The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1904-06-05

ported President Ijneol, a.,... .hat
eNenlul period. Aye there we're giants
-, 'l h,9, uays' But the giants upon Capt.
W M, whose moral courage and I'M
d,sa, ms ios%i'y We're tried and proved.
deserve our honor as much as do the
giants fighting at the FROM
Which Most Deserve Honor?
Place side by side. If you will. those
~ H.1,,,, personalities John Sherman
ana William I. Sherman. They we're
brothers; they were both ganl,,s. A.
we look over the pages of hlstag,5 II IL
a very debatable question which .bo,,ld
De honored the more and WIN dId tho
more valiant service for his country John
VI Hnah one was giant In guiding
ana creating patriotic legislation. the
| other a giant in military strategy ,at
today In almost every city you can sec
fifty pictures of William T. sherman
where you will find one Of his patrIotte
brother who was senator of the tinted
States from 1861 to 1877. The vital lmnor-
lance OF the work done by our national
legislators can never be better Illustrated
IMAM IN the lie of James A. Garfield He
was one of the most brilliant volunteer
soldiers of the war. From the presiden-
tai chair of Hiram college In 1861 he
stepped into the military camp and dom
ned a soldiers uniform. Within two
years he wore the shoulder straps of n
major general. Yet Abraham Lincoln
placed his hand upon the brilliant chief
OF Rosecrans staff and said: Garfield.
need you more In congress than | do in
the Held Resign your soldiers commits
sion and as congressman come and he1p
me. Thus today | do not only honor the
soldier, but also the legislator. | honor
' James Garfield, the general | also
| honor James a Garfield, the Ohio con-
gresham. In both positions he did val
liable and heroic service
On this memorial day the brother who
stayed at home and worked the farm
| should be praised as well as the Young
nun who vert to the front and was mem
toned for heroic deed In the com
manders dispatch The young man who
sank his personality In the more common
! but equally needfu duties of home life
might have been even Drawer and more
unselfish than the soldier boy who march
| ed down the main street of his native town
| or city, keeping steps to the strains of
martial music, and whose train pulled out
OF his home depot amid the shouts and
huzzas of admlrng friends who came to
bid them goodbye.
Boys Who Stayed at Home.
Let me illustrate what | mean by prais-
| ing the boy who stayed at home to work
tile farm. Some time ago was attending
a soldiers reunion. 1t was a most I'M
presslFe spectacle, that assembly of aged
men, Yes. the ranks of the old soldier
are thinning very rapidly. We shall not
=, have them with us long. But though
these veterans were very cid when they
| hegan to tell their campfire stories as
thels narrative proceeded they seemed to
become boys again. Among the stories
told was one that I shall never forget
Did you have any brothers In the army?
asked an aged soldier res, one" was
the answer. There were three boys of
Us. We all wanted to go, but father and
mother We're getting old. and some one
had to stay at home and look after Tho
old folks ando ur younger sisters. So one
night We had a family convocatlon At
ter the family talk we three sons and
mother and father decided that two of
US boys could go to the war but that
one should stay at home and work the
farm. Who were to go? Who was to stay
at home?. We all wanted to go and fight
50 we decided to draw lots Mother held
the book and put In the three slips of pa
per with enc marked stay at home We
drew. John and myself went to the
front. Harry stayed at home" did
your brother regret that he had to stay"
',-'h yes. But some one had to stay and
so he simply swallowed his disappoint-
ment. Yes we two boys could never
have gone to the front but for Harry's
Tot just as patriotic as the two who
went forth to battle? Let us then place
a flower over lis grave as we'll upon
the graves of those who went to the war
Let us realize that the stay at homes
sometimes eveinced greater moral cour-
age. made more heroic self-saerifice and
endured greater dlsappointments than the
ones who went to the front.
In this memorial address we would ac-
Il aft+xr
service--the contractors who furnished
the blankets and the shoes and the tents
and the food and the guns. the patriotic
bankers and the railroad men, like Thorn
as Alexander Scott. who did such Yalua-
| BILE service in rushing the troops to their
ultimate destinations. We would praise
| the newspaper editors. who moulded pub
lie opinion so that the right men were
elected to congress, and the newspaper
reporters, who risked life and limb to
carry back news from the front, of what
husbands, fathers and brothers had suf-
! fered under the tornadoes of shot and
sht IL In the last battle We would praise
/ such men as A. K. Mcclure of the Phil
adelphia Press with whom Lincoln was
| In closest contact, and Joseph Medlll, OF
the Chicago Tribune, and. James Gordon
| Bennett. of the New York Herald lhese
men never were able to wear grand ar
/
stories at the grand army reunions, but
| they had their part In the great strug-
gle. But for their enterprise their dar-
| i:tg. their patriotic devotion we should
never have had the records of valor which
are now our priceless possession
Services of Charles A. Dana.
! 1t Is a very grave question whether
| Abraham Lincoln could not have better
parted with almost any one of his major
generals than he could have lost That
genius of railroad organizing, Thomas
Alexander Scott. 1t is very grave ques-
tion whether u s. Grant would not
have been deposed from his eoinihhna anu
sent hack home in disgrace had It not
beer for Charles A. Dana, VINO as lne
nersonal representative of Lincoln, went
to the front and exposed ana denonheeu
the false scandals which were being cir
eulated about the silent warrior of the
west. 1t is a very grave question wheth-
or Salmon p. Chase could have ever
successfully financiered the United States
bonds which paid the running expenses
of the war government costing at that
time millions of dollars each month, un-
less he had ben backed up by Jay COOKE
the Philadelphia capitalist, who was 10
Lincoln what Robert Morris was 10
George Washington in the Revolution 80
today | impartlally praise the patriolc
soldier, the patriotic railroad man. the
| patriotic editor, the patriotic financler,
the patriotic contra ctor-MeClure ana
Dana and Scott and Jay Cooke, as wen
as Grant and Sherman and Lee ana
Longstreet and John b. Gordon,
T., tl,te NanortaI dav address WOuld