Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 305, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 December 1917 — EXIT OLD YEAR ENTER THE NEW [ARTICLE]

EXIT OLD YEAR ENTER THE NEW

NEW YEAR PROMISES TO BE THE MOST TENSE IN HISTORY. Good-By, Old Year! Good-By! We have been happy-you and I; We have been glad in many ways; And now, that you have come to die, Remembering our happy days, *Tis hard to say, “Good-By”— Good-By, Old Year! Good-By! Good-By, Old Year! Good-By! We have seen sorrows-you and I; Such hopeless sorrow, grief and care, That now, that you have come to die, Remembering our old despair, ’Tis sweet to say, “Good-By” 1 Good-By, Old Year! Good-By! James Whitcomb Riley.

As we turn over the last page of the calendar of the year 1917, and pause on the threshold of a new year, we wonder which of the verses in the above poem, written by Indiana’s most loved son, will hold true at the end of the new year now being ushered in—not as individuals, but as a nation—for the joys or sorrows which are to be ours hinge upon the conflict now being waged across the seas—a conflict that for the past four years has turned the fertile fields of Europe into the greatest battlefields of all history and a conflict that has taken the men of seventeen nations from their peaceful pursuits and hurled them into this great cataclysm. Never in the history of opr nation have our people faced a new year with such a task confronting them as confronts them now. Forced into the war early last spring by the atrocities of the Germans, we have spent the interveing time in preparing our boys to send them across the sea to aid the allies in their fight against autocracy. But the war during the year 1917 did not strike us as forcibly as it will during the coming year, hence we must all prepare for it. More money must be subscribed, more sons sent to the front and greater efforts must be put forth if" we are to make ourselves felt during the year. As the number of men sent to the front increases, so will the casualty lists. Let us all resolve that during the coming year we will be true patriots and do every thing within our power to bring the war to an end.

Despite the-fact that we are now at war, the year 1917 has been a prosperous one and the farmer especially has enjoyed a prosperous year. Prices rose to unprecedented heights for practically all products of the farm. Hogs soared to such levels as old times never dreamed of. The American hog by himself has paid off mortgages of many years’ standing in every states in the Union. The meek and lowly bean has been an aristacrat among vegetables and too has joined the elect society of the mortgage-payers. Cornbread is now the food of kings, corn is so high. Wheat early in the year developed flying propensities and spiraled up to above the two dollar mark, and no panic seems to influence it in the least to volplane down to the old dollar- level. Never in the history of our country has the American farmer been so properous and never before has a New Year’s day held greater promise to the farmer. Jack Frost got busy too soon this year and as p result ruined much of the corn, which is the only blot on the year’s crop record. Thousands of bushels of corn were too soft and immuature for use. This disaster happens only once in a county, it is said, and the coming year ought to show bigger returns than ever to make up for the loss of 1917.