The twice-a-week Twin Falls times. (Twin Falls, Idaho) 1916-1918, 1917-05-31

greatest OF our mighty dead, whose
memory is as gentle as the summer
air, when reapers sing amid the gath
ering sheaves-copied with his pen
what Grant and his brave comrades
wrote with their swords. Nobler than
the Roman, the soldiers of the Re
public with patriotism as shoreless as
the air, battled for the rights of others,
for the nobility of labor; fought that !
men might own their own babes, that |
arrogant idleness should not scar the |
back of patient toll, that our country
should not be a many headed mon !
ster made up of warning states, but
a nation, sovereign, great and true.
Blood was water, money was leaves, |
and life was only common clay until
our flag floated over the Republic
without a stain. 1t were worth a
thousand yearu of ordinary time to
have lived in those days, to have seen
the magnificent outburst of patriotism,
to have marched away with stream
ing banners and wildly beating drums
to the wild music of the war We
had been successful in three wars, we
had wrested thirteen colonies from
Great Britain; we had added more
than two million square miles to the
national domain. We had advanced in
population from three millions to
thirty-one millions. We were rich and
free-ours appeared to be the most
prosperous of nations. But it was
only in appearance.
The great dome of the temple
was clad in the light of prosperity,
but the corner stones were crumbling.
The triumph of justice is the only
peace. Such is the nature of things.
He who enslaves another cannot be
free. He who attacks the right as
saults himself-the mistakes our faith
ers made were uncOrrected. Four
millions of human beings were en-
slaved-party cries had been mistaken
for principles; partizanship for JUS
tice. Politicians were its servants;
statesman its attorneys; judges its
menials; presidents its puppets, and
upon its cruel altar had been sacri-
feed our country's honor. 1t was a
crime of the whole country.
Let us proudly remember that in
our time-the greatest, grandest, the
noblest army in the world, fought
not to enslave but to free, not to
destroy but to save; not simply for
themselves but for others, not for
conquest but for conscience, not only
for ours but for every land and for
every race. With courage, with en-
thusiasm, with devotion never excell-
ed, with an exaltation and purity of
purpose never equalled, this Grand
Army fought the battles of the Re-
public for the preservation of this
nation, for the destruction of slavery.
These soldiers, these sailors, on land
and sea disheartened by no defeat, dis
couraged by no obstacle, appalled, by
no danger, paused not, swerved not,
until stainless flag, without rival,
floated over all our land and until
every human being beneath its folds
was absolutely free. Liberty was ma
tional, slavery was dead.
This day is sacred to the great and
heroic host who kept this flag above
our heads Sacred to the living. Sacred
to the dead Sacred to the SCARED
and manned Sacred to the wives
who gave their husbands. Sacred tC
! the mothers who gave their sons
These brave, these Incompatible mer
founded the first republic. They
realized the hopes that all the great
the good, the wise and just have made
and had since man was man.
, But what of those that fell? There
l is no language to express the deb
E we owe, the love we bear, to all the
dead who died for us. Words are
: but barren sounds; we can but stanC
beside their graves and in the husl
and silence feel what speech has never
; told. They fought and died and fol
j the first time since man has kept ;
> record of events, the heavens domeC
a land without a servant, serf or slave
For three hundred years after Their
Z mopylae, the Greek school children
were taught to memorize and repea
= the names of Leonidas and the thre
: hundred who obeyed the mandate o
] orfo tA homo Will fbai
3 shields on their shields So long a
Greece venerated TIE names and deed
of their heroes who died that libert
might live, she was immune from in
!, ternecine strife and free from success
full foreign invasion. The nation tha
3 fails to canonize it's heroes will ceas
to have heroes. "I'll fares the lanC
> to Fastening ills a prey, where wealt
e accumulates, and men decay"
II A special need of honor is LEI
y around the names and deeds of on
soldiers who certified their loyalty o
hundreds of bloody battlefields durin
y those four dreadful years of ev
ls when the experiment of self govern
: ment was being put to the final ties
ic and the destinies of the Union weT
'n balancing in almost equal scales
20 for had they faltered all that Wasl
III ington and his compatriots accom-
le plished would have been undone. Ha
IS they proved faithless the declaratio
Is of Independence would have existed
~ history only as the majestic NOM
e. ment of a ruined commonwealth,
ne solemn marking of the grave of civ
90 liberty and republican governmen
81 1t is not alone the American peop
III that should bow reverently at Il
es shrine of our fallen soldiery. TT
he vsior whatever homes tbev NAV che
s- ish as to the future. All that has bee
ey done towards popularizing Europes
ne governments would have been impo
ey sible but for Vicksburg, Gettysbu
Oh and Appomattox. For if the Uni(