St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1917-04-25
500 AT ORLEANS
PATRIOTIC RALLY
= @ttts- ~. -.
Huge Crowds Listen To
Enthusiastic And In
81. i AZ. 5.-fE
teresting Speeches
(Snecial to. the Caledonianl

Orleans, April 23.-All doubts con-
corning the lack of patriotism of Or
| leans people which might have been
received through the poor attendance
at the patriotic rally held a week ago
| were diSpelled by the large and in
tensly interested crowd Of 500 which
was present at the meeting tonight. At
7.45 the Orleans band assembled on
the park in Post Office square and
gave a, short out of doors concert
Directly afterwards they went to the
Opera House where the large crowd
was assembled for the rally which
had been hurriedly arranged because
of the uncertainty Of Lieut.. Borella
of Co. l. being present. On the plat
form were Hon. NJ. NJ. Taplin, chair
man, Supt. E. E. Doe, Lieut.. Shaw of
Bellows Falls, Rev. r. A Hamilton,
Rev. George w. Burke. of Northfield,
and Rev. W. # Smithers. =
The first speaker of the evening was
Lieut.. Shaw: the commanding officer
of the men stationed here on guard
duty. He sketched how the Green
Mountain boys were always on hand
to do their part and prophecied uni
versal military training.
Following this talk, Mr.. Taplin, in
behalf of the officers and members of
the Orleans Club, extended an invita-
ton to Lieut.. Shaw and his men. to
make themselves at home at their
club rooms. This was promptly ac-
cepted, by Lieut.. Shaw. $50 o
The next speaker was E.. E. Doe
Mr.. Doe, after a short and effective
speech, the idea of which was that
this is a war of necessity for our coun-
try and for all humanity, unfurled
three flags, American. English and
French, which brought hearty cheers
from those present.
Rev. E. W. Burke of Mortified, a
former pastor of the Methodist church
of this place, was the next speaker.
He said, in part, Il come of a fight
ing stock, and | am proud of it. Ger
many has been preparing for this war
not forty years, but 100. She first
planned to wipe out France, then Rus
STA. but the, plans have. failed. She
also failed to keep England out of
the strife This is a war for. greater
liberty and democracy. And all great
liberties are won by the price Of blood.
There are 100000 Canadian troops at
the front now, thousands of Indian
soldiers, as well as Australian and
even Beers. Everyone able should en-
list to show that Am erica is ready to
do her part ....
Mr.. Taplin then: introduced Rev. r.
A. Hamilton, who told that wiaen the
war began we did not under stand the
cause, but of late we have come to
see the real cause. He said that we
could not count on Germany being on
it's last legs. Everyone hates war but
we must see it through Rev. Hamil-
ton said, for the future of our. sons
and daughters, for, America is. good.
land which has a, mission that will
not otherwise be fulfilled At this
point Post Master Pierce brought up
a recruit from Lowell who signified
his desire to enlist. He was cheered
loudly by the crowd. - r -
Rev. w. S. Smithers was, then in
troduced and said that he wished to
show where he stood in this great
fight against military autocracy. He
said, Il am man ofpeace, but we
must have war before we can have
peace. We must guard against waste
fulness, for there is a great need of
food. Everyone in France goes to
bed hungry, not starving but hungry.
France presented the Statue of
Liberty to the United States. Ger
many sent over bronze monument.
How significant this is, for both
France and the United States stand
for liberty, while Germany lives up to
her symbol of the bronze war statue"
This very successful meeting was
closed by the band which had furn-
ished music so splendidly through the
in ho
singing of America