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THE ..ATLANTIAN
December, 1918
—1918—
A History-Making Year
1918 has not yet ended. We have not yet sufficiently
aroused ourselves from the long nightmare of the past 52
months to fully grasp the magnitude of the deeds done
in this the most tremendous year in the annals of all pro
fane history.
Let us review it briefly. In March the most frightful
war of all ages had been raging for 44 months.
Twenty-five millions of people were dead as a result
of the war. One hundred and fifty thousand millions of
jflollars of the world’s accumulated treasure had been
squandered in the dreadful struggle.
In Belgium seven millions of people had for nearly
four years groaned under brutal tyranny. Northern
France was a desert; five hundred thousand homes de
stroyed, six millions homeless and beggared. Poland was
desolate from end to end and millions dead of war and
starvation.
Roumania had been ravished even as had Belgium.
Serbia was a desert and one-third of its people dead.
Western Russia counted its dead by millions. In Armenia
and Syria two millions had perished. It looked as if civil
ization would topple into red ruin.
The monstrous nation which had precipitated the
horrible cataclysm seemed at the very zenith of its power,
and confident of victory, launched the most tremendous
campaign of the war on March 21. For over 100 days their
armies swept all before them. They counted their prison
ers taken by the hundreds of thousands and the captured
cannon by thousands.
The Allies, panic-stricken, created Foch commander-
in-chief of all their armies, and while the very foundations
were quaking under his feet that great and sagacious sol
dier calmly made his preparations to meet the tempest.
We began to rush our partially trained men across at
the rate of 10,000 daily.
July 15 Foch struck, and there followed one of the
most wonderful 115-day campaign in all the annals of time.
More than 400,000 prisoners, 5,000 cannon, unlimited
stores of ammunition, France liberated and Belgium part
ly free, so that on November 11, when within three days
of overwhelming rout and surrender, the beaten Huns
signed an armistice on the stern terms dictated by Foch.
While this tremendous history was being made in
France, the Englishman, Allenby, had utterly destroyed
the Turkish power in Palestine and Syria; the English
man, Marshall, had overrun Mesopotamia, and Turkey
surrendered at discretion. On the Salonika front the
French general, D’Esperet, in command of the allied ar
mies there, had overwhelmed the Bulgars and accepted
their surrender. The heroic Italian armies under Diaz had
overwhelmed the Austrians, taking nearly one million
prisoners, 250,000 horses and thousands of guns.
The war had ended suddenly in overwhelming victory
for the righteous cause.
Never before had there been an eight months of
time so crowded with titanic events.
As this is written, just one month has elapsed since
the end came.
The allied armies are on the Rhine, in Austria-Hun
gary, in Bulgaria, in Constantinople. The German fleet
has tamely sailed into a British port and surrendered.
The peace conference will meet in a few days.
And what a conference! Faced by the remaking of a
broken world along lines of justice and moral righteous
ness. Can we doubt the issue?
Can we for a moment fear the decision of the men
who with faces set like flint lead their nations through
four years of bloody hellishness that humanity might be
free, that autocracy might be crushed, and that democ
racy might be made safe for the world which it had saved?
And so in the closing days of this great year let us all
pluck up new heart and new courage to face the task of
such as it has not before known. If we meet the duties of
peace as valiantly as we have faced the horrors and losses
of war, then indeed will 1918 go into history as the new
birthday of a purified humanity.
Congressman-Elect W. D. Upshaw
Our newly elected congressman from the Atlanta dis
trict, Will D. Upshaw, will go to Washington with the
cordial good will of everybody in the district.
And what a wonderful life his has been! Afflicted
with a frail body in which was cased an unconquerable
will, with the energy of half a dozen average men com
bined, with a heart overflowing with love for his fellow
men, with a smile that would soften a stone, he has gone
his cheerful way dispensing good will and light all over
his beloved Southland.
With adamantine convictions as to right and wrong,
never compromising with wrong, never solicitous about
his own welfare, he has traveled his appointed road se
renely confident in the goodness of God, an optimist of
the highest type.
The people of the Fifth district have honored them
selves in electing him to our law-making body.
That he will discharge every duty with punctilious
fidelity we know, and that we have made a distinct con
tribution to the American Congress we know equally well.
Let us uphold his hand with generous support, and
thus insure large dividends from the labors of our lovable,
capable and patriotic congressman-elect.