The Taney County republican. (Forsyth, Mo.) 1895-1992, 1918-07-18
A Letter from Our Bob
Montesano, Wash,
July I, 1918.

1t has been a long time since l have
sent you a letter, so l am going tc
spend part of this Sunday writing an
other.
You just cannot realize how | enjoy
the Republican NV, Il is delight
and pleasure 10 me always. I read
everything in it. Most Of that makes
me proud of il, is its motto Il have
enlisted with America for the period
Of the war;" That should be our mot
to ill the last German is pushed across
The Rhine. Your little paper is, I can
say, doing a great thing for our cause.
We cannot all get over there" but
we can help over here.
don't think it will be long till we
are sent across and l hope it is to.
morrow. We are tired out Of waiting
here. They tell us We are going soon,
but we want to be there now for we
are needed.
At nights when all is still, I can see,
as upon curtain Of silence, a long
thin line OF khaki grown-one oil
the pieces Of a great instrument
with which the decree of destiny is
being fulfilled. 1t flashes across a
French field-it crumbles-it breaks,
and is laid away, discarded imple-
ment that has done its work. Then
the spirit is very strong with me 10 be
thereto put my fresh shoulder TO the
work; 10 lay my sacrifice where it will
lay the heaviest 10 the scale Of eternal
justice and freedom. Our part here
seems so trivial. Our daily round OF
petty duties becomes nauseatipg.
But in the saner hours Of day there
is upliit in the thought that our work
must be carried on. II we bear the
true spirit Of soldier we must take
heed how that work is being done.
This will be read, hope and be-
lieve, by some school teachers and di-
rectors, and l could wish for DO more
potent fields into which to cast seeds
OF thought. see in the army, boys
who do know what it took to establish
a government "for, by" and or
the people. So this is how the teach
ers can do their part: you teachers
and directors are drilling the armies Of
tomorrow, for peace or war. That boy
with the baseball may be carrying a
rife CT sword tomorrow. The one with
a sling shot may be making a law or
casting ballot. That girl with book
under her arm will have joined the
army Of home workers upon whom the
stability Of the government so largely
depends. In a large measure, you
teachers arc determining what kind Of
soldiers they will be.
Does that mean anything 10 your
1t is not mere platitude. The cid-
zsnship Of this country ten or twenty
years from hence will depend upon
what kind Of citizens you produce.
Can you turn the white lights oil reason
upon the I. w. W. movement OF today
and by so doing make snch national
curse impossible tomorrowl Can you
give 10 the masses Of tomouow a true
concept Of the difference between
liberty ard licensel If so ycu are in
waning fields heretofore unconquered.
Can you lift these masses out Of the
dead level oil civil upconciousness and
teach them to use and cherish the
privileges oE great Tree people3 II
so you are soldiers toe, striving for that
which has led our boys out across the
world to where death Turks in every
brea.h and rides on every wind.
II as you say, yOur soul thrills with
the high purpose Of the boys" give
that very soul to the various work that
sustalns them. II they come back
some great day, crowned with vic;cry,
let them clasp hands that have upheld
them. And il lreenom claims the
precious sacrifice they have laid upon
her shrine aud they are to sleep be-
meath little mound on some French
hill, their great, young, liberated souls
may somehow uniestsnd that you too,
have tried to be faithful comrades--