Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1911-05-17
SUP1. TAYLOR
URGES MEMORIAL
DAY OBSERVANCE
TEACHERS ARE REQUESTED TO
PREPARE PROGRAMME.
TO DO HONOR TO MARTYRS
EXERCISES TO BE
HELD IN SCHOOLS OF STATE.
instructors Asked to Tell Pupils Of
What Memorial Day Means, and Of
Something Of the Hardships Endured
BY Those Who Fought on Either
Side in Awful Struggle.

Bismarck. N. D., April 10, 1911.
To the teachers and superintendent
of North Dakota:
The state department of education
will not issue Memorial day manual
for 1911, but will issue this circular
letter to call attention to and urge
a proper observance of that day. Six
years ago the following letter was
sent out to our teachers and as it ap
Iplies fully as well to present conditions
as it did when issued, we publish it
again. hoping that it may prove a
proper stimulus to those in charge OF
our schools to make Memorial day 1911
one which will be long remembered in
our state.
"Forty-six years have passed away
since Lee surrendered at Appomatox.
Forty-six years of history have been
made since Abraham Lincoln gave
his life. last awful sacrifice in a great
fratricidal conflict. Little indeed is
most of your teachers have concerning
the realities of that great struggle, yet
each of you, as you study of the great.
ness of this country, can family ap-
preciate what it has meant to preserve
this glorious land of ours. What
marvellous development has been ours
in these 10 years. What preemi-
nent position in that our country oc-
pies today among the nations of the
earth. What might have been the re-
suit had the war for the preservation
of the Union failed, We do not desire
to contemplate. 1t is enough that the
Union was saved and that the Stars
and Stripes wave from the lakes to the
gulf and from ocean to ocean.
We see what is ours to enjoy. Yet
as we contemplate the blessings that
are ours our thoughts must turn to the
sacrifice which was made by men and
women of our country in the days
from 81 to '65. What a privilege it
is to pay tribute to those who gave
their lives that government of the peo-
pie, by the people nd for the people
shall! not perish from the earth. How
glad should we be that we have an
opportunity still to honor in life some
of these brave defenders of our ma
tons integrity. True it is that their
ranks are thinning rapidly. Whiten-
ing locks and bending frames tell all
too we'll the ravages of time have left
indelible marks.
In every school in this fair state
some exercises should take place
that will call attention to the debt of
gratitude which this generation owes
to those who wore "the blue"
It is little thing to strew flowers
upon the grave, yet nothing is sweet
er symbolism than the offerin of
spring blossoms. Let us do this, not
only'to honor the memory of those who
have pitched their tents on flames
Eternal Camping Ground" but also
"lest We forget, lest we forget" what
bounties we now enjoy through the
sacrifice which was made for our COM
mon country in those four trying years
of long ago, and in doing all these
things we need not keep alive the Bit
terness Of civil strife, but rather glori-
fy the fact that We come from a stock
that. was willing to make the last sacri-
fee for what they believed was right.
There is rejoicing North, South, East
and West, that we are one nation;
there is pride everywhere in our great
ness and in teh fact that, more than
any other nation, we stand for peace,
justice and righteousness among the
nations.
Let May 30, 1911. then, in the
schools Of worth Dakota be given over
to proper observance of day which
should be sacred to US all, and while
we pay tribute to valor and sacrifice
in war, let us not forget that there 10
honor in living for and serving with
honest endeavor our beloved country.
Sincerely yours,
E. J. TAYLOR,
Superintendent of Public Instruction.
Glitschka sells corn fed beef.