Newport daily independent., 1918-12-03

 that square deal. It means lot to her. Hastily, DAD
 Son of Mine:
 They're sending you home to me at last. Through all these months of waiting and longing I've been wear ing star for you and holding my head high and thinking wonderful thoughts about you. I've watched you through ocean mists and dreamed anxious dreams. Yes, and cried little too, but not when people could see.
 And now you're coming home. Oh,. 1 it seems too good to be true. I've just read your letters again. They say so much more than you ever thought when you were writing them. Just happenings that's all most of the things you wrote about were to you. But to me they said you were facing the biggest thing in life, fac ing it bravely, as I should want my son to face it. You were offering your body and your soul for thing bigger than you or me or America.
 Don't think me silly or sentimental because I say these things. Just re- member that while you were going through that fire and terror had to sit here and smile I had to try to be. as brave as you, so that you should ] not be ashamed of me. When 1 wrote to you I tried to write cheerful, en- couraging letters, because did not want you to get into the battle feel ing that I was holding you back from the big sacrifice. It's only now, when the fighting is over, that 1 can let down a little and be just your mo- ther, just the woman who loves you better than anything else in the world and is so glad to know you're coming back to her that she doesn't care who sees her cry.
 Perhaps for some of the boys who have stood with you so finely through these trials the fighting Is not yet all over. The fighting I mean is between man and himself, and for many of them this will be the 1 hardest battle of all During the long days and evenings of waiting before they can start for home thoughts will creep into their minds which will be hard to resist. There will be times after all these months of action when the longing for change and for the companionship of women may lead them into associa- tions which will spoil their home coming and cause them shame and humiliation and even perhaps make them unfit for the love that awaits them here.
 You, dearest boy, are just as hu- man as your comrades, and feelings like these may come to you too. don't ask you to crush them. They are natural, and they only prove that war has failed to dry up the well spring of your emotions. l ask you 1 only. to recognize them when they come and to control them with the fine strength you have gained while fighting for the ideals and principles of America. Just remember that many joyous years of life are ahead of you and that the risk of spelling them and the love that will fill them
 too tremendous to run for a short hour of seeming pleasure
 Many of the boys who will come home with you have no mothers to write to them. Some of them may think that no one cares what they do. But somebody does care. Amer ica cares. And the girls they will marry some day care. And, oh, the difference it will make in their lives if they will just remember that there is always somebody, always!
 Help them to remember. Help them to come home clean and flne Don't let them spoil everything now. They have been so splendid. If you think this letter will help them give tt to them. If they have no mothers let me be their mother until they have come back and taken the high places that await them here. Tell them to write to me. How 1 should treasure their letters!
 And, of course, you will write to me. Just say you understand-that you know why 1 have written this letter. Then I can wait months-yes, even years-knowing that you will come home to me as fine and clean as you were when l sent you away