The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1902-05-22
THE REAL VALUE OF MEMORIAL DAY.

The real value of Memorial Day is 10
the Nation itself-not to those who gave
/ the country the last great gift of their
| lives nor to their Borrowing relatives and
| friends.
We honor the men who have died, not
merely to give them the richly deserved
| tribute but TO benefit the whole Nation,
now and forever The whole fabric of
lour institutions rests upon the cornerstone
of the patriotism and devotion of the COM
mon people. Our National life, liberty and
| independence-all that goes to make the
United States great and envied among the
Nations of the earth-all that makes
| American citizenship the most valued
| birthright man can have-depend upon
the fact that our people are ready at any
moment to fight and if necessary die to
maintain those institutions.
There is alsolutely no other way to Sc
cure that ma ntenancc. All the oratory,
all the craftsmanship, all the wealth. all
the arts in the world would not do it, if
they were at our command The only Sc
curity is in the absolute determination of
the people to defend and maintain our in
situations. no matter at what cost. There
is no telling when this emergency may
come. The war of the rebellion came as
lightning out of a clear sky. and most peo-
pie believed that there was really going to
be no war, long after it had actually be-
gun. That emergency developed until
some 100000 men were drawn into the
battle for the National life, opposing some
thing over !. 100000 men resolutely bent
upon destroying it. The destruction of the
Nation was only avcrted by having some
hundreds of thousands more brave men
fighting for the country than were fighting
against it.
No one can safely predict that there
will not be another similar mortal cmer-
gency 10 years from now or even sooner.
Such a disaster seems no farther off now
than did the War of the Rebellion to the
best thinkers in the country in the early
sos.
Those who say that as slavery was the
cause of the war and slavery was destroy
ed all danger from rebellion or civil war
has been removed deceive themselves.
There always will be questions arising on
which men will divide bitterly, and the
minority be more or less inclined to fight
Other countries which had no slavery have
had fierce rebellions.
The only insurance against n recurrence
of the awful days of 1916 is the thor
ough education of our people in loyalty.
The more we can exalt patriotic devotion
to our institutions-the more honor we can
give to those who would rather perish
than bc EnvaTnronnt nor
ish-the better we can provide against
any set of men successfully raising bloody
hands against the Nations life.
Memorial Day is the most effective and
impressive of these object lessons in pa
triotism. 1t is the occasion when every
thing else is set aside to give the highest
honor to those who died that the Nation
might live. 1t is the day when We teach
by the utmost force of precept and exam
pie, that though man may have wealth,
eloquence, learning and long pedigree, that
unless he has patriotism he is but ds emp
ty brass and tinkling cymbals. We then
impress upon the rising generation and
the whole people that there is nothing in
life 50 noble, so praiseworthy, so glorious
as to sacrifice oneself upon the altar of the
country for the benefit of all mankind.
Therefore, let us give TO Memorial Day
every respect and sanctity. Let us make
of it a National Sabbath, so reverently OBJ
served, so full of profound meaning to
every heart, so overlooking with loving
honor to those who bore the heat and bvr-
den of the Nations battles, that not only
our own people will be deeply impressed,
but the whole world will be profoundly
moved by sense of the dignity and
grandeur of American citizenship.