The World. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1912-1921, 1918-07-11
When The Boys
Come Home

I'VE ought not to. forget that when
the boys come home at the close of
| the war, at a time when | shall be
| wearing an asbestos halo, / suppose"
said Uncle Joe Cannon in a recent
4 speech in congress, "they will take
] possession and direction, and worthily
I so, of the affairs of government, be-
cause they will have the rare expe-
rienee and rare patriotism that will
come from their service"
| To all of which we heartily sub
scribe, with one reservation. If Uncle
! Joe supposes he will be wearing AN
asbestos halo at that time, why then
we suppose nothing of the kind. He
will not have to get measured for a
! halo for years after the war ends, no
matter how long it lasts And. even
when he does get into the halo class
1 it will not be an asbestos one that
| he will wear. He won't need that
kind 1t will be the sort that goes
with harp which will be served out
| to Uncle Joe. Besides, the Huns will
have a corner on all the asbestos in
| the market long before Uncle Joe
gets around Bill the Brute's 957 diff
tferent varieties of uniforms alone will
all have to be of asbestos, if that
Colt of his who reigns over the re-
sort does not go in for little fright
fulness sport and just for the humor
of the thing turn his old pal Bill
loose just as he is without one plea.
mo, no. Uncle Joe is away wrong
on the halo proposition. But as to the!
soldier boys taking charge of things
when they come back, there is not the
remotest doubt about that 1T will be
clear track for all the offices and
all the honors and all everything else
the Government and the people have
TO give when Johnny comes marching
home again. AS Uncle Joe put it. it
will be North and South just as it was
after the Civil War when in politics,
in business, in the constructive poll
cies of the country it was a case of
make room for the war veterans every
time. "They became the great con-
trolling factors, mot only in what we
ordinarily call politics. said Mr.. Cam
non, "but in broader fields than that.
They were found as engineers, they
were found as lawyers, they were
found as doctors, they were found as
politicians"
And even at the forefront of all
soldiers, north and south, for years
after the Civil War were found and
found worthily meeting the response
bilities that were thrust upon them.
A stronger, bigger, more virile genera
ion than that which followed the war
of '61-65 never was known in the
country. The names of that war-bred
group of statesmen professional men,
men of broad vision and masterful
achievement have doomed large over
the country's history from that day
to this. DO we quite measure up to
their standards now? Has there been
something of deterioration in these
later years? Maybe SO But it is no
matter either way. Men of just as
strong fibre, men of just as great mil
itary and legislative genius, men of
just as lofty and self-sacrificing pa.
triotism are in the making right at
this moment in our home environments
and ON the flaming battle lines there
in France. Muscles and nerves and
brains that survive the ordeal of that
hideous hell's furnace will come out
of it tempered to as high, and per-
haps even to a higher degree Of fine
ness and firmness of fibre as did even