Connecticut western news., 1918-06-20
C. A. r. REUNION
Continued from page !

flag back across the water from
whence it came by million OF your
brave, stalwart and loyal sons and
grandsons to save the world.
Members of the Grand Army of
the Republic it is not necessary Tor
me to bid you welcome, nor for
North Canaan or the State to well
come you. For more than fifty
years this country of ours has well
coined you with open hearts and open
arms, and today every liberty-loving
country of the world welcomes you
and yours.
AS we stop and consider the result
had you failed in that great effort
and the Southland been successful
in it's effort to establish govern
ment of it's own, if today in place OF
the forty-eight stars on the flag we
had two countries opposed to each
other in principle and belief, with
our great resources divided and
hostile to each other, with Belgium
assasinated, devastated and ravaged
by a scientifically murderous race,
with Italy thrown back against the
sea, with Russia doped and a help
less menediant among the nations of
the earth, with France, glorious
France, half over-run by robber
hordes and fighting with her back
against the wall, with England bleed
ing and almost to her knees, with
the civilization of the world totter-
ing in the balance, we know there
would be little hope for the future,
for any of those things which makes
life worth living, if it were not for
this stalwart empire which you men
saved to the world.
To those of you who have been
permitted to pass the ''three score
and ten" of hfe's allotted period it
has been a blessed privilege for you
to see the elimination of your
great sacrifices become the hope of
the world:
Before the present great war
came you had glory enough for one
generation for having saved your
own, but now we know that it was
not alone your country you saved
but the entire world which you have
rescued from the tyrant's yoke.
Again we welcome you because
in the rekindled light of patriotism
of today we see more clearly and
with better understanding the spirit,
the sacrifice and ordeal of the days
when you boys went forth to do and
die.
We appreciate more keenly the
meaning of the "God bless you" of
your fathers and mothers as you
went forth in Nations service and
of your feelings as you turned your
backs upon the old New England
homes where you were born.
AS with eager eyes we each day
scan the columns of the papers for
the news from cover there" we real
ize the spell of solemn. endurance of
those days from 81 to '65, and as
the news comes of the death or
wounding or loss of one of our own
immediate circle, we realize, as
never before, the sacrifices of your
time.
1t has long been a theory of some
that wars are necessary for the
strength and virility of the human
race. This we hope is not true; but
that war fought for the principles
of freedom and liberty brings out
that which is best in humanity we
realize is true When these princi-
Piles are assaulted and when you are
at deaths grip with a foe seeking by
all means, fair or foul, to take your
life, destroy your home and country,
! and all that you love, it is then that
you realize how absolutely useless
are many of the things for which
you are daily striving and pray your
Creator for that Drawn and muscle,
for the clearness of head and eve,
that comes only from clean and
healthful living and which makes
you not of the equal, but of the su-
perior material used in making men.
1t is struggles such as these that
must develop the moral muscle of
humanity. Just as oy the use of The
hottest flames the hardest metals are
produced, as the heavy gales drive
the nourishing root of the great trees
deeper into the fertile soil, as heal
thy and strenuous exercise develops
the muscles of the body, so the stress
of mortal combat in right and just
cause must develop mankind.
This is a fact which has always
been recognized and will always be
true so long as the final arbiter of
the right of nations IS armed men,