Philip weekly review and Bad River news. [volume] (Philip, Stanley County, S.D.) 1912-1918, 1917-10-25
THE FINISHED" SOLDIER

or of any branch Of the service,
for that matter, are put through
months and months of prepara-
ton before they are finally con-
sidered ready for the trip over
the seas, there to receive fur
ther months Of training before
they are fit for the battle lines.
The following, from Trench and
Camp, published at the numer-
Gus cantonments all over the
country, is an excellent explana-
lion:
Some of this new life may
seem hard. Duties from reveille
to taps, drill and more drill,
thousand things to do and an
other thousand to leave undone
perhaps, when weary muscles
rebel we may ask ourselves If
all are necessary. We read of
the clash Of armies and we won
der the more. cover There it
seems to be man again man,
bayonet against bayonet, strong
heart against heart that does
not fail. Over here it is work
and discipline, training and
tramping: must we learn it all
to the last detail, before we. take
our places by our comrades of
France and Britain? The ques-
tions will rise, battle against
them though We may.
If it be so remember this:
The critical campaigns Of France
and of Flanders are being fought
today on the backgrounds of
our cantonments. The boys who
march back to barracks, these
October afternoons, are the
same boys who will march into
Berlin in the glorious noon of
victory or else will straggle.
broken, into the streets of Bor--
deaux in the dismal night OF
disaster. Our success or failure
iere will mean our fitness or
cur downfall there.
And why? Because, Of all the
weapons with which we shall
fight when at length we reach
the trenches, none will prove
so potent as knowledge. We
shall see our mustered divisions
as they go into action and we
shall hear the endless roar of
that long. long line of guns, but
we shall find that the greatest
strength of any army lies in
the heads and the hearts of it's
men. AS we know, so shall we
be able to fight
The country wants the cour-
age of knowledge, not the wild
abandon Of reckness sacrifice. It
wants an army mighty in num-
bers, but mightier still in it's
ability to impose the maximum
losses and achieve the greatest
results with the minimum sacri-
flee. France entered this war
with crowded battalions and
with hosts that rejoiced at the
sound Of battle. In the first en-
gagement-at Charleroi in front
Of Mulhausen and in Lorraine
her soldiers threw themselves
against the German as though
they craved the machine-gun and
the bayonet. They died as heroes,
but they might have lived as
the saviours Of their country.
Today, every poilu who is sent
to the front is trained in every
method of defense as we'll as in
all the. arts Of offense, because
his life means more to his coun-
try than his death could possibly
accomplish.
In this sober spirit our
commanding officers are labor
ing. Not q man is to be taken
from his home equipped train
I'd, sent overseas and thrown
nto action with any other view
than that of wasting the least
to gain the most. That is why
they insist upon the fundamental
That is why they drill us and
school US and train us in every
trick Of war. That is why they
harden us by long marches and
prepare us by patient drills. We
are to go; they would not have
us go in vain. And in this stern
school, quick mind is not less
to be desired than a good eye;
a strong heart is as precious as
stout legs. The soldier who
serves America best in France