Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1917-09-28

The glory inherited from the past this
generation has flung away and left but
odium for its children. 1t surrendered to
frightfulness at the price of reason, and
thereafter hideous madness drove it on.
Because Of this the one place at which
cruelty paused before agony and the ma
jesty of war perceived in helplessness a
right divine has been defled, and the red
cross, emblem of the immortal soul in the
white field of civilization, once the mark
of immunityis now the target for assault,
and for the safety of those whom it would
protect it must be blotted from the sight
of the nameless ingnominy that spies upon
it.
Does there exist somewhere a notion
that brave men and women will fail in
their devotion to stricken soldiers because
the emblem Of their service is no longer a
shield from infamy? saw few weeks
since a complete refutation of that in the
determined faces of contingent of young
men leaving our shores for one Of these
very hospitals that have recently been at
tackled. There was no demonstration;
there was no excitement The gates to
the piers were closed and guarded as the
boat that brought them down the river
quietly docked, and those strong, coura-
geous, scholarly fellows, substantially all
university men, marched silently up one
pier and down the next to the boat on
which they were to cross the sea. They
understood that submarines waited for
them in the ocean, that certain peril men
aced the place to which they were going.
They realized that they were going to try
ing, sickening scenes on the field and in
the hospital, and they sensed the fact
that some among their number were
marked for death in the humane service
on which they were bound. But they
went of their own voltion, and there was
no doubt in their decision or their loyalty.
No dastardly act of frightfulness can
check that spirit in American manhood.
(Applause.) 1t washo place for us who
had no part in the service upon which
they had already entered, and who were
there, few of us, because our own boys
were in that contingent, and so we came
away.
And now Mr.. Chairman, the first
among our forces to die in France have
been killed in these hospital units, and
the manner Of their killing, the atrocity
with which they we're assailed, ought to
stir this Nation to a keener sense of its
responsibility. 1t may be that with less
patience will be endured this fabby talk
of an immature peace. 1t ispossibe that
the act and word that are positive peril
to our soldiers and a menace to our Gov
ernment will become intOlerable. This
act OF depravity, without element Of JUS
tice or quality Of mercy, brings home to
us the duty we can not avoid. There is
but one course for this Nation to pursue
now. There is only one way open to it..
1t must help teach the world that no in
sttution that would enforce its own will
by reputation of all maritime laws and
international rights and equable treaties
and solemn covenants and humane GUS
toms-that no such institution has a
place in this state Of civilization Gap
plause.) You can not accomplish that
if you allow frightfulness to win peace.
Do not place on German madness the vic
tors laurel peace imposed by Berlin
would be the crowning horror Of this
ghastly war. These young men have died
to help save civilization and to move it
little further forward. 1t is for us to
make sure the cause in which they enlist
ed We can have no more holy desire
now than the welfare of future genera
tions, and
We fail
Our oaths if we forsake
Tomorrow.
(Applause.)