The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-05-30
MEMORY OF ALL HEROES
DECORATION DAY GROWING
WIDER IN ITS SCOPE

WIDER IN ITS SCOPE
For the First Time Since the Gus
tom Was Inaugurated 1t Will he
Celebrated Today In War Time,
and In the Future VIII Be
for All Who Fall ON Battle
Fields.
Washington Bureau st. Paul Globe, !
Corcoran Building. {
Special to The St. Paul Globe.
WASHINGTON, May 29.-The 30th
OF May is always a much observed holt
day in Washington. This is right in
the heart of the battlefield region, with
Antietam and Gettysburg to the north,
and the celebrated Peninsula of Vir-
ginia to the south, and all about the
CITY in every direction are the fields
and scenes made historic by the late
war.
This year, in common with the rest
of the country, Washington will cele-
brate tie first Decoration day since that
observance was instituted, swhen the
nation is at war. This suggests a new
future for the holiday, since holidays,
like men and nations, have their rise
and fall, their origin and decline 1t
has seemed to many persons that Dec
Grafton day must occupy only a tenn
porary place in the list of American
holidays. Strictly speaking, the day in
law and record is set apart in memory
OF the soldiers and sailors of the Union
who lost their lives in the Civil war.
mat was what Gen. Logan intended
in his first order for it's observance.
1t was not meant to honor the men,
cry of the Revolutionary soldiers who
died at Val ey Forge, or the heroes and
martyrs OF any other struggle home or
foreign, except that of the years from
1851 to 1855. Del ghtful as was this idea,
and appropriate as has been its OBJ
servance, the question arises whether
the time has not come for a broadening
OF the meaning and scope Of the holt
day. And this broadening would settle
the question of how to provide for it's
Indefinite perpetuation.
Why not set apart the 30th day Of
May in memory Of our soldiers of all
wars? 1t would thus become a memo
rial OF all who had died in defense of
the nation. It might grow out of our
present Decoration day Just as in
church history, "All Souls Day. grew
out of "All Saints Day." except that
we would have the broader observance
.supplant the more restricted one.
There are already noticeable proofs
that the day is widening in it's scope.
Fire companies decorate the graves of
those who have died in that service.
But by making this an all wars day,
we should escape the danger that fu-
ture generations might forget it, for
xo1x f.
wars for some time to come AS a
Civil war memorial alone, the holiday
is sure to lose it's solemn and sacred
character when the generations that
Know those who fell shall have passed
away.
It is entirely appropriate that Deco
ration day should become as permanent
an observance as the Fourth of July,
and a fitting complement to it, One
is the nations day of fasting, and the
other OF feasting; one an occasion to
ring the bells and shoot skyrockets
In rejoicing, and the other for reflect
Ing upon the more solemn side of our
country's history. Such an observance
would be as helpful in all the future as
it has been in the past 1t would be
commemorative Of American valor and
sacrifice in all wars and upon all fields
The soldiers who fought with Wolfe
on the Plains of Abraham and set the
seal of an English civilization on this
continent would be honcred in the
days observance as well as Ensign Bag
ley, who lost his life in the war that
is destined to put an end to Spanish
misrule on this hemisphere.
By making the holiday one in recog-
milton of all wars, it would become one
in which the North and the South
could unite and celebrate together as
nation. Now, the sections have sepa-
rate memorial days, and the observance
In the South is much different from
that in the North 1t is a sadder day
there, more strictly a memorial day
and less of an occasion for discussing
the country's future and the larger
problems of American citizenship.
To the South the memory of the war
remains much more bitter thing than
to the North; the fighting was on her
soil, and it's devastation has still left
it's keen traces. But the war genera
ton at the South is dying off, and with
1t much of the occasion for sectional
feeling will vanish. In a memorial day
for all wars, including the Civil, the
two sections might now unite on the
Goth day of May. The battle flags are
to be returned without a protest The
first officer killed in this war was a
North Carolinian, and Gems. Lee and
Wheeler, soldiers of the Confederacy,
who a few years ago would not have
been eligible to appointment, are now
the prominent leaders of our volunteer
army. Men who can fight together can
well join hands in memory of those
who fall, not only in this struggle, but
in those which have preceded it in
American history.
There will be trace of disappoint--
ment in this years Decoration day OBJ
servance to think that we cannot much
longer look back to the Civil struggle
as the last war;" and that another
dread conflict has come upon us while
the work of mending the bruises of it's
predecessor is still so far from finished.