River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1913-07-10

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clearly, requiring more vision, more
calm balance of judgment, a more
candid searching of the very springs
of right.
Tribute to Their VaIor.
Look around you upon the field OF
Gettysburg! Picture the array, the
fierce heats and agony of battle, col
umn hurled against column, battery
believing to battery! Valor? Yesl
Greater no man shall see in war; and
self-sacrif1ce, and loss to the utter
most; the high recklessness of exalt-
ed devotion which does not count the
cost. We are made by these tragic,
epic things to know what it costs to-
make a nation-the blood and sacri-
fee of multitudes Of unknown men
lifted to great stature in the view
of all generations by knowing no limit
: to their manly willingness to serve.
In armies thus marshaled from the
ranks of free men you will see, as it
were, a nation embattled, the leaders
and the led, and may know. If YOU
will, how little except in form it's
action differs In days of peace from
it's action In days Of war.
May we break camp now and be at
ease? Are the forces that fight for the
Nation dispersed, disbanded, gone to
their homes forgetful of the common
cause? Are our forces disorganized,
without constituted leaders and the
might OF men consciously united be-
cause we contend, not with armies, but
with principalities and powers and
wickedness in high places. Are we
content to lie still? Does our union
mean sympathy, our peace content
ment, our vigor right action, our ma
turity self-comprehension and clear
confidence In choosing what we shall
do? War fitted us for action, and ac-
ton never ceases.
Our Laws the Orders of the Day.
I have been chosen the leader of
the Nation. l cannot ] Istify the choice
by any qualities Of my own but SO 1t
has come about, and here | stand.
Whom do l command? The ghostly
hosts who fought upon these battle
fields long ago and are gone? These
gallant gentlemen stricken In years
whose fighting days are over, their
glory won? What are the orders for
them, who rallies them? | have In my
mind another host, whom these SET
free of civil strife in order that they
| might work out In days of peace and
settled order the life of great ma
ton. That host is the people them
selves, the great and the small, with
out class or difference of kind or
race or origin; and undivided In inter
| est If we have but the vision to guide
and direct them and order their lives
Alright in what we do Our constttu-
| tons are their articles OF enlistment
The orders of the day are the laws
upon our statute books. What we
strive for is their freedom, their right
to lift themselves from day to day and
behold the things they have hoped
| for, and so make way for still better
| days for those whom they love who
are to come after them. The recruits
are the little children crowding in.
The quartermaster's stores are in the
mines and forests and fields, In the
shops and factories. Every day some
thing must be done to push the cam
paign forward; and it must be done
by plan and with an eye to some great
| destiny.
How shall we hold such thoughts in
our hearts and not be moved? l
would not have you live even today
wholly in the past, but would wish to
stand with you in the light that
streams upon us now out Of that
J great day gone by. Here is the ma
! ton God has builded by our hands.
What shall we do with it? Who stands
ready to act again and always In the
spirit of this day Of reunion and hope
and patriotic fervor? The day Of our
| oountry's life has but broadened into
morning. Do not put uniforms by.
/ Put the harness of the present on.
LIT your eyes to the great tracts OF
/ LIE yet to be conquered in the inter
est Of righteous peace, Of that pros
perity which lies in peoples hearts
and outlasts all wars and errors or
men. Come, let us be comrades and
soldiers yet to serve our fellow men
in quiet counsel, where the blare OF
trumpets Is neither heard nor needed
and where the things are done which
make blessed the nations OF the world
in peace and righteousness and love.