American Falls press. [volume] (American Falls, Idaho) 1907-1937, 1917-04-05
VOLUME XVII.
PATRIOTIC MEETING
ASSEMBLIES SERIOUS CROWD
Citizens Were Not Dem0nstratiTe, But
Viewed Crisis With Seriousness and
Appeared Resigned to Inevitable.

Three or four hundred school chill
dren, and an equal number OF adults
on foot or in autos, followed the flag
from the county building to the square
near the depot, Tuesday afternoon, to
participate in the open air meeting
held at the call Cf Governor Alexander
to give expression anew to the loyalty
Of the people TO the nation in its crisis.
The parade, headed by the American
Falls Cornet band, was in two divis-
ions. The color bearer of the first
division was Comrade W. H. Dake.
Underneath the streaming colors
marched Corporal A. X. Dahlen, Com
!. pany l, Sixty-fifth New York, a veteran
of the Spanish-American war, in un-
form.
The color bearer Of the second diyis-
ion, the school children, was J. H.
Coleman, another civil war veteran.
There was patriotism without noise;
and a serious, earnest crowd listened
to the program, standing for the most
part with barred heads Notwithstanding
the chilling wind, from the opening ad-
dress of Mayor Wones to the closing
address by Rev. J. Wesley Miller.
dren in singing America" which was
reverently listened to.
The band played a selection of pa
triotic airs interspersed throughout
the program, and at its close sigma
lures for the organization Of a Red
Cross chapter were secured as rapidly
as names could be written, until near
ly 100 were secured. More than 100
are now enrolled a charter and sup
plies have been wired for and the
chapter will be organized at the Ho-
tel Remington Monday afternoon. The
money collected on the grounds total
led $115.50, and more has been added.
Mayor Wones in a short but well de-
livered address introduced in turn R.
s. Anderson, Senator L. L. Evans,
Maurice M. Myers and Rev. ]. Wesley
Miller. Rev. Miller introduced a res
olution pleding to President Wilson
the support of the people assembled
which was received with hearty favor
y and unanimously adopted, and wired
it to Washington by Senator Evans
Mr.. Miller's place on the program was
in behalf of the Red Cross organiza-
ton and his talk was short
R. S. Anderson and Senator Evans
both made splendid talks, moderate in
temper but patriotic in sentiment. The
principal address was by Mr.. Myers
who spoke at some length, quoting
literally from President Wilson's ad-
dress to congress. His remarks, in
part, were as, follows:
Three years ago in July my wife and
went into the hills, and after four days
of isolation l gathered from a fores
reserve phone the report that all Eu
rope was at war. And how we laugh
ed at the idea then and all the way
back home and decided that some on,
with a perverted sense of humor wa.
trying TO joke us. Because civilized
countries no longer went to war will
civilized countries. A world war wa
preposterous.
And so were We all then. We coul,
not conceive of such war. Tht
whole nation, intoxicated with fift,
years of peace and plenty, period o
/, such peace and prosperity the like o
which the world in all ages had neve
seen, was drugged into insensibility o
perception of the catastrophe. Eve
now after two and half years of il
we hardly realize its magnitude.
And yet in this brief time We hav
seen that vaunted civilization, the ri
pened fruit of the 5000 years of pro
gress of which history tells, go totter
ing from its pedestal and disappear i
q heap of mouldy ashes lower than il
base. We have seen the most solem
obligations that can be entered int
between men or governments, thei
treaties, absolutely ignored. We hav
seen those greatest of our works {
art, those cathedrals into which hav
been worked the expression of Ger
turies of the devotion of Christianit
demolished bit by bit for no other pul
pose than as range finders for cannon
We have seen slavery resurrected frol
its filthy grave and saddled upon FIRE
and democratic people, such peopl
even as you and l.
Have we gone back 5000 years
Listen! Show me in all the annals {
=, history, any instance, even in the ra'
ings of any maniac, any conception
like unto the actual conditions alor
that thin red line in France. whel
the wounded lay outside the trenche
torn and mangled, almost within touC
of their comrades fingers, yet mi
lion miles from help, and suffered
slow delerium from fever, wounds al
thirst for days suffering a thousaI
deaths in dying, where their moal
came in waves like the walls of Il
damned back to their comrades al
the stencil from their rotting bodi
like the stencil of hell drove their col
rades mad. while the vultures in the
sight fed fat upon human flesh.
And, fundamentally, all because o.
man or one small group of men st
hold with the idea that an heredita
monarch holds his place by divine /
terposition, that might makes rigl
that government exists for the bene
of the governors and not the governe
all because this man or this sms