New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-01-25

that take up the same cry are actuated by n
ike motive. though somewhat more remote
Thus We form our own estimate of his and
their high patriotism.
Certainly We are in no such haste TO send
our sons as we were ourselves TO 60 For
there is small consolation In having ones son
murdered in the interest Of some ones mining
enterprise or sugar trade or munitions trade.
though we may be assured that thereafter he
will rest I'm even so beautiful a cemetery as
Sleepy Hollow and have any number of
pretty flags waved over him.
1t is years since Ralph Hosmer and Carl
Hart were laid away in the little Concord
cemetery, and year by year we go back to
lay garlands on their graves. And doubtless
far Off in obscure Spanish villages, at some
time Of the year, Spanish mothers and fathers
and brothers lay other garlands on the graves
of hundreds of young Spanish conscript5 who
in '9S died fighting for their country
But even while the bodies Of our fallen
Concord boys were cooling the brokers Of
Wall Street and State Street were making
merry. just as they arc now making merry
over war brides and war babies" Stocks
were booming at the cost of those boys
blood And away of in Madrid and BARGE
Iona Spanish brokers were sad and heavy of
heart. But it was not their fallen con
scripts that they mourned; it was their fallen
stocks and bonds.
Throughout modern history the story has
been the same. Englands best went forth
to fight the Boer 1t was years later tnat
those who returned found out that their
government had conspired with rascally Brit
ish fnancers to betray them in the name Of
patriotism. Now the common people Of
Europe are at one anothers Threats and but
-four ,.r 81 -.
merely as the retainers Of rival groups of
eXplolters. Are not they, too. inspired with
the spirit % Concord uncnlightened?
You hint that some day not far distant the
boys Of Concord will again be called upon.
For what will it be? VIII they be called
upon to march into Mexico 10 conquer new
fields of exploitation for our Rockefellers
and our Guggenheims, under the delusion
that they 20 to avenge the blood of slain
brothers? viii they fight in Europe TO pro
tect the interests Of American munitions
makers and bankers, with the illusion that
they ayenge the Lusitania's dead? or will
they, perchance, be called upon one of these
days TO collect repudiated debts Of American
money lenders? II they do Of course they
will not know it. They will think they are
fighting because some arrogant Brtisher has
torn down and insulted our beloved Ameri-
can flag. Trust our faithful American press
to properly prepare their minds for the occa-
sion.
But possibly by that time the spirit of
Concord will have become enlightened too
enlightened to volunteer for such purposes.
Can II be that Colonel Roosevelt and General
Wood foresee that day Of enlightenment? Do
they already distrust the credulity of the
American volunteer? l. that why they call
FL tfr1fy al
they may drag forth our boys as the unwiu-
ing conscripts of Spain were dragged?
|, too, bow my head when | reach the
graves Of Corporal Hosmer and Private Hart.
But my thoughts are different know that
It was not Spain that killed them. | know
that 1t was the great spirit of commercial
ism greed and conquest which emanates not
only from Madrid, but from New York and
London, Berlin and Paris. And were IL no,
that their bereaved relatives already bear a
heavy enough weight of sorrow, fain would
add TO the inscription, Died for Their Coun-
try which to-day rises above them. the in
seripton, Betrayed and Murdered by Capt.
talism," that all the world might read and
know the truth.
As | gaze down at those mounds fervently
do hope for the day when the spirit Of Con
cord shall at last come % its own when our
brothers who believe in liberty and human
ity, not greed and conquest, shall stand
shoulder to shoulder to fight as did our fore
fathers at the Old North Bridge, and as did
those other heroes in the French Revolution.
aye, and in the Paris Commune, against the
organized hosts OF cupidity tyranny and de-
cepton. Then, and not until then, shall We
witness the triumph of the spirit Of Concord
-ienlightened. NORMAN TALCOTT.
greenwich, Conn. Jan. %, 1915