Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-07-21

|" HE War Department has not an
nounced the numerical strength
of the regulars and marines now
in France. Nor will it announce the
size of the force in the very near
future, If this guess is guided by sane
military precepts. Whether there are
$4,000 or 1000 cannot be said.
But we know American troops are
in France, and we know they are
moving slowly but surely toward that
elastic, almost invisible line north of
Paris that is the front. Even now
most, if not all, of them are in their
permanent camp, where they will
learn those new methods of warfare
developed by the master minds of
Europe and not taught for patrol
along the Mexican border nor in gar
rison in the Philippines. And they
will learn within sound of the mon
ster guns that soon will be at their
backs. They will throw grenades,
build machinegun emplacements,
man trench mortars in all the at
mosphere of battle except for the
lack of an enemy at the bayonet's S
point.
The people of the United States
have been reading about the great
war for nearly three years. They
have read millions of words of and
about it. But they know nothing
about it after all. That is only
natural, for the reason that it has
been more or less impersonal. The
average man and woman have fol-
lowed the developments in the
newspapers as they would the un-
folding of the plot in a Tolstoy trag-
edy. with the feeling that it was
horrible and glorious, CHASTITY and
heroic-simply a kaleidoscope pic
ture in the panorama of life to be
gazed on and be thrilled or de-
pressed enthused or subdued, ac-
cording to the shifting of the scenes.
Now our men have gone! More
and still more of our men will go!
They will leave American ports be-
tween night and day, as they for
safety must. They will be here to-
day and engulfed by distance tomor-
row; without a goodby, without a
wave of a friendly hand or a God
speed your crossing!" They go into
that maelstrom that has swallowed
20,000,000 other men since August
1914, but they go into battle for
the same cause that our fathers
fought for in 1875, in 1912, in 1S4S,
in 1861 and in 1898. They have a
heritage-they have a tradition be-
hind them. Their heritage is liberty;
their tradition is courage. And they
go with a song in their hearts and a
cheer on their lips! All they ask is
the sustaining sense of support and
sympathy and encouragement at
home.
The men I saw at a French port
nearly three weeks ago, coming In
orderly file down the gangways from
great gray transports into a mist and
drizzle that would have dimmed any
but the most -bottomed ardor,
knew the folks back home" were
with them. When they went aboard
their transports they knew 100000
and still another 100000 of their
fellows would follow them; that they
were simply the vanguard of u
mighty host that would lift a part
of her burdens from France. The
men were happy.
Don't think for a moment, how
ever, "Pershing's army" is actuated
solely by exalted patriotism. Sol
diers do not parade their patriot
ism. 1t is taken for granted. They
have an abiding faith in their coun-
try's and the allied cause; they are
willing to die if need be for it, but
they are not shouting 1t from the
housetops. Adventure, as more than
one of the men has confessed to me,
was some small factor of inducAment
to sign up in the first place. Re-
cruiting posters for several years ad-