Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1940-05-16
Spring-l94O

With the dawn of new decade and
country after country being drawn
into a new and more bitter struggle,
governments ceasing, almost over
night, to exist, and with unrest and
tension in almost every corner of the
world, one wonders what the next
10 years will bring.
After the first world war had ended
and an unsatisfactory peace treaty
was signed people settled back to en-
joy the almost carefree years of the
1920s. These get-rich-quick times
ended on an ominous note and gave
way to the hard, sombre years of the
'3Os with their foreclosures, failures
and government relief.
In various countries the economic
letdown paved the way for the rise
of relationships, leading to an arma-
ments race such as history had never
before seen. Europe again was an
armed camp, but a more scientific
one. Its peoples were bled white to
get the billions of dollars needed for
the larger and more impregnable lines
of Notifications, more powerful guns,
bigger navies, thousands of faster
airplanes, more destructive bombs and
other death-dealing devices, each ma
ton in frenzied race to keep ahead
of the other. Smaller and weaker
countries were invaded and exploited
for self-protection and to carry on the
preparedness program for a war that
was inevitable.
The coming of the spring of 1910
in Europe is perhaps not welcomed
by the common people there, many of
whom are already taking part in a
senseless war, the others faced with
the danger of being drawn into the
conflagration destroying their I'M
happy neighbors. We in the United
States are more fortunate. Some day
we may become involved again in war
but in the meantime we can enjoy a
spring blessed by the peace and secur-
ity offered by our geographical loca-
ton. Many things here are not per-
feet but compared to a troubled Eu-
rope we lead an ideal existence.
The things that we see, the sounds
that we hear, makes spring in coun-
try at peace so utterly different than
one in warning world. The song
of wren from the lilac bush, instead
of the chatter of a machine gun on the
slope of some disputed hill; the mar
tins returning from their long trip,
or bombing planes soaring over ruined
villages on a mission of death; the
green grass growing under the feet
of children at play, or weeds creep
ing over shallow graves of unknown
soldiers who died for an unknown
cause; city lights cleaning through
the warm spring night, or the popu-
lace of teeming metropolis cropping
quietly in the darkness of a black
out; the crack of bat on the base
ball diamond, or rifle shot from a
lonely outpost. Hundreds of other
contrasts make the picture complete.
Here our high schools, colleges and
other institutions of learning will
soon be emptied of young men and
women, going out to help in the build
ing of a great nation. Over there the
youth of a new generation goes
marching off to war, their dreams
shattered, their hopes crushed. All
too soon have they grown through
the happy childhood days to be sent
to an early death by mans lust for
power and greed. An older genera
ton can but wait and pray; younger
one remain blissfully ignorant of
tragedy and despair.
Spring in Europe, spring in Amer
ica-conflict or peace. A spring of
hate and destruction or one of eager
hope and new life. The wrecking of
civilization or saner way of living
that could abolish forever the horror
and futility of war.