Albuquerque daily citizen. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1895-1903, 1902-05-30
NATIONS TRIBUTE
President Rooseve|t's S
Grafton at Arlington.
Monument Unveiled at Kan
sas City.
Bronze Bust of President Mckinley
was Unveiled.
C0NFEDERATES REMEMBERED.

Washington, May 3O.-Decoration
Day was observed here today perhaps
more generally than ever before. The
announcement that President Roose-
yelt would deliver the Grafton at Ar
lington brought to that historic city of
the dead vast concourse of people.
The local arrangements in charge of
the Department of the Potomac includ-
ed a parade of all G. A. R. and other
patriotic organizations, the decoration
of monuments and graves and ad-
dresses by men prominent in the af-
fairs of the government.
A touching feature of the work of
decorating was the strewing of flowers
over the graves of the confederate
dead who lie buried in a section of the
cemetery.
as follows:
1t is good custom for our country
to have certain solemn holidays in
commemoration of our greatest men
and of the greatest crises in our his
tory. There should be but few such
holidays. To increase their number is
to cheaper them. Washington and
Lincoln-the man who did most to
found the union, and the man who did
most to preserve it-stand head and
shoulders above all our other public
men, and have by common consent won
the right to this pre-eminence. Among
the holidays which commemorate the
turning points in American history,
Thanksgiving has a significance pecu-
liarly it's own. On July we celebrate
the birth of the nation; ON this day, the
30th of May, we call to mind the deaths
xtrAo so1 that
might live, who wagered all that life
holds dear for the great prize of death
in battle, who poured out their blood
like water in order that the mighty ma
tional structure raised by the far-see-
ing patriotism of Washington, Frank
lin Marshall Hamilton and the other
great leaders of the revolution, great
trainers of the constitution, should not
crumble into meaningless ruins.
Performed the Task.
You whom address today and your
comrades who wore the blue beside
you in the perilous years during which
strong, sad, patient Lincoln bore the
crushing load of national leadership,
performed the one feat the failure to
perform which would have meant de-
struction to everything which makes
the name America a symbol OF hope
among the nations of mankind. You
did the greatest and most necessary
task which has ever fallen to the lot of
any men on this western hemisphere.
Nearly three centuries have passed
since the waters of our coasts were
first furrowed by the keels of the men
whose childrens children were to in
herit this fair land. Over a century
and a half of colonial growth followed
the settlement; and now for over a
century and a quarter we have been a
nation.
During our four generations of ma
tional life we have had to do many
tasks. and some of them of far-reach-
ing Importance; but the only really
vital task was the one you did, the
task of saving the union. There were
other crises in which to have gone
wrong would have meant disaster; but
this was the one crisis in which to
have gone wrong would have meant
not merely disaster but annihilation.
For failure at any other point atone
ment could have been made; but had
you failed in the iron days the loss
would have been irreparable, the defeat
irretrieyable. Upon your success de-
pended all the future of the people on
this continent, and much of the future
of mankind as whole.
A Reunited Country.
You left us a reunited country. You
left us the right of brotherhood with
the men in gray, who with such cour-
age, and such devotion for what they
deemed the right, fought against you.
But you left us much more even than
your achievement, for you left us the
memory of how it was achieved. You,
who made good by your valor and pa
triotism the craftsmanship of Lincoln
and the soldiership of Grant, have set
as the standards Tor our efforts in the
future both the way you did your work
in war and the way in which when the
war was over you turned again to the
work of peace. In war and in peace
alike your example will stand as the
wisest OF lessons TO us and our chill
dren and our childTen's children.
The War of Today.
Just at this moment the army of the
limited States, lea by men who served
among you in the great war, is carry
ing to completion a small but peeu'
iiarly trying and difficult war in which
is involved not only the honor OF the
flag but the triumph OF clylllZatlon
over forces which stand for the black
chaos of savagery and barbarism. the
task has not been as difficult or as I'M
portant as yours, but, oh, my COM