Vienna, were proof of
general WEAKNESS of strife. Mankind
everywhere embraced the dream of
universal peace.
But the world had not learned the
lessons of its experience A militant
minority in each of the several more
important countries of continental
Europe continued to intrigue and plot
in anticipation of another denoue-
ment than that of democracy and
freedom visioned and proclaimed by
Woodrow Wilson. Even before the
conference of Versailles assembled,
Lenin and Trotsky had launched
their provocative campaign for Com
munism predicated upon the dicta-
torship of the proletariat-a move
ment which inevitably forecast a
cruel and bitter reaction. At about
the same time PilSudski led Polish
army against the UkrainianS at Lem
berg and d'Annunzio seized Fiume for
Italy in mocking defiance of the asso-
ciated powers Japan was embarking
on the conquest of China, and there
were outbreaks of popular revolution
airy feeling in India and Ireland.
Each of these events, differing in de-
tail as to cause but not comprehen-
sively in effect, prevented the restora-
ton of harmony to which millions OF
plain and humble men and women
had looked forward.
Yet the hope did not die. At the
apex of autumn year after year
those who sincerely believed in lib
erty and fellowship gathered for the
public expression of their aspiration.
They were not blind to the growing
evil of aggression-in Manchukuo, in
Ethiopia and finally in Austria and
Czecho- Slovakia-but they did not
appreciate fully nor promptly enough
the strength developed by the to-
talitarian states in their campaigns
for supremacy over their neighbours
Announcement of a concordat be-
tween Germany and Russia, coinci-
dent with gestures toward the abSorp-
ton of Danzig, created the crisis OF
August, 1899, from which the present
war resulted
L is evident, however, that the
nomenclature commonly used in re-
lation to the current struggle is in
accurate. What humanity beholds to-
day is not new. Rather, it is condi-
ton ages old. Savagery would be a
mild term to apply to it. Perhaps no
words exist competent to the task OF
representing the horror of the mon
strous practice of destruction and
slaughter now engaging the principal
energies of the race. BY no conceiv-
able necessity can it be excused.
Even If they should be fortunate
enough to achieve triumph in the
end, Hitler and Mussolini would have
gained nothing worth having. They
themselves, being only mortal, must
die; the empires they criminally seek
to build are not likely to survive the
agonies of their creation; meanwhile,
the dynamics Of cataclysmic hatred
are being prepared for an ultimate
explosion.
There will be no observance of
Armistice Day in Britain in 1910. II
the reason be asked, let it be an
swered that the population of that
gallant little island, besieged and be-
set, is too busy defending the things
which make life worth living to spare
even few minutes for mere cere-
monial remembrance Of the dead
whose example prompts them to
heroism the like of which no earlier
time has seen.