The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1902-06-06
Memorial Day Address.

dress delivered Memorial Day by Hon.
]. W. Turner:
We do not meet today to honor the
mere soldier. We trust we have out
grown the childish glori6cation OF the
gold starred shoulder and the plume!
Some of the writer's have said that
the object OF war is peace. / move to
strike out tie word peace and insert
pieces!
This, therefore, should be no red
letter day Of the passions stirred by
dreams OF the past, but time Of calm
in which we discover that the strifes
of men on the battlefeld-if they
would secure our approval-must be
subservient, like the competitions OF
peace, to the individual and collective
good!
We will not be drawn away by the
startling and the spectacular.
The question no longer is "Did he
fight well?" bat "What did he fight
for?" Did one draw bis sword for pro-
vocation, or rage OF mastery? In such
case he may have the charity Of our
silence but he cannot have memorial
day with votive Offering Of poem and
Of flowerl
War, as Victor Hugo makes one Of
his characters say, is Of "the brutal
ties OF progress" and we add must
come to the test of conscience like all
more peaceful and ordinary civic life.
1t must bear the impress Of worthy
purpose. Indeed, its worthiness is
sometimes more important than that
of condition of peace, inasmuch as it
is tumultuous fastening to righteous
ends! Here it leaves the gradualistic
movement toward the good and virtue
beco mes cataclysmic and Iaroxysmal-
achieving more for humanity in an
hour than in an age Of forbearance and
peace. There are times when it may
be asked, SIS it peace or war;" and
the answer should be
"Better war by land and sea.
"War with thousand battles and
shaking hundred thrones,''
War is sometimes the "double
quick" in the march for humanity.
Pulsebeats become drumbeats and the
stroke OF the clock,is the sound of the
tocSin! The voices OF men lose their
softness and meditation, and the air is
filled with bugle calls and the shouting
Of captains! -5Thelphysical conflicts OF
men require more character than any
other conditions. They require it tt
sustain and excuse the extraordinary
and peculiar state of warfare!
We sometimes get to thinking tina,
war is a neutral and characterlesi
monster. 1t is never SO. The occa
sion demands more Of virtue and right
eousness than when the "cobweb i:
woven across the lannon's throat"
1t is only ithe old story, that the
right or wrong is never absent from
any human condition, isolated or asso
ciated, and whether it be war or peace
it will be judged equally by the law Of
right. War must have good charac
ter. And when it is possessed of this
it will outvie all other occasions in TIT
interest Of men and peace
II added to this we find that 1t /:
necessary in the interest of self pre-
servation, it makes its last and com
plete apology to the best and most civ
ilized of mankind!
War is always dreadful thing, onl,
to be tolerated In it's ministry for good
1t is clear that the nation as we'll al
the individual when assailed has ;
right to put forth the hand! This ii
the impulse and duty Of self preserva
tion. But the effort to take life ma,
be so vigorous and extreme that tn,
best and sole defense is a question.
1t sometime occurs that the onl.
safety against the smiter is in his be
ing smitten!
If there ever was such a case in bis
tory it was that Of the government o
the United States in 1861.
First, 1t could not have been avoid
ed. We could not "let the south 60,
because that wouldchave resulted II
mayhem Of the body polite. We hat
an un1oubted right to protect our
selves, as men may their natural bod
les from being disnembered.
=
The author Of the "Vestiges Of Gre
alton" notes the fact that many saw
ants Of science claim that they hav,
evidence that there is somehow watt
ed into our atmosphere from the ethe
OF the interstellar spaces some agenc
that clarifies and purifies the circum
ambient air and recreates and pre-
serves our lives! Is 1t not possibl
that a spirit from the beyond pene
trates to and controls states of tn
public mind in the interest of progress
and higher social and political life
A divine Rentgen-ray shone through
the letter OF our human legislation
and showed chattel-slavery, howeve
imbedded in The vowels and consc
nants Of legal language, to be the of
II 80 - IL