Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1911-05-31
Speaks al National Gene
terry Before 10000,
Most Impressive Observance
Washington Ever Has Seen.
President Declares Every Effort
Ought 10 Be TO Avold War.

| Washington. May So.-Under the
| shaded arches of the Arlington Ma
tional Cemetery President Taft spoke
| today, not so much as the friend oil
peace, but the enemy of war. Ten
thousand veterans either trudged the
dusty roads to Arlington to hear the
President speak or came in automo-
biles and by street cars. Secretary of
War Stimson came to the cemetery
with President Taft. 1t was probably
the most impressive and most largely
|attended memorial Gay celebration
Washington has ever seen.
Far be it from me" said the Presl-
dent, Ito minimize in any way by sug-
gestions the debt we owe to the men
buried here. who carried on the sue
cessful struggle that resulted in the
abolition of the cancer of slavery and
which seemed ineradieable save by
such an awful slaughter of the bright
est and brayest and best of the ma
tons youth and manhood.
Il shall not stop to discuss whether
it might have been possible to accom-
plish the same great reform by milder
methods Whether that be true or not.
who lie about us. in the cause of adj
vancing humanity can never be les
sened or obscured by such a sugges-
ton. But the thought at which l would
but hint this morning is that even in
the hallowed presence of these dead,
whose ideals of patriotism and love Of
their countrymen, it needed a war to
make everlastingly evident, we should
abate no effort and should strain every
nerve and avail ourselves of every
honorable possible device to avoid war
in the future.
Il am not blind to the aid in Great
ing sturdy manhood that the military
discipline we see in the standing armies
of Europe and in the regular army of
this country furnishes. nor do I de-
ny the incidental benefits that may
grow out of the exigencies and Sc
quelae of war. But when books ore bal
anced, the awful horrors of either in
ternacine or international strife far
outweigh the benefits that may be
traced TO it.
Let us leave this beautiful city of
the national dead. therefore, with the
deepest gratitude to the men whose
valorous deeds we celebrate and whose
memories we cherish with the tender
est appropriations of the value of the
examples they set but with a deter
mination in every way possible consist
ent with honesty and manly and ma
tional self-restraint to avoid the neces-
sity for the display of that supreme
self-sacrifice that we commemorate
TODAY in them
1t was not long ago the President
said, when an insult by one man to an
other in the same social class could on
ly be wiped out in blood and il took
more moral courage to avoid duel
than to fight one. But We have
progressed away from that idea, he
said.
IF that be true now why may 1t not
be true in the near future of nations.
Why will it not show more patriotism
and more love of country to refuse to
so to war for an insult and to sub
nit to the arbtratment of a peaceful
tribunal. than to subject whole peo-
pie to the misery and suffering and
burden of heavy cost of a national
war. however CLOSED over by the ex-
element and ambitions and glory OF
successful eonquent.''