Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1917-06-08
NATION KEPT UNITED
+. FOR WORLD PURPOSE,
WILSON TELLS j. c. Y.
Rebel Cheers Greet OeCIara-
ton of President at Reunion
in Washington of Men Who
Wore the Gray

was kept united for the great worlC
purpose 1t was meant to serve. Presi
dent Wilson told the United Confeder
ate Veterans at their convention today.
Rebel cheers greeted the declaration.
Love of self-governmsnt and liber
~ by the north and south was the mo
tive OF the Civil war" the president
said.
This country must now make self
government and liberty safe for man
kind"
The significance of registration day
was brought home when the president
emphasized that the duty to serve and
the privilege to serve falls on all alike
There is something fine about tn,
spirit OF volunteering, but bigger Is
the spirit Of obligation" said the presi'
dent.
Commissioner Brownlow. son of a
Confederate veteran. declared Washing
ton was proud to be captured by the
hosts in gray.
This is a solemn day in the history
of our country he told the veterans
To-day 10000, 000 men are registering
for duty under the Stars and Stripes
Two million of these will go abroad
They will go to fight, not in a European
war. as IL is called, but they will go "a
fight in an American war"
PRESIDENTS ADDRESS.
President Wilson, in addressing the
veterans, said:
l esteem il a very great pleasure
and a real privilege to extend to
the men who are attending this re-
union very cordial greetings of the
government of the United States,
began the president
l suppose that as you mix with
one another you chiefly find these to
be days of memory when your
thoughts go back to recall thost
days of struggle in which your
hearts were strained, in which the
whole nation seemed in grapple.
and l dare say that you are thrilled
as you remember the heroic things
that were then done. You are glad
to remember that heroic things were
done on both sides. and that men
in those days fought in something
like the old spirit of chivalry and
gallantry.
There are many memories of the
Civil war that thrill along the blood
and make one proud to have been
one of a race that could produce
such bravery and constancy; and
yet the world does not live on MEM
cries Inc WOTlu Is NOhSNdhNig
making its toilsome way forward
into new and different days and L
believe that one of the things that
contributes satisfaction TO a re-
union like this and a welcome like
this is that this is also a day OF
Oblivion. There are some things
that we have thankfully buried. and
among them are the great passions
of division which once threatened
TO rend this nation in twain. The
passion of admiration we still en-
terrain for the heroic figures OF
those old days. when the passion
separation. the passion of difference
of principle is gone-gone out or
our minds. gone out OF our hearts;
and one of the things that viii thrill
this country as il reads or THIS re-
union is that il will read also of a
rededication on the part Of all of
US to the great nation which We
will serve in common.
DAYS OF REJOICING.
These are days of Oblivion as
we'll as of memory, for we are for
getting the things that once held
us asunder Not only that. but
hut they are DAYS of rejoicing, be-
cause we now at last see why this
great nation was kept united, for
we are beginning to see great
world purpose which it was meant
TO serve Many men, particularly
of your own generation, have won
dered at some of the dealings or
providence. but the wise heart
never questions the dealings OF
Providence because the great long
plan as il unfolds has a majesty
about it and a definiteness of pur-
nose. an elevation of ideals, which
we were incapable of conceiving as
we try to work things out with our
own short sight and weak strength.
And now that we see ourselves
mart of a nation. united, powerful,
great in spirit and in purpose we
know the great ends which God IN
his mysterious providence wrought
through our instrumentallty' De
cause at the heart of the men OF
the north and of the south there
was the same love of self-govern-
ment and of liberty, and now we
are TO be an instrument in the
hands God to see that liberty is
made secure for mankind.
At the dav of our greatest divl-
sion there was one common passion
amongst US. and that was the
passion for human freedom. We did
not know that God was working
out in HIS own way inc iiSe-AO~ -
which we should best serve hu-
man freedom-by making this ma
ton a great united. indivisible, In
destructible instrument In his
A.. hands for the accomplishment OF
these great things.
SIGNIFICANT COINCIDENCE
AsI came along the streets few
minutes ago. my heart was fun OF
the thought that this is registra-
tion day. Will you not support me
I'm feeling that there is some sig
pificance in this coincidence, that
this day, when 1 come to welcome
YOU to the national capital, Is
day when men as young as you
were in those old days, when you
gathered together to fight, are now
registering their names as evidence
of this great idea, that in dem
ocracy the duty to serve and the
privilege to serve falls upon all
alike? There is something very
fine. nv fellow citizens. in the spir-
Il TO volunteer. but deeper than the
volunteer spirit is the spirit or
obligation.
There is not a man of us who
must not hold himself ready to be
summoned to the duty of support
ing the great government under
which we live. No really thought
full and patriotic man is jealous
of that obligation. No man who
really understands the privilege
4 II