Show PROBLEMS FACING sa s1 WORLD shall chaos or reconstruction in europe follow tho the great world war imperative NEED FOR ACTION aaion twelve months since the signing of the armistice practically wasted call for aid from america mut must bo 04 heeded article V dy by FRANK COMERFORD the signing of the armistice enda ended tilt the fighting the signing of the peace treaty brought pence but neither of these nets acts restored devastated europe europ 0 tile great job Is the work of reconstruction and when I 1 write tho the word I 1 have not lu in mind the inere inart rebuilding of the war stricken areas of r vi ranee dirance belgium italy poland and russia gigantic tind important as tills this task Is feces nary as it Is it Is only a small part of the work of real reconstruction hundreds of thousands of square miles make up tip tile the actual war zone we ground in arched over ner the territory under shell tire fire millions Illions Bl of acres of land that lint once yielded food in response to aho ho touch of the plow have for tho the past tour four years tears been tilled by high explosives plo I 1 was literally tooted looted pit caged and lavished ravished ravi rayl shed almost the alie entire state yas wag vlola violated ted nearly one eighth of france tier her industrial section was crashed Duli dings were destroyed st factories AS dismantled I 1 mantled sixty thousand square miles in poland were laid waste itney suffered terribly the ground Is filled with high explosives mines nil and shells every lay day since the work of recovery and restoration began men working in tills this zone have been blown to pieces billions lUll lons of feet of barbed wire and ana millions of tons of metal make ft a dari dan ferons wilderness out of what was once a highly productive area cities and villages Til lages ure are jungles of twisted broken torn wood iron brick and stone ston e I 1 have hav walked through these village and have stood stunned by the completeness of the de destree lion the streets tire are uneven ani and lumpy with brick and stone and plaster and glass aisles of wreckage roofless houses with walls gutted and torn heaps and tin piles of broken building material jagged rugged ragged lAt pinnacles mael os masses of debris meet the eye had I 1 not known of the war and come upon one of these unsightly shapeless masses of material I 1 should have thought nature had entered lit ant ft a annd conspiracy combining and concentrating nil of tilt the powers of a cyclone a tornado md tin nn earthquake and spilled their fury on these mangled dead villages sights to wring the heart picture the refugees returning to these villages coming tack home what the sight eight must have meant to them I 1 have seen them their faces facca gray as the gray ruins standing in tilt the midst of their destroyed homes I 1 have seen them picking their way over 11 piles ilea of stone and brick through great openings opening made in tile the broken walls I 1 saw caw in their eyes homesickness a hurt of heart I 1 never shall forget old men find and old women and little barelegged bare bam legged children now arid and again a boy a worn soiled filed uniform some limping on crutches others wearing an empty sleeve one thought surged through rny my mind until it almost sickened Bick ened tile inc war the land of the wit war r zone must bo be reclaimed these acres are arc needed noy more than they were before the war the worlds food supply la Is low hundreds of miles of trenches must be tilled filled up T trees r ee 9 must be planted the ground roust must be cleaned of shells cleared of barbed wire villages cities must be rebuilt sewer systems must be installed the mess must be moved I 1 it IF Is a big jot job one great aits nits misfortune fortune Is that although 12 months have come and gone since tile the signing of the armistice no general comprehensive plan pinn of recon st ruction liaa has been started here and there small email sections of the tic devastated regions tire being partly reconstructed temporary provision is being made for the lie homeless this la Is ull all well and good but intelligent economical efficient nad and speedy reconstruction demands a general plan and tin nn lion big enough to put it over the doing of this work requires vision and capacity for doing big things well if lift physical reconstruction Is left to europe it will not be finished in 50 0 years here Is s a chanco for america we ve have n faculty of doing things on I 1 a big scale and in a short period of time needs our help if we are to give it eventually why not now hut but the clearing up tit of tile the wreckage and the rebuilding Is a minor problem oom compared pared with tile he other greater and more important question of reconstruction the reconstruction of industry the flip establishment of normal life the reclamation of the devata devastated ted wa area Is after all only a matter of plan time