Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1913-07-10
VETERANS HEAR
THE PRESIDENT
Mr.. Wilson Delivers Address at
Gettysburg Celebration.
DRAWS LESSON FROM BATTLE
Declares Great Army Of the People
Must Fight Peacefully to
Perfect the Nation
All Love.

Gettysburg, Pa, July 4.-National
day In the semi-centennial celebration
of the Battle of Gettysburg was made
especially notable by an address de-
1ivered by President Woodrow Wilson.
In his audience were many thousands
of the veterans who fought in the
great battle, as well as a great throng
of other visitors.
The presidents address follows:
Friends and Fellow Citizens: l need
not tell you what the battle Of Gettys-
burg meant. These gallant men in
blue and gray sit all about US here.
Many of them met here upon this
ground In grim and deadly struggle.
Upon these famous fields and hillsides
their comrades died about them. In
their presence 1t were al i~mpertinence
to discourse upon how the battle went,
how 1t ended, what it %signifed! But
so years have gone by since then and
I crave the privilege of speaking to
you for a few minutes Of what those
80 years have meant.
What have they meant? They have
meant peace and union and vigcr, and
the maturity and might of a great ma
ton. How wholesome and healing the
peace has been! We have found one
another again ms brothers and COM
rades in arms, enemies mo longer, gen
.erous friends rather, our battles long
past, the quarrel forgotten-except
that we shall not forget the splendid
valor, the manly devotion Of the men
then arrayed against n another, now
igrasping hands and smiling into each
others eyes. How complete the union
has become and how dear to all Of us,
how unquestioned, how benign and
majestic, as state after state has been
added to this great family OF free
men! How handsome the vigor, the
maturity, the might of the great ma
ton we love with undivided hearts;
how full of large and confident prom
ise that a life will be wrought out
that will crown it's strength with gra-
,cious justice and a happy welfare that
will touch all alike with deep content
ment! We are debtors to those SO
crowded years; they have made us
heirs to q mighty heritage.
Nation Not Finished.
But do we deem the nation com
plete and %1nighed? These venerable
men crowdinS here to this famous
field have set us a great example OF
devotion and utter sacrifice. They
were willing to die hat the people
might live. But their task Is done
Their day is turned into evening. They
look to us to perfect what they estab
lished. Their work is handed on tc
us, to be done in another way but no
in another spirit. Our day is not over
1t is Upon us in full tide.
Have affairs paused? Does thu
nation stand still? Is 1t what the 81
years have wrought since those day
of battle finished, rounded out, ant
completed? Here is a great people
great with every force that has eve.
beaten in the life blood Of mankind
And it is secure. There is no on
within its borders, there Is N
wv among the nations Of the earth
to make it afraid. But has it We
squared itself with it's own grea
standards set up at its birth, when
made that first noble, naive appeal t
the moral judgment of mankind t
take notice that a government ha
now at last been established whic
was to serve men, not masters? 1t
secure in everything except the satl'
faction that its life is right, adjuste
to the ottermost to the standards {
Righteousness and humanity. tn
days Of sacrifice and cleansing al
not closed. We have harder thing
to do than we're done in the hero
days Of war, because harder to sc
clearly, requiring more vision, mol
calm balance of Judgment, a mol
candid searching Of the very spring
of right.
Tribute to Their vaIor.
LOOK around you upon the field
Gettysburg! Picture the array, Il
fierce heats and agony of battle, CT
umn. hurled against column, bate
believing to battery! Valor? Ye
Greater no man shall see in war; al
self-sacriice, and loss to the ute
most; the high recklessness Of exa
ed devotion which does not count t
cost. We are made by these trag
epic things to know what it costs
make a nation-the blood and sac
flee Of multitudes Of unknown m
lifted to a great stature in the viz
of all generations by knowing no lin
to their manly willingness to SER
In armies thus marshaled from t
ranks Of free men you will see, as
were. a nation embattled, the leade
and the led, and may know, II y
will, how little except in form
action differs in days Of peace FRI
its action In days Of war.
May we break camp now and be
ease? Are the forces that fight for
Nation dispersed, d%isbanded, gone
their homes forgetful OF the comm
cause? Are our forces disorganiz
without constituted leaders and
might of men consciously united
cause we contend, not with armies,
with p~rincipalities and powers Q
w~ickedness in high places. Are
content to lie still? Does our un
mean sympathy, our peace contt
ment, our vlgor right action, our
turfty self.comprehension M a cl