100 years ago in The Record

Thursday, May 10, 1917

“Surely we have reached the midnight of the world” a Record editor writes today as the U.S. uneventfully enters its second month of war.

The U.S. declared war on Germany on April 6. Germany has been at war with France, Great Britain, Russia and other allies since the summer of 1914. By our paper’s estimate, five million people have been killed in the war since then.

“Faith in the upward evolution of humanity is wavering,” the editor notes, “The very existence of moral standards is questioned; woman, losing her high place in the progress of the race, is being looked upon by the entire German machine as merely the instrument for brutal passion and unabridged cruelty.

“Such is the change of these brief years. Blotted out entirely are many of the beliefs of man regarding brotherhood, international amity and the friendly parliament of the powers….We speak of the Dark Ages. In comparison with this there never were any Dark Ages. The blackest of them was a blaze of noon beside the horrors of these terrible years of the twentieth century.”

While the U.S. has only just joined the war, our writer holds Americans partly to blame for the current world predicament. “America, hitherto considered the leader in democratic thought, has hesitated, argued and side-stepped, and now that at last it has entered the conflict, it has been debating on non- essentials for a month while France has been bleeding to death.”

Having painted a pessimistic word-picture, our editor asks, “Is this the end of our dreams? Has the hope of civilization passed away? Is the structure we have raised founded upon shifting sand?”

The editor proves less pessimistic than he let on at first. Midnight may be the darkest hour, but it also marks the beginning of a new day.

“Let it not be forgotten that it is always darkest before dawn. The morning always follows midnight; and out of the fearful blackness of the night will be born the sunlight of the morrow. Even now those who stand upon the mountain peaks think they can see the first dim promise of the coming day. Nature is still true and our hearts can face the future without misgivings if we will but remember that morning never failed us yet.

“Though we must travel through the valley of the shadow of death, the stars are still burning overhead and the God above them ‘slumbers not nor sleeps.’ The way is long and the darkness of the world’s midnight is thick; but no night was ever so dark that it did not relent before the sun.”