The Marietta journal and courier. (Marietta, Ga.) 1909-1918, 1918-02-22
A HooVERIZED BANQUETTE.

business session of the u. S. Re-
clamation Service Conference of En-
gineers, Attorneys, Project Mana
gers, Accountants, and Denver office
force, numbering nearly one hundred
persons.
The Governor of Clorado was the
guest of honor and first speaker. The
Director and Chief Engineer of the
Reclamation Service responded to the
Governor, and others joined in the
after dinner program of song and
sentiment.
Upon the suggestion, "Shall we
go to the 'front.'" Engineer D. W.
Cole extracted from his Level Book"
the following notes:
Cat a preliminary business
session of the Conference it had
been debated whether officers
of the Reclamation Service, not
subject to the selective draft,
should at this time request as
signment or offer themselves for
military dtuy, in recognition of
the immediate, paramount, ex-
elusive aim of this Nation to
win the War;
Mr.. POSTMASTER; Your Excellency;
and you, Service-able men:
We are living today in an atmos-
phere highly charged with vast en-
thusiasm for war.
There pulses through our veins the
electric thrill of this the greatest, the
most vivid, the most ecstatic of all
human games.
Once the royal sport Of Kings
wherein we men of common clay fig
ured only as the pawns and puppets
to be marched and countermarched
across the ensanguined board to VIC
tory or to slaughter at the imperial
nod, this dread game has in our mod
ern time assumed a new aspect.
1t has come to pass when the Kings
and Kaisers willed this war they start
ed something that they cannot stop
at will.
This war has gotten beyond their
control and has developed into q
game of mo limit, for 10! their
pawn and plaything, the downtrodden
long suffering Demos has arisen from
the dust of empires and has asserted
his right and his power to "sit into"
this game himself. Forthwith he has
"raised the ante" and "called the
bluff" of the Dukes and Emperors.
He has reminded them that they have
overlooked few little matters such
as the storming of the Bastile and the
fracas on Bunker Hill hundred and
some years ago. He tells them they
are not to forget that certain signi-
ficant noise that echoed from the
vale at Lexington when:
ssBy the rude bridge that spanned
the flood,
Their flag to Aprils breeze and un-
furled,
There once the embattled farmers
stood
And fired the shot heard round the
world"
Kaiser Wilhelm: Beware the en-
battled farmer Your mailed fist,
your shining armor shall not avail to
save you. The glory, the Chivalry
of war are indellibly defiled and for
ever. sunk in the ignominy of your
Belgian campaign, sunk as deep as
to the hell that yawns to engulf your
summarizing soul.
Mr.. POSTMASTER: BY the same
token the day has dawned when the
farmer in harvest toys bedight is
equal to the soldier in panoply Of
war.
1t has suddenly become equally
as honorable to farm as it is to
arm.
This war has thrust upon us the
realization that Ceres ranks as high
in our Olympian calendar as Mars
himself, Her sunlit sickle flashes
CLEAN for CLEAN to his effulgent
spear.
The soldiers brass buttons shave
nothing" now on the farmers one
gallus overalls since the man
behind the plow looks level into the
eyes of the man behind the gun, and
the threshing machine at the rear
looms as large as the "tank" at the
front.
Ye Reclsmation-minde men: Dare
we lay this flattering JUNCTION to our
souls-that the shovel is as worthy
as the sword?
| try to believe that we also serve
our country, not indeed by standing
and waiting but by hustling while we
wait-actiyely pursuing our accus-
toned labors leading to the harvest.
try to believe that | am doing my
duty by holding the fortress of farm