Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1917-12-12
OUR SOLDIER BOYS
BY JN0. A. F0RDE
{. i" Known Winneshiek County
..gmer Writes Interesting Ar
ticle for Public Opinion.
THE AMERICAN SOLDIER HAS
NEVER BEEN FOUND WANTING
Their IndividuaNsm Has Been Tried
and Tested Through Generations.
Have Always Responded
Willingly.

| have often thought how our SOL
der boys would act when called to
faction and under fire. These young
volunteers and conscripts taken sud-
| denly from home, from the fields,
behind the plow, from the Office and
the factories, raw and undisciplined,
many unaccustomed to handle a gun,
ordered up to the awful carnage to
receive their baptismal fire. Would
they hesitate, finch and lose their
spirit, their bravery il the test Of
their character in the awful ordeal.
No! They would not. The individual
ism OF the American soldier has been
tried and tested through generations.
When called to arms they have new
er been found wanting. always re-
spending willingly under the colors.
These young boys, yet warm you
may say, from the shielding nest Of
home and the embrace, of a loving
mother, suddenly hurled by provi-
delce into the roaring mortax of
laundering fire and carnage, like SO
many Waterloos and Gettysburgs.
Would they shrink and fall back, los
Ing their character and their disci-
pline? They would not. They would
hammer and hammer, knowing that
1t was just that little sweet home un-
der the maple or elm tree thousands
of miles away they are defending.
Yes, as if their mother and sisters and
sweethearts were standing in the
door looking on. Exactly that Their
American homes-they represent the
American spirit, the American. liber-
ty, the American ,units, sand they
know it. Whether it is Pershi1g or
Grant or Sherman or Washington, it
makes no difference to them. They all
know what they are sent for, and
what they are fighting for. They all
know too well their responsibility in
this world conflict. They know the
master-spirit of their sacred heroes
of the sixties, whose honorable sons
they are, and they are now determin-
ed to show, whether those words
spoken over the mounds at Gettys-
burg were uttered in vain or again
now fulfilled as it once was full
filled.
For that is exactly the question
now the contingents and divisions of
ours are facing at the front, whether
democracy and liberty shall stand, or
be wiped out of existence forever.
Over in France, in the dug-outs,
where our boys continually hear the
roar of the far-off battle, the days
are counted, or even the hours, when
they, too, can spring up at the COM
mand to advance the Huns strong
hold. They will go, rest assured they
will, every one Of them-every moth
ers son. They know that they are
Americas hope in this struggle, the
hope of suffering world and its peo-
pies. They know the history of ter
rorized Belgium by heart. where
widows AID orphans welcome them
with outsaretched arms, and cry
"Oh deliver u.s."
l have seen our boys with that pecn-
liar military swing and heard the
rhythmic beat of their feet coming
down the avenue, the stars and stripes
floating over their columns, and to
think that but hardly three or four
months ago, some of them were doing
the chores at home, and some of
them were helping their mothers in
the kitchen The everyday careless
smile on their faces has changed to
determined AID sober manhood.
They are on their way to war, and
they realize it. They feel proud over
the fact that they can represent a
country, a government, home, a
father and mother, and God who
has given us the privilege to live II
such a blessed county as ours. And
be unerringly sure. that whatever
will happen, they will unflinchingly
stand at their posts, by their guns
AID by their colors. Thus, young and
brave, sober and determined and with
that spirit which characterizes the
true American individualism, will
he advance the firing line and receive
the nerve-raking ordeal-the first
baptismal fire.