Marietta daily leader. (Marietta, Ohio) 1895-1906, 1901-06-01
|COnSorvatOTS of Peace
-1HE-
Bu|Wark Of the Nation,

lectual Harrison, and the statesman
like Mckinley.
To have lived real fighting sol
dier's life means that you have he
come well acquainted with that bleak
borderland Of brooding darkness
and it means also that life
has afforded you opportunities
of adding to the rewnown of
your nation, and therefore to it's pow
er. Your country's glory is no mere
sentimental, Intangible possession, but
it has a meaning to you, which per-
haps those who have not had similar
exrcr.c-cc ca~rCt l:now, aad hence
there is danger in times of peace, when
the sky is clear when the nation is
prCspe. Gus, for men to become careless
and Indifferent, and some even go so
far as to forget in their mad scramble
for wealth and power that they were
given sacred trust. and like the just
steward they should be true to that
trust. They forget that the sacrifices
and lcsses CT the da-s CT '7G and vi
were made that The nation might have
such glorious future.
All that is best and noblest in man
is cradeled in the love of home and
country. From it springs that mater
ial glory, without which no nation can
be great or last long.
Let us then be true soldiers at heart
although only a few wear the immortal
blue. A determination to do our duty
by our country come what may, is
noble resolve that lifts men out of the
slough of selfishness where so many
live and are content to die.
BE noble, and the nobeness that
lies in other men sleeping, but never
dead, will rise in majesty to meet
thine own"
'|hen three years ago our nation
was again compelled to pass through
crisis, and when it was necessary for
the highest kind of wisdom to be
shown by our statesmen, many of the
younger men demanded immediate
war. Our President was called a cow
ard, traitor, because he would not
accede to the demands of some his less
far seeing countrymen But the vet
Grams of our nation upheld the Presi-
dent in his desire to exhaust every
possible means of bringing about peace
and to have war only as last resort
These men who know what it meant
were not going blindly into a struggle
until they had good and sufficient rea-
son, when the honor of this nation was
| at stake, then it was that they coun-
seled war. But o, the difference be-
| goes blindly into a struggle without
realizing the cost; and he who counts
| the cost and then goes in with set
teeth. Such is the difference between
the ,jingo and the conservator OF
peace.
Many We're the emotions and deep
the thoughts as one stood for hours
and gazed upon the long line of march
ing veterans at Chicago last summer.
1t was not brilliant specific. To
one unfamiliar with the nations his
tory it was perhaps not even an inter-
esting spectacle. But to patriotic
American it was one of the most i'm
posing and awe inspiring sights he
ever gazed upon. There were men
who had gone through scenes awful to
think of in times of peace; and there
were also men who for thirty-five
years had been the main pillars of this
nation.
Some were still able to walk erect
and march in step with the music. but
a greater E;l LCI walked with ~
steady steps and bowed shoulders and
few with cane in hand, still glad to
be able to follow the "Old Flag" but
with less energetic step than when il
was followed down Pennsylvania ave
nue. thirty-fve years before.
Mingled with a feeling of sadness
and sorrow at their shattered ant
thinned ranks, there could not helT
but be feeling of JOY and hope wher
it was remembered that these mel
who had been an army of fighters were
and had been, for thirtyfiv'
years, the greatest army of con
) servatism in our country. And ther
the thought came of the change tha
was gradually taking place as theil
ranks became thinner and thinner
! That change being the shifting of thu
, responsibilities of the government o
our country upon the shoulders of {
! younger generation. Ere many year.
pass and we will be compelled to stee
! this ship Of state without even the ad
1 vice of those whom we now love ant
honor. Are we as patriotic citizen
/ going to accept this responsibility