Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 48, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 February 1920 — NEW FRONTIERS VERY REAL [ARTICLE]

NEW FRONTIERS VERY REAL

Nothing of an “imaginary Line" About the Borders of the New European States. Frontiers used to be “imaginary lines" or marks on a map. The miles and miles of new frontiers in Europe are not “imaginary” and not confined to maps. You can walk right up and touch them. Out there in central and eastern Europe, frontiers are fine-tooth combs, that delay trains for hours at every crossing point. Some of the new frontiers are “flying walls” of soldiers with fixed bayonets. Others are guarded fences. Travelers without exceptional credentials go through searching examinations, often bodily “friskings.” Soldiers armed to the teeth guard the trains and passengers during examinations and customs inspections, to see that nobody gets out or in without the official papers. Roads at frontier points are also guarded by soldiers who preside over striped gates that go up and down like the crossing gates of American railways. Passports and vises in the new countries are made as difficult as possible. Business men are held up weeks, as a rule. The official Idea seems to be to keep everybody that’s in the country in, and to bar everybody else out.