The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1911-02-25
HONOR TO THE SOLDIER
Address by Archbishop ireland, Creve-
coeur Club, Peoria, ILL.,, Febru-
ary 22nd, 1911.


Honor to the soldier Honor to
George Washington, the premier SOL
der of America to whom goes out
Americas highest honor, Americas
warmest love and gratitude! Honor
to the soldier of America, whoever he
be, who bears out in his own life the
patriotism of George Washington, the
prompt resolve of George Washington
to do and to die for country's veal
and country's freedom!
Bid Americas admiration and love
pencil upon canvas scenes in the ca
reer of Washington, where his gran
deur of soul radiates in purest light,
where the righteousness of his claim
that remembrance of him be eternal
most daringly challenges denial, the
scenes will be Valley Forge and York
town-and in both we contemplate the
soldier-in one, the soldier still yalor-
Gus, still grasping with firm hand the
sword that perchance may save AM
erica, though the sole presage from
darkened skies be that of disaster and
defeat-in the other, the soldier thrill
ed to deepest chord with sweetest joy
BUSINESS as victory at last places the
garlands of immortality upon the flag
of America, for which he had toiled
and suffered, for which, oft and oft,
without fear or tremble, he had ridden
undismayed into the jaws of awaiting
death.
Yho Fol Of h. 10.
spangled banner refuses honor to the
soldier of Valley Forge and of York
town? Who fails to proclaim that to
George Washington, the soldier, we
owe America-our country the treas
ures so rich, SO rare, wrapt up, in the
words, our country? And, then, who,
honoring the soldier, George Washing
ton, will not honor the soldier whoever
he be, whose life-blood is today at the
service of America, as was of yore
the life-blood of George Washington?
There are those who dfsparage the sol
der: I stand among his defenders.
Criticism of the soldier comes from
two classes; one, men who see in the
soldier the representative and uphold
er of law and order which they fain
would uproot-anarchists in mind and
act; the other, men with best inten-
tions toward society and country, who
hate the soldier because he symbolizes
the field of battle, which they hold
ever unnecessary, ever barbarous,
ever wrong-ultra- -pacifcists, pacifi-
cists easily winged away beyond the
borders of dreamland from abiding
conditions in the life of humanity
Anarchists and the Soldier.
/ No need is there that | defend the
soldier from the hatred of the anar-
chist. This hatred in itself argues in
favor of the soldier You are aware
that anarchistic hatred of the soldier
burns within many bosoms, and daily
wakes the more bitter in feeling, the
more boisterous in explosion. Right in
America it is manifest now and then in
public speech and overt act, more fre-
IQuently in sullen and persistent oppo-
sition to the employ of Federal SOL
diery or state militia in the enforce
/ ment of government. In countries OF
Europe the hatred of the soldier is
more pronounced, more violent There
the 'Internationale" insults both SOL
1ier and ffag-the soldier, because he
bears aloft the flag; the flag, because
it symbolizes security of life and prop
erty. The opposition of anarchists to
the soldier proves the need there is
of the soldier, and indicates the moral
support and esteem due to him from
all who love country and prize within
it peace and social order.
Uitra-Pacificists and the Soldier.
i | turn to the ultra-pacificists | say,
ultra-pacificists; for within proper
bounds I, too, am a pacifcist, yield
ing to none in my love of peace, in
my antipathy to war.
The shedding of human blood on the
battlefield is horrid. Name it, if you
will, cruel, barbarous: / do not ask
you to speak less harshly of it. But
that it is ever unnecessary, ever inn
moral, I will not allow you to say
else, / should authorize you to vow to
infamy the history of nations, the his
tory of America; else, / should au-
thorize you to spread the pail of shame
and dishonor across Bunker Hill and
Saratoga, across Vicksburg, Gettys-
burg and Atlanta; should authorize
you to stigmatize as murderers Wash
ington and Rochambeau, Grant, Sher-
man and Sheridan.
}, War is horrid 1t is the taking of
: life from brother man: It is the
! spilling out of ones own life. Yet at
: times war is inevitable that things
! more precious than human life be safe
! guarded. Within their borders a peo-
} pie DEGREES, and righteously so, that
, though blood flow, property shall be
I safe-guarded, lives of citizens put out
J iof peril, the sovereignty of the com
, monwealth made inviolate This is
war: but this war we must have,
under penalty of social chaos, of ruin
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