The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1918-05-16
what more could | wish | will have
much to tell you when | get nome.
This is for Myrta and Ora and all.
Your loving son,
Graves Will BE Marked,

!
Graves Will BE Marked.
The most heart-gripping thing
| that comes daily across my perSpect-
| i've is the grave Of the American SOL
der in France.
1T comes to me oftener than it
comes to most people over there, be-
cause, in addition to the other activi-
| ties which have been transferred to
the department ] have been asked by
the Red Cross to organize and have
| in charge, is the question of the
grave in which shall repose the
broken body OF the American lad.
He fell in a strange land lighting
for a thing which doomed in his
mind as a solemn duty, vaguely sill
houetted With eloquent phrases
about the rights of man, making the
world safe Tor democracy, saving
civilization from the Hun, and 9TH
er fervid TECHNOLOGY which lit ug
his brave soul at home and catapult-
form and then into grave 5000
miles from the land OF his daily
longing and his nightly dreams.
Already a dozen requests have
come to my department from Ameri-
can parents, asking ii the bodies of
their sons, who have fallen since
aus ns sa Last h eanno ba as SPECIAL daa fay
these, which lies before me as
write, comes from an American who
has had few requests Of his lite re-
fused The lad whose vision is with
him day and night lies in a grave out
on the Cambria front, where ne
fought and yielded up his young lite
with all the generous courage of
of the father could not be granted,
and when the cable had taken to him
the ultimatuS, he sent this great
answer: Thank you for your SYM
pathy. ! realize fully the difficult
ties which make the request impos-
sible 1 Please &C. be careful al; abont the e
some day visit with his mother AS
lit lies before me the message seems
simpler than it really is The New
Highlander who sent it moves trains,
builds terminals, surmounts un-
speakable obstacles at home. He
makes millions Of dollars to turn
somersault, thousands Of men obey
him The lad was his pride, the
thing which beckoned him on in all
his unusual tasks. AS ! read his
simple acceptance of the situation
! know where the lad who laid down
his life SO readily got the iron that
was in him when he did his best TO
meet the Hun charge.
denied has its duplicate in million
Others which have come to those in
charge of the gloomy department Of
graves from every land since the war
began, And the answer must al
ways be the same. The issue was
settled the first few months of the
war. The French had to meet it
to meet it with the widest possible
consideration of the sympathetic
demands of the case Their soldiers
fell on French soil, some Of them
not so far from home, others of
course several hundred miles away.
The demand that. the soldiers body
be returned to his native home be-
came one of the heart breaking
problems in land where all hearts
are bleeding. A great French offic.
er was placed in charge Of the prob
lem. He spent days and months try
ing to meet it. Finally, he was
obliged to recommend that the task
that, from repeated conversations
with the men and from the growth
of his own feeling he comes to
realize that the soldier himself did
not desire it, Most of them PREFER
ed to lie in graves on fields over the
defense of which they had given
their. lives. He explained to French
in the way of transportation, next
the impossible conditions from the
standpoint of sanitation. Then he
put his great name at the bottom of
a letter in which he requested that
if he should fall, he be buried in the
field cemetery on the ground he had
helped to defend; Over four months
ders at Verdun to a mem Der of his
staff, shell fragment took off his
head. He was buried in the field
cemetery at Verdun as he had re-
quested, and the problem was set
tied The English realized that the
French decision was the only prac-
though they are much nearer home
than we are. The Englshman, the
Canadian, the Australian, the East
Indian, all lie in graves in the ceme-
terry belonging to the field on which
they have fallen; and we shall have
to surrender to the same decision
burden entailed in moving bodies,
the sanitary question involved, are
all multiplied many fold by our dis
lance. In addition, the feeling of our
lads is the same as that of all the
other soldiers-they would rather
remain in the fields upon which
they have ng given up the e, last
of the matter, it remains for us all
to do the best possible thing under
the circumstances. The army main
tains graves registration bureau,
whose duty it is to see that the
grave of every soldier is correctly 10
Gated and registered in permanent
record. The army has turned over
to the American Red Cross the un-
usual duty of. photographing these
graves wherever possible and these
photographs are to be sent home.
To this has been added the sugges-
ton, which both hope and believe