New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-06-22
Those Who March.


diers. Despite the fact that the crowd!
that collect dispense, the bands pass anC
the flags come down again, those days 81
which our young men so forth to serve
must remain forever memorable in oul
history and in our hearts.
On the foundation Of such sacrifice 4:
this volunteering supplies is built the
whole edifce Of our national life. Al
that we have, that we own, that Ameri
ca means 10 Americans and to the world
flows from the sacrifice of lives, flow:
from the willing and ready response OF
the hundreds and thousands TO the call o.
our common country.
Not all the years that have passed since
the first soldiers, soldiers only in the fact
that they carried muskets, assembled on
Lexington Green to this present hour have
changed the fundamental fact that i
men have faith, a loyalty, clinging &c
ideas and to ideals, to a dream Of race
and Of a country, they must be prepared
to fight for them, TO die for them, from
time TO time.
In 1775, in 1912, in 1916, in 1861, in
1898 and now in 1915, Americans have
marched. Not a generation has been en-
tirely free from sacrifice, and on several
there has been laid a burden almost be-
yond endurance. To-day that which
threatens seems a little war. No such eff
fort as Germany or France is now max
ing, no such need of volunteers as Britain
has faced and met is foreseen or even
conceived. Yet not less great, not less
real is the sacrifice that is asked Of the
thousands who are going.
The departure Of troops for war or even
toward war is the most unreal thing in
human life. Those who 90 first are young,
proud with the sense Of new dignity and
duty, glad as youth is always glad when
adventure beckons and the romance Of
service calls. They march before US,
bringing our cheers, perhaps calling forth
our tears, too, but it is a spectacle about
which there is only that which inspires.
But when they are gone the change
comes Slowly, steadily the realization
arrives. Those who marched from US %
camp disappear from the camp into the
distance, which at the horizon meets the
thing we call vaguely "the front" Little
by little there come back the veracious
chronicles Of suffering, of hardship, al
last Of sacrifice and death. Those whC
went so willingly and so gladly become il
= sense a sacred memory.
1t is a cruel thing, this penalty that life
exacts of a nation. 1t is a brutal tax
this blood tax which is laid upon success
sive generations. And yet we who can
not escape it are compelled, at the last, Z
see, with the cruelty, the splendor, tn,
transformation in the lives of those wa,
90 and those who stay, that the grea
fact works. SO much that is mean an,
lgnoble slips out of the lives of the PEG
PIE whose sons and brothers and husbands
are doing something heroic and unselisi
for all of us and for what our nation
means.
1t is in this sense, with sadness, witt
feeling Of bitterness at the necessity o.
sacrifice, with a sense Of pride in The
grandeur Of the thing done, that we shall
now watch the best of another generation
of Americans leaving US for a duty whose
extent may not yet be measured or cir
cumscribed.
For those who have marched, for The
survivors of 81 and '9S, what is now tax
- ing place brings very real sense 0.
tragedy. From them the future is not hid
" They see the long drudgery, the privation
the WEAKNESS, the pain and the agony tha
may lie ahead In their own time the!
have seen other generations march out il
the sunshine of the first hours and be
yond into the darkness of camp, battle
field and hospital Behind all that j,
brilliant, stirring, appealing they perceive
that which is terrible.
Yet seeing all this, they can put it asid
to rejoice that the spirit that existed whei
they marched and when those WI,
marched with them and did not come bacl
were also young still survives, that tn,
same flag is carried by hands not les
worthy and defended by hearts not les
indomitable.
1t Is, indeed, no little thing that is tax
ing place in our lives to-day Rather i
is something so big and enduring that i
must crowd out the common and trivia
cares and concerns Of our lives. Thou
sands of men, young, surrounded by al
that happiness and comfort can bestow
are willingly, gladly, giving up what lif
holds of present promise and of futur
hope, giving up all they have and all the,
hope TO have, because a single word ha
been spoken, the simple call Of duty ha
come.
The glory of war that is the tinsel an,
$4,000 =.