The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1915-05-05
SHOULD HONOR
OLD VETERANS
Denison Should Start Now to Arrange
Proper Memorial Services for
the Nations Defenders.
FEW OLD SOLDIERS NOW LEFT
Each Year Many Of the Old Veterans
Answer the Last Roll Call
Ranks Are Thinning Fast

Before many weeks Memorial day
or Decoration day, as it is more ia
miliarly known, will be with us, and
again nation will pay tribute to its
heroic dead, both of the blue and the
y gray. Here in Denison, where the
ranks of the survivors OF the great
struggle of 1S61-65 are growing less,
SO that only mere handful Of the old
veterans are left with us, the day
should be especially observed and the
schools and citizens see that the all
niversary is observed in fitting man
ner worthy of the great cause to which
it has been dedicated by a grateful
people. The arrangements for the
observance of the day will be announ-
ccd in short time to allow everyone
aration for the observance OF the &C.
casion as it should be carried out
Memorial day is legal holiday to
forty of the forty-eight states of the
union and the District of Columbia
Porto Rico and Alaska. The unani-
nifty with which state legislatures
have set apart the day for decorating
the graves of the soldier dead and eel
ebrating their devotion to the country
with song, speech and story, is an evil
dence of almost universal recognition
Of the debt the nation owes the volun-
teer soldier. When the grand review
Of soldiers was held in Washington at
the close of the civil war some indi-
yidual, with a rare insight into the
heart of things, had a huge banner
prepared which bore in bold letters
the legend: 1.-THE only debt this ma
tim can never repay is the debt of
gratitude it owes to the victorious
union soldiers" 1t was at time when
pessimists were harping upon the
war and predicting national bank
ruptcy. The banner called attention
to an obligation which could not be
discharged with gold or national cur
rency, an obligation which would be
perennial. For these soldiers had
offered their heart blood that "gov-
eminent of the people, for the people |
and by the people should not perish
from the earth"
War has been vigorously defined |
with monosyllable by one of the
great generals of the greatest civil
war in history. Men and women do |
we'll to spend their time and money
in promoting the cause Of peace. |
Neither tongue nor pen nor brush can |
adequately portray the horrors Of
war. Every sacrifice consistent with
honor should be made to avert it.
When it is prosecuted merely for ag-
grandizement it is monstrous crime.
NJrIn,, nnf Ia
it, it is but little better. But occasions
do arise and have arisen when it is |
necessary. Such was the case when |
the citizen soldiers left the pursuits |
Of peace and the comforts of home,
peace, health, family ties and |
life itself as naught as against the OBJ
legation to preserve a nation, commit
ted to their keeping by their fathers.
Whatever their personal faults and
failngs and however much they lacked
in the qualities essential to saintli.
ness as the church reckOns sanctit,
all who responded to the supreme test
Of patriotic devotion should live as
saints in the memory of the nation
they preserved.
The observance of Memorial day is
by no bitterness of feel
ing. The hatred that grew out of the
Understandings Of fifty years ago
has been buried with ritual of
blood" 1t is day of tender sadness,
, sadness which grows at reflection
On the rapidly thinning ranks of the
survivors of the Grand Army of the
Republic, survivors who have mani.
lested, almost without exception, the
,ame high love of country in the walks
If peace that they showed amid the
.attle OF musketry. In the course OF
nature 1t can be but a little while UNI
ii the last veteran will have been
from the ranks militant in
% the ranks triumphant, but Memorial
day will linger as an annual festival
of tender memories and reconsecra.
lion of patriotism.