The Washington herald., 1907-04-13


out of the war having learned, so far as
we needed 10 learn, the lesson OF the
heartiest admiration Tor the officers and
enlisted rnen of the regular army and
navy of the United States. 1t was our
business to serve in the army for short
while. 1t is yours to serve as your HE
work. You do for the country what no
other body of its fellow citizens can do.
and / am sure that all volunteers cam5
out Of the war feeling, as / certainly did,
that il should be our aim thereafter ~
private life OF in public life to do every
thing that lay in our power for the army
and navy of the Union. for the army and
the navy which, by their readiness for
war; make the greatest guaranty tor
peace that this country possesses.
Marks Complete Reunion.
There was one peculiar reason for
pleasure in the Spanish-American war,
one reason above all others why our peo-
nle should look back TO it with pride and
satisfaction, and that is the fact that It
marked in very truth the complete re-
union of our country
"In that war there served in the ranks
and in the positions OF junior officers the
sons OF men who had worn the blue and
the sons of men who had Worn the gray;
and they served under men who, in their
youth. had begun their careers as sol
deTs. some of them in the army Of Grant
some of them in the army Of Lee. Side
by side with Young ard Chaffee and Law
ton served Wheeler and Fitzhugh Lee.
I'm our own regiment there were at
least as many sons Of ex-COnfederates as
sons Of ex-Union soldiers, and they stood
shoulder TO shoulder. knit together by the
e1aaoer rf ~1 - -fua with
respect 90 one another only that generous
jealousy each TO try 10 be 6rst to do all
that in him lay for the honor and the
interest Of the flag that covered the re-
united country.
"There is another lesson taught by every
war we'll waged, taught pre-eminentiy by
the civil war but taught also by any les
ser war such as that in which we were en-
gagged. That is the lesson of real demOc-
racy, which consists in treating each man
in good faith on his worth as man. II is
a mighty good thing for all Of us 10 be
thrown into intimate contact with one an
other under circumstances which test the
real worth OF each OF us, and there is
nothing that win give man clearer
idea OF the value OF his fellow than to lie
in the same trench with him. 10 march
beside him. TO be IN camp with him, and
70 be under fire through "a days good stiff
dghting with him.
On Equal Footing.
"That will try out a man; you viii find
out what he is worth then. BY the end OF
that day you won't care a snap of your
finger whether he has been a banker or
bricklayer. whether be is rich man or a
poor man. what his occupation is. where
he was born, or how he worshiDs his
Maker. What you will care to learn is il
ne has the right stuff in him.
when you started in the morning on a
march and divided up the three days IA
tons with your buHky you wanted TO be
dead sure that the bunlSy did not throw
away his half and then come in in the
evening and want 70 share yours
What is more. you did not want any
man around who was always waiting fer
the heroic times and who did not care to
begin To do his duty until they arrived
The man You cared for was the man who
did his ordinary plain duty right along.
just as it came, from digging sinks and
policing camp to leading a forloln hope
"An of this contains just the lesson
that we need most in our civil life We
could not get on In the army, we never
could conduct a war 20 a successful con-
clusion. if we permitted ourselves TO be
sundered by any class or caste or social
or sectional or religious prejudice and we
cannot conduct the affairs of this nation
as they can and shall be conducted, save
by putting into effect the same traits that
enable us 10 do well TN war.
"DistTust above all other uien the man
who seeks 70 make YOU pass judgment
upon Your fellOw-citizens upon any
ground IF artificial distinction between
you ana them. Distrust the man who
seeks to get you TO favor them or dis
criminate against them either because
they are well of or not well off. because
they. occupy one social position or another.
because they live in one part of the coun-
try or another. or because they profess
one creed or another.
Arrogance aud Envy Alike.
Remember this: Arrogance and envy
are not different qualities: they are mere
ly different manifestations OF the same
qualities. The rich man VINO looks down
upon or oppresses the poor man IS the
man who. If poor, would envy and hate
the man who was richer. Conversely, the
poor man who regards with bitter and
malignant envy the man who is better
of. who breaches the doctrine OF hate
toward that man. is himself the man who,
if it had happened that he were rich,
would grind down the faces of those VINO
were less well off than he
You can pretty Well tell in the ranks
whether the man is the type Of man you
would be willing to work alongside of or
under or 10 have work under you. II he
has the quality that makes him a good
man in one relation, he is apt TO have the
quality that would make him good
In fa4k
words. friends we cannot afford in our
civic life to permit the existence OF any
save the standard of conduct
as being the standard by which We judge
our fellow-citizens We cannot AFFORD 10
Judge him by the accident of his position.
We must judge him by the fundamentals
of his charactsr-by what there is in him
not by where it happens that he is
placed,
Let rs remember, all Of us, that while
now and then a good deal can be done by
legislation. yet that fundamentally, in
the last resort, what counts is less the
outward law than the soul of the man
VINO stands behind the law. In war you
can do nothing without proper discipline
and training yet there are some men
whom you might train and discipline until
eternity andi they would not be worth
anything then: whom you cannot get
anything cut Of, because it is not in
them to get out. So it is in civil affairs.
If the average citizen has not got the
right qualities in him, then the best con
stitution the best laws, the best admins
tration Of the laws that the wit of man
can devise win avail nothing to save the
nation
ssYVtfe a Better Fellow"
IF the average man. the average wonl-
an. Is not Of the right type. the nation |
viii ge down and l think on the whole