New Britain herald., 1918-11-18

full conclusion of the terrible war was
offered to the Supreme Commander
at a Union peace service held at the
South Congregational church last
night This sevice was largely at
tended. There was special patriotic
music and stirring talks on victory by
the city's foremost men. Rev. Dr.
G. w. c. Hill presided and the must
cal program was in charge of Organ
list Joseph Clair Beebe.
Charles F. Smith, chairman of the
board of directors of Landers, Frary
& Clark and one of New Britain's
most staunch Americans, gave the
principal victory talk of the evening,
speaking in part as follows:
Ashamed of Neutrality Days.
THE great war that for four and
one-half years has gripped the world,
is ended. In all the allied lands the
people gather at the affairs of their
faith, as we do here, to renew their
trust in God, sorely tried for many Of
US in these last years, and to cele-
brate their victory with prayer and
thanksgiving. 1t is very fitting we
proud of and much to be thankful
for.
Most of all we should be thankful
that our own country did at last
break the bonds with which she had
been fettered and late indeed, but not
too late, entered into the great war,
for by so entering into the great war
this nation saved its own soul from
death. Who is there now who does
not look back with shame on the time
from July 1914. to the spring of
1917?
1--WE tried to maintain an impossible
neutrality, we tried to believe that
the war was no concern of oUrs-We
made ourselves rich from the neces-
sites of the allies, we almost invited
war with Great Britain by our de-
termination that our commerce with
Germany should not be molested-
and all this while the allies were be-
ing driven out of Belgium and north
ern France, their countries devastated
and ravished, their armies barely able
to hold their Zines unbroken and we
knew in our hearts we were playing
the most ignoble part that a great
free country could be called upon to
PLAY.
1.-The cause for which American SOL
diers gave their lives on the Somme
on the Marine and in the forests of the
Argonne was just as much the cause
of liberty and democracy and civii-
cation the day the war began as 1t
was when last summer our soldiers
went into battle with the war cry,
remember the Lusitania, on their
lips.
I'VE are today proud and grateful
nation but we know that had we con-
tinued to stand aside in this war as
we did for two and one-half years
that whether the allies won or lost,
we should never as a nation be able
to hold up our head again or look
free men in the face.
Thankful We Entered War.
$50 it is we should be supremely
thankful that at least we entered the
war-that having entered into 1t we
put our whole soul into it, that we
performed such feats in the raising
and equipme nt Of armies and navies,
the building Of ships, the contribu-
tons of money as astonished our
selves and our allies and disheart-
ened all our enemies. We are thank
full, too, that these, our soldiers,
drawn d pSdCS1uI pOpuldLlO
unused to any military procedure, SO
soon and so willingly mastered their
duties and SO nobly and so effectively
acquitted themselves on the battle
fields of France. We are thankful
that we arrived In time to play a
very honorable and decisive part In
the great last campaign. Some say
we saved the cause of the allies
certainly we saved the war from run
ming on for years longer-but, how
ever that may be, we surely did ar
rive In time to save our own honor
as a nation, our own worthy place
among the great free peoples of the
world-in time to repay the debt we
owed TO France from our own Revo-
lutionary days. In time to save our
own souls, We have never known
the real tragedy Of this war as the
allied countries have known 1t; the
horror and deadly misery Of life in
Belgium and northern France and all
the lands ruined by tho Huns. We all
know Of it but we have not felt 1T.
Would Honor Dead Heroes.
We mourn for all the young and
gallant souls who gave UP their lives
in the service Of the United States
and are become an imperishable
memory TO. ~~lls-but In our mourn
ing we should remember that the
total of our honored dead Is less than
so, O00-and that more than 2,50O, 900
French and English soldiers lie
buried on the battlefields Of France.
When to that you add the losses Of
! our other allies and think Of the far
! greater number of permanently
| manned and blinded men we can es-
| innate how little we have done in
| comparison with those and how
| greatly we must always be in their
| debt.
Let us show our gratitude to those
| nations who at such terrible sacrifices
Of n hood have SaVpF