and money lind and the fact that aurolie la Is bankrupt toiny today the money must mast nun will romp the barbed wire will iw be rolled up the mane kinec and and shells will be dug front from the fields lils thy vi villages linges will he be re balt everything that hns bas been de will be replaced iced physical reconstruction Is lie least of Huro europea peA ilie art problem I 1 ut the lion of life the war ow an disordered lie life or oc tile tho world it il threw everything into confusion it left the ou oiin of balance only road hoad to prosperity we live le by work prosperity mentis means production poverty Is 8 tion stripping economics of till nil its lt high sounding jargon the simple hat everyone knows Is that the alio world ua antly the die things it works to produce it may not be amiss to state etnie a fe foi facts known by everyone which explain tho the meaning of production wa V live on oil tile lie earth it Is land and wa ter in tho he ground fire miner minerals the land grows crops we need the min aln brals that uro are in the ground we nee leei the crops but minerals in tile the ground as well as the fertile soil bohin noth lue ing until man by lits his work brings tho the mineral from the ground and makes the soil yield we must have food wo we inest list have clothing wo must have shelter and tho only way we can get thesa things is by working it if little work is i done we ve have a there enough food to go around there arent enough clothes enough coal tind its ia a result the ho prices of till nil these naces carlei go any tini tilt hut tills thin la is not so BO important us its the fact that when there Is not enough to feed vie fie world some go 0 hungry li others mut starve when thord hero enough coal some boino uro tire cold others freeze when there arent enough clothes for everyone some must bo be ragged ant anil half naked rv ery grything thing by which wo we live la tho the rt result of work stop work and poverty follows work tin and plenty results work Is responsible for thal thai goes to malm life worth living to understand europea Eu ropes condition today one must stop and realism realise thal the war stopped production the rt it I 1 suit is a shortage of everything enough food kliore ono raw material there enough foul coal the bhole story Is told in the ho word poverty only cure la Is in work there Is a cure the alie prescription ran can bo be written in it a single word livery every one knows that word but knowing tile word und adopting the word tire ore different matters before wo vo call ann get anek to normal life this word must mast find root in the of the peo lico pie we must re that the tha world will continue sick and anil grow grov sicker unless this ills prescription la Is taleen fu fur r ther we must know that it if wo delay taking this remedy it will be a longer time before be fore we get well the prescription Is work every effort should bo be male made to idalie every etian will to work every employer must riot not contribute to unrest mid and provoke idleness by refusing to negotiate walli ills 1114 inen and into this negotiation he go with a friendly spirit n and d a willingness to compromise alie employer who meets infects labor with flip thought in n tits his mind that eliat lie Is better equipped to tight than labor because he tills liua n surplus and can call eat cat and bo be yarm warm while labor has been living fro from liand ta n mouth lind will starve Is shortsighted ile ho lind had letter better get the iden out of fits hl head that bod you can starve stane men into submission th them re was a day when that was true but that day hits has passed never to come the ithe man mail who depends upon Ms ability to turn tam a key in ili the factory door and po go off on a vuen vacation tion his fits w on his workmen wll discover that these men stopped a certain gent late of now of 1101 holland from doing tills very thing to the lite world ile he may wake up nil some morning to learn it new defini definition tiou of the word fight fl gut oue one thing that people io do not realize Is that the men mell who fought the worlds fight for freedom aro are the men who gre now complaining that they tire arc not getting a square deal who land up tip the fighting elji men of the war the rank and lie file of the armies that stopped tile prussian who were vere the grent great majority of the volunteers lun and tho the conscripted men numbering millions million who went to tiro the front for the he bille 0 tile teamsters the the mill workers woi kers tile factory liandi the coal miners these tire are tile the saine men who are the center of the lie labor problem mr air Eon you tire dealing with soldiers cx 1 please dont forget lt it they fought for you you lieve tiny any business today if it been for them ind biml when you think of tile ho anid you bought remember the blood alood they gave copyright 1920 vv ettern lol paper union |