Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1910-06-22
"Thc Call Of Duty"
JEROME P. FOGWELI.

In the history of the worlds there are
many deeds of heroism. None, how
ever, can excel the act of the common
soldier of Pompeii. who died at his
post. during the burial of the city by
the ashes of Vesuvius. some eighteen
hundred years ago. He was a soldier
OF the truest type and stood at his
post while others frightened by the
falling ashes fled in fear from the
doomed city. His duty was ever be-
fore him and he preferred death rather
than betrayal of his trust Duty COM
handed him to guard the place. and he
never faltered. Tho sulphureous va
pour of the falling ashes suffocated
him. His body was resolved to dust,
but his memory survives. His helmet.
lance and breastplate are still to be
seen at the Museum at Naples This
soldier was ohedient and disciplined.
Before him there had been but one
course and he had followed it.
This course lies before us al. TO
possess an earnest desire for furthering
the interests of mankind, is indeed a
worthy motive. but it is not sufficient.
We must have not only the willing
spirit. but the skilled brain and the
trained hand. To attain these require
ments, and to use them-this is the
summons of the twentieth century,
this is the call of duty.
{ Duty is the essential element of our
American spirit 1t is the huSle call,
which. drifting family along the dor
mant line. summons us to the field of
battle: it is the buSle call. that mount
ing in vulurrc sounds our advance: it
Is the bugle call. thai, ringing out its
challenge of defiance. kindles within us
the indomitable and resistleSs spirit
which forces us on to victory. This
battlefield is not one of contending hat
talicns. armed with weapons of de-
structiou, but rather the battlefield of
progress whereon the victory lies not
to the man behind the gum but to the
man behind the transit: not TO the man
behind the trench. hut to the man be-
hind the desk; not to the man behind
the firing line. but TO the man behind
the machines of production.
Note the history OF the world. 1t has
been history of conquests-conquests
Tor existence. conuuests for territory
c0nquests for liberty and conquests for
democracy.
Man fought first for his existence,
then as the centuries passed away. ana
the survival of mankind was assured
the desire Ior territory sweeps in we
md the Angles and SaXons invading
bfltan. the Norsemen swooping down
upon the empire of Cbarlemagne; East
erh Europe Hooded with the Tartars
the Mohammedans forcing their way
INTO Spain only to be driven out two
centuries larer by the Christians.
After these mighty struggles the
conquest for liberty began. 1t was the
greatest conflict of them all. Greece
una Rome failed to maintain republics:
roland went through it's hopeless re-
oelllon: Dutchmen fought for their
freedom. the common people of Eng
'and detAroned a tyrannical sovereign
these are conflicts that were fought
iof the cause of liberty.
Later the French and American rev.
olrtionists were successful in their
struggle FOR freedom. These mighty
'empeSts had scarce ended when the
conquest for democracy surged rapidly
INTO the field
This was d proa.ier and more intense
eohtr"versy. During this period the
Podtical cause of Europe ana Amerlcd
was shaped by such men as Mi'abeau
hamilton and Rsmark.
The memory of Waterloo was Still
fresh in mems minds when the nev
struggle for commercial supermac.
arose. 1t was the new evolution. IN
new Renaissance Factories replaced
pattlefields: captains of industry sue
eeeded generals; the sea~~pIowed o.
| vessels Oh commerce in place oil TN
"en'ing steeds of war. 1t was an un
seinsh struggle for civilization.
N our time the world sweeps rapid
"h' swinging in it's restless course Xix
TIC mechanism of a mighty time-piee.
ever rapid. ever powerful, ever impe'
ing The world moves with increase
e"ergy, summoning men to do il