Show PROBLEMS FACING STRICKEN RICKEN ST WORLD shall chaos or reconstruction in europe fo great world war NOW WEAK AND heartbroken in mourning and poverty she counts her dead and looks with eyes of sadness toward the threatening future article 11 II by FRANK COMERFORD august 1 1014 was the day on that day germany declared war oil russia rus S in the fire alarm rang around the alie world peasants lu in the flold straightened their backs listened and poked looked into the sun confused wondering flags were unfurled bands played inces aces N were ere white tense and ier serious lous men alen zt left their work and talked in groups on the street corners women laid down their brooms put aside their washing had and talked in III whimpers pers sad lights were in their eyes children stopped playing something hod he happened evil things ivere bhend august 4 and 4 found franco france ond and great britain mobilizing their sons the torch wits was sweeping europe the fire of death had started for four long years heart sicken ing years the world ran red men blen waded through mud nud and blood fought suffered hulT ered cursed prayed while back home lit in the manless houses kiouses women and children worked cried prayed and waited the world was mad death poisoned vol every breath the people breathed it Is over now it Is finished A stunned numbed weak heartbroken europe cropo Is again sitting miffing lit in tho the sun of pence peace europe Is in dirty black rags the block black Is mourning the rags are poverty iler her face Is deeply lined trenches milde mado by suffering tier her eyes are downcast all and dead hope flutters weakly in her breast falth faith lias has failed faded from her soul ifer her honio hoine Is a house of darkness the ire fire on the hearth lias has turned to cold gray ashes the kettle no longer sings it moans iler her mind Is weary her body Is wasted hunger has robbed her of it her strength her feet tire blue from the cold ifer her lips wear starvation color ice in tile the winters wind lashes ashes her shivering liala naked body she lo as slie stares vacantly into space site she Is tired so tired As I 1 beheld her it seemed to we me that a face so BO troubled and sad must never have known it a smile I 1 listened to her muttering rings I 1 found that she was counting over and over again she counted on her thin tired worn hands she was counting her dead thinking of her lot loss she was thinking iler her eyes looked over tile the hundreds of thousands thou sanda of 0 square miles of war zone slashed with trenches pitted and pockmarked pock marked by shells she spes sees where they fell no tears cars are in tier her eyes LOOR long ago the hurt had reached rea cheil the point where tears dry up tto iboa upon row line upon line mile upon mile white ehlt painted wooden crosses mark their graves for the most part they were her youngest born bom her roost most beloved who dug deep in the soil to sleep forever in the dark dugouts dug outs As theofell they fell bleeding from steel and lead choking froin gas writhing in agony from alre they proved in the dying word they spoke that they hey were mere inere boys as they had shown in their fighting flint they were brave men to the poppies they In trusted their message anti and the red copples remember alie fast word of Eu ropes dying sons who went out into the great beyond with this ahls last word on their lips Ald mother ther slip she has finished counting an ache shudders through her bent body slie she sighs highs and soils sobs seven and a half million I 1 of my illy sons are dead her thoughts turn to the living her arms open to receive them she holds them to her heart they have come but how 1 with sightless eyes doomed to grope through the lie world in a never ending darkness n night without stars or moon st inless blaek black hopeless days daya pad these too young men in tile the very morning of their day I 1 others sentenced to silence deaf priti dumb never again will site she henr hear their voices nor will they hear her hen still others in wheel heel legless efi leas more hobb hobbling lingon ion crutches limping on cones some with empty sleeves many with great scars where once was wae III handsome face she sees bees them all her heart bleeds tile the twisted the mangled the file torn she Is counting them the the wounded of the war wars waro frightful cost coot lier her voice to la husky her hands aro are tired but she must count on six sax find and a half million of her sons hons were marked missing and in the official war score iscore tinny many of have come back to her ber but slie she does not question thiern she elie inre flare not their faces tell of if tho the unspeakable horrors alipy endured slip aces in their liehr eyes it depoli of pain that Is she Is a etther she knows know the war Is in over but she Is not over tile the war must aibe never stop Is there no me end to her lases the graveyards Crave yards are crowded crow doL lifer thoughts turn to the bend who while j they did not dlo die in the war tied died because of the war those who went out in battle loft left life in a burst of glory others there were who foil fell in their tracks exhaustion broken henris sent them west slie she has riot not forgotten how the homo home flank suffered the stay nt at homes holnes were not till all kers they aliey fought hunger and cold bent their hades backs beyond the straining point worst of till nil they will waited ted it I 1 la s estimated flint civilians civilla nR died front from weakness fatigue strain broken hearts the horror of destroyed resistance these were the underfed older men and women tile the geared undernourished children to in there any wonder that flint europe hns a death look in ili her eyes death has haa been her morning thought it has been her night sob anti and for four years made up of months weeks days hours minutes and seconds has been tier her nemesis she Is now totaling the figures figure are appalling they stagger tier her Imn glnn lion it Is easy to write them impossible to under understand stil nd ali clr full acan i ing tile the mind cant grasp it t tile the world Is bewildered by the number it Is too stupendous too horrible for understanding der standing think of it seven and it a half million young men for the most part between the age ages of eighteen elighte it abd thirty tile youth tale ano strength ngit lift spirit the lie man inan power of europe dead twenty million from civil life dead over twelve and a halt half million wounded who can measure tills this loss war brought death it dai alu more it stopped birth in the devastated regions of belgium france italy poland parts of russia and the balkan countries the birth rate fell to almost nothing in england till and wales the birth rate in the last part of 1015 was tho the lowest on record mallett calculated that tile the birth rote rate had fallen 12 per cent in egland ng land and wales by 1010 afie the journal of Iler heredity edity quotes litotes savor nan as having estimated flint it will tak england tit at least ten years germany 12 years italy 88 38 years and france 30 years to recuperate their populations these calculations by were made before the fearful losses of the of 1018 1918 A village in III Fril france nee Ble rancourt tells what the ine war hns has done to the man power of europe this village which Is in fit the lie chateau sol esons dt district had a population of it thousand people before tile war its losses have been tabulated tw twenty enty six soldiers from this village were killed in the war ninety seven of the villagers died from war privations the total of Is tile the death toll of a village of a thousand the figures I 1 have quoted from the calculations of and mullett were made before the war wah fi finished nisheL since alie war estimates haye have been made and these est estimates I 1 mates show situation to be even worse in rr an 1 I 1 was told that 57 per cent of the men between twenty and forty years were listed as dead or for work further Furt lier that flint it would take france over 70 years to recover lir her normal population it Is said that it will take ro flo years and england 25 years to regain normality of population the human waste of tile war lit IR more than sad memories the loss less of man ann power makes a grave problem it ling hns thrown out of balance the scheme of the world it win will lie be felt for years there arti are a great many more young women titan linn men boino life Is bound to surfer suffer there will ivill bo be fewer marriages fewer children statistics only tell part of tile lie story copyright 1920 new newspaper union |