The Daily Missoulian. [volume] (Missoula, Mont.) 1904-1961, 1917-05-28
liberty WORTH Price
Of WAR, SAYS BAsSEH
Eloquent Memorial Day Ser
mon Preached to Patri-
otto Societies.
MESSAGE OF HEROES
Preacher Explains Teaching
Which Nations Honored
Dead Would Send.

Were the patriotic dead of the United
States alive today, what would be their
message to the American people?
That question Rev. George II. Bassett
OF the Christian church took as the
theme for his Memorial day sermon,
preached yesterday to the patriotic So
cieties Of the city. His answer was
four fold:
They would remind us of the great
price paid for our liberties: they
would tell us to beware Of the enc
mics which threaten our national well
fare from domestic as well as foreign
sources: they would warn us against
the danger of sectionalism, and they
would urge us to remember the fleet
ness of time and the emptiness of all
things earthly.
Rev. Mr.. Bassett took for his text.
Hebrews 11:4, by it he being dead
yet speaketh.'
Our Heroes Still Speak.
Because of the excellence of the
service they rendered the country" he
said. "our patriotic dead through this
still speak. What are the messages
they bring to us?
Il think they would first bid us re-
member the price paid for our liber-
ties. We do not appreciate our free
institutions. We seem to think that
liberty sprang full formed into exist
ence. We forget that the growth of
freedom has been gradual and has ad-
vanced only at great cost. 1t is far
cry from Runnymede to Appomattox."
Democracy's Growth.
Rev. Mr.. Bassett then traced the
growth Of democratic freedom step by
step from the granting of the Magma
Charta by King John after the battle
OF Runnymede down to the present
day. The Great Charter made the
home Of Englishmen inviolate. later
the English won the right of represen-
tative government, then Oliver Crom-
well won religious freedom for the
people, and finally at Appomattox, the
freedom gained for Americans and
,
man, no matter what his color or race
Next, our patriotic dead would tel
us to beware of the enemies which
threaten our national welfare" Mr.
Bassett continued. Perhaps there
has been no time in our history when
more numerous or more insidous enc
mics threaten our democracy than they
do today. I need not speak of the
enemy overseas with which We are at
war. I would call your attention to
other enemies here at home. just as
deadly and more insidious."
The Enemies at Home.
These enemies he listed as the liquor
traffic, white slavery and political cor
rnption and bossism. Most of his time
he spent in attacking the first named.
He pointed out its dangers to the in
tellectual industrial. social and re-
ligious liberties Of the nation. saying
that each year 100000 men march
through Americans saloons to drunk
ards graves and with them go many
innocent women and children.
i venture to say that every an
archistic scheme which will be exposed
in this war will have been Matched in
some saloon. They are hotbeds of
crime. immortality and anarchism.
But these are not the worst indict-
ments against the saloon. We must
remember the pressing need for food
conservation and that last year we
spent more for liquor than we did for
food and clothing. ] maintain that If
In, III,
lack of food, the fault will not lie with
the farmers but with the liquor traffic
which consumes so great a proportion
of our grain"
Sectionalism Menace.
At no time was there need Of greater
loyalty to America and less sectional
ism than today. Mr. Bassett declared.
1t is nust as essential to say that we
are not northerners or southerners,
fasteners or westerners, as to ay that
We are not Germans, he held. The
unity with which Congressman from
all parts of the country lined up for
the defense of our national rights he
spoke of as most hopeful sign of dis
appearing sectionalism.
In closing Mr. Bassett said the pa :
triotic dead would remind the living of
the fleetness of time and the reality of
the unseen. 1--WE hear a great deal
these days that this is an age Of ma :
terialism, of commercial!&m," he said.
There are many who believe that this
is the real world, that there is no other.
But the Apostle Paul teaches us that
the unseen is the real, the seen is the
unreal. The war must increase our
faith in God, His 500 Jesus Christ, and
in the immortality of the soul"