The silver state. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1909-1925, 1916-05-30
Memorial Day


Before many years are past there will
be no veterans of our Civil War left
alive. There will be no pathetic yet
stirring parades of feeble old men,
walking to the music of fife and drum.
There will be no patriotic Memorial
Day exercises at which soldier of the
Civil War is the speaker The Grand
Army posts will be made over to the
Sons of Veterans.
1t is to be hoped that Memorial Day
will always be precious to the people of
the country. Most earnestly is il to be
hoped that its significance shall never
be diminished through the sacrifice on
the battlefelds of another generation of
Americans. But most precious OF all,
Memorial Days should be those few re-
naming anniversaries on which the
comrades in arms of those whose deeds
we commemorate and whose graves we
decorate still walk before our eyes, still
speak to us.
The South does not celebrate the
same Memorial Day with the North; 1T
has its own days for paying tribute to
its soldier dead. Yet the South has no
reason after the lapse of fifty years to
regret the triumph of that cause for
which so many Union soldiers perish
ed South and North, we are one peo-
pie; our interests are mutual and COM
mon, and could only thrive so long as
we remained one nation. That Abraham
Lincoln s vision was true the people of
the South are today willing to coneede.
What is il that we celebrate on Me
mortal Dayf Is il not above all else the
A fn "A
LOYALTY that eemented with blood and
tears the nnion of our peoplef On the
Fourth of July we celebrate the prin-
ciple Of liberty; on Memorial Day We
celebrate the principle of loyalty.
Our remembrance for one day OF the
service of the dead is valuable only II
it inspires in us, the living, their spirit
of devotion. We may not be called, as
til " were. t. offer our lives in order
that the nation may survive. 1t is no
timorous or unworthy spirit that makes
us pray that we may never be subjected
to the test that they so nobly met.
When we look to Europe and see the
nations in their life and death strug-
gle more horrible, more cruel, than any
that the world has ever before known,
all that we can be sure of in human ma
ture is that its courage is inextinguish-
able. and that the time will never come
when men will not die for what they
believe in. There is no difference IN
valor among the nations. Those who
believe that our people would be afraid
10 fight in defense of their liberty and
their honor utterly misconeeive, not
merely our people, but human naturs ,
LOYALTY to America-that is the
theme for this Memorial Day as for no
other since that sacred anniversary was
established. There is scarcely day IN
the wear when in one way or another
we are not concerned with the question
of our rights and privileges; let Memo
rial Day be that on which we take spe-
cial thought of our duties. If there are
anv among us who have come to regard
lightly the claim of the nation upon
them. or to doubt the response that
American citizens would make to a
summons from their country, let them
think, on this Memorial Day, when the
old men pass and the flag goes by, what
il all means II should be sign to
them-not to be mistaken-that ma
ton that remembers and reveres the ut
most expression of loyalty that its sons
could give is still sound at heart and
faithful to its ideals, and will tolerate
no effort to disrupt it.-Youth 8 Com
panion.