The Lakeland evening telegram., 1917-07-03
When Johnny
Comes March
ing Home
(By Wclcott LIE Clear Beard Of the
(Vigilantes)

marching home from Mexico. He
came marching home in 1866 and
1885. Now. sooner or later. he will
core Marching home again, and on
scals freater than the country ever
bef6fe has seen-than the world ever
before has seen.
The three first Of the four wars al
luded to are history, but history that
has been made within the recollec-
lions Of people who still are living. If
you ask them, these people doubtless
viii tell you that each time Johnny's
arms and dress were different, and
that 90 were the formations in which
he marched. But they will tell you
also that in essence his home-comings
were the same-poignantly the same.
Mentally at least, these people who
are old enough to remember the
scenes attendant upon Johnny's
homecoming can hardly help but con-
trast each with another scene that
VIOCCucu IT, "oo "hSh Aioih
Street of the home town was lined
with cheering men and crying women,
or women trying not to cry; when
"The Girl | Left Behind Me" crashed
and ratified and squealed, to be
echoed and reechoed from the fronts
of dag-draped houses as Johnny's reg
iment, it's ranks filled with cleareyed
youngsters like himself, tramped
away to that fiercely exultant air.
Perhaps those who recall to their
minds the contrast between those
scenes and those of Johnny's return
VIII vaguely feel that there has been
guilt somewhere, but it is exceeding
" unlikely that they ever applied
that sense of guilt to themselves.
They should so apply it. Throughout
the history of our country that guilt,
In : greater or lesser degree, has rest
Cd upon the shoulders of practically
every man and woman of all our mil
lions.
Will it continue so to rest? That
remains to be seen
Johnny has come marching home
yes. But how about those chums of
his. Tom and Dick and Harry and Bill
and Charlie who never came back?
The Obvious answer to this ques-
;, hat cnch thinUc
inevitable; and in measure, of
COurse-though in much smaller
measure than people in general sup.
pose-this answer is correct. War is
not safe pursuit, and nothing can
make it so. The legitimate casual.
ties of war cannot be prevented. 1t
IL the other sort of casualties, the
ones that might be prevented, where
In lies the guilt.
Taught by the awful object lesson
which for nearly three years has been
held before us, our nation has learned
one of two lessons, both stupendous
both of vital import to the very exis
tence of the institutions set forth in
that mastery document dated one
hundred and forty-one years ago. One
Of those lessons is this:
Fighting, even in the ranks, is a
trade, and one that is becoming more
and more highly specialized with ev
cry hour that passes. Naturally |,
has to be learned, like any Other
trade. In it amateurs have no legi
Innate place.
This lesson we have grasped. The
execrable volunteer system has gone
Johnny is receiving the very best in
struction that our government cal
procure for him.
The second lesson also is realized
by the government which, as far al
possible, is trying to cope with II
fundamentally however, the solution
Of its problem does not lie with an.
government. 1t lies with the women
the old men and the children-witl
those who stand on the sidewalk t,
watch Johnny march away.
What, we, as whole, fail as ye
to comprehend, is Johnnys ute
helplessness when once he has left u
One is not accustomed to thinking o
him, armed, trained to deal destruc
tion and protected from destruction
BY the best means that centuries O
study can devise, as being helpless
but he is. Napoleon epitomized thi
fact in his famous saying that 20
army travels on its belly He mean
IN effect, that death and destructio
are all that Johnny can produce. H
must be clothed and fed.
That the food and clothing mus
come from home is automatic; so a
30 is it that those whom Johnn