The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1916-06-08
MEMORIAL ADDRESS
OF LAST TUESDAY

OF LAST TUESDAY
THE following are significant por.
tions of the Memorial Day address de-
livered Tuesday afternoon of last week
by Geo. r. Wilbur at Chautauqua park
open air auditorium.)
Fifty one years ago this country
emerged from an internecine struggle
Of great msngitude and of eternal i'm
port. When the conflict had ceased.
though the cost had been stupendous in
human life and in material property.
the government was preserved! High
over the carnage it proudly reared its
head and continued its march Of pro-
gress through centuries, and the people
of whom il had sprung. by whom it
had been inspired and reared. and for
whom 1t was, rejoiced in the righteous
victory.
On this day we are again called to.
gether to contemplate that conflict and
the lesson it taught. And though the
years have passed, our memory of that
bloody period, though dimmed, Is not
effaced.
!. see before me a thin line of bent
and SCARED survivors of that war, men
who enlisted, not with the lust of bat
tie in their eyes and the fire of hate
burning in their bosoms, but who went
in with the patriotic enthusiasm of free
men and the strength of sinew and as
suredness of success incident to youth.
And though almost lifetime has pass.
ed, / see indelibly stamped upon their
features the mask of the things they
then experienced. There Is but one
death pallor. But not alone fever and
wounds leave their mark upon the SOL
dier. The poise of the head and should
ers, the length. firmness and regularity
of the tread, the steadiness and deter
mination of the eye, the peculiar gray
ness of the hair and beard, and further,
to complete the Identification, certain
indefinable something about the atti-
tude, Enthusiastically proclaims the war
veteran.
see also present like thin line of
wives and widows who survived that
period. Aye. - theirs was the hard
lot. t.-their's not "to do or die," but to
wait and suffer. Without the novelty
and excitement of the camp and the
chase, there was left for the wife at
home the monotonous daily burden of
home duties, alone. unaided and uncom-
forted. ofttimes obliged to become the
family provider, and constantly await
ing the news from the front that the
necessary sacrifice had been made. that
she was a widow and her children faith
erless.
see also in attendance the citizens
of the community, many of them sons
and daughters OF those who fought.
And it is appropriate that all these
participants should be present, all cit
izens who love their country and their
flag. This morning the comrades living
marched out yonder to the cemetery
and did their formal honors to their
comrades passed on, while loving and
patriotic hands laid flowers upon the
tombs where the nations dead are
sleeping.
"All too soon the day will come when
these graves must be decorated by
hands unused to implements of war.
and these speeches be made by lips that
never responded to a roll call. I"
The duty we thus perform falls alike
upon all of US. The comrades remain
ing honor the dead from feeling of
fellowship. When men with hearts
beating in unison in like cause fight
side by side the survivor feels sense
of responsibility to keep alive the mem.
ory of his neighbor who falls. Friends
and relatives are likewise actuated
from natural motives. But the larger
body of citizens is prompted by spirit
of reverence for the thing accomplished
by the Civil war. And we. represent
ing the nation, thus display our graft
tude not entirely unselfishly. "since by
our regard for the dead we add to the
security of the living: by our remem-
brance of those who have suffered we
give inspiration to those upon whose
valor we must hereafter rely, and
prove ourselves worthy of the sacri-
fees which have been made and which
may again be required"
The great principle contended for and
won in the Civil war has never been
written by mortal hands. 1t was not
the maintenance of the labor institu-
tlUIl hUOWH db uIuCh 6ldNCIyS WIOuk d6
we know that to be. although that may
have been the controlling incident. And
it cannot be considered without refer.
ence to the martyred president whose
positive genius foresaw the issue and
gave his life to its correct solution.
Lincoln had men in his cabinet who
probably had more profound intellects
than he: but back there in the then
West among the common people with
whom he had been reared, years be-
fore, he had heard those common folks
the ones who after all settle the big
questions after the senators and Judges
try and fail talk of slavery, states
rights, notification, secession. consti.
tutiOnal compact. etc., and when his
great hour arrived he was fully pre-.
pared for it. and proclaimed in unmis-
taxable terms that it was not a strug-
gle between northerner and southerner,
not a struggle to free or maintain
slaves. but struggle which reached
the vitals of the republic, a struggle
between two great powerful systems,
neither sectional, but one of which was
as un-Amercian as despotism-a strug-
gle to preserve the Union, and one
which must end in but one way. With
his great clear mind he discovered
amid the chaos of ideas the single issue
and never lost sight of it. Southern
leaders proclaimed their rights under
the constitution; northern leaders de.
Tended on the same ground; Lincoln g
became the master mind standing mid
way between the opposing forces, COM