The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1918-12-14
News and Comment

news ana comment
After registering vow that he would eschew
all conversation about army experiences" until
the last real soldier from France had told his
last "reminiscences the conductor of this revived
column decided that 1t might add little to the
general merriment to record that one bewild-
cred "candidate"-which is a polite name for
buck private'-after a hectic day trying to
solve the puzzle of the uniform of French Of
fcers on a mission to Chicago, gave the head
bellboy Of the LaSalle hotel, his best military
salute. We thought he general at least
In the smaller cities of the country we have
missed the glamor Of the war. We have missed
the military bands; the parades Of soldiers;
the pageants; the trim young officers in their
new uniforms; the rumbling caissons; the visit
ing missions" in all their gorgeousness of gold
braid and blue uniform; the whirring, tumbling
airplanes overhead; AMI all the swagger and
spectacular features Of the conflict
We don't know what it is to enter theater or
a church and nine tenths of the men in
uniform as has often been the case in canton
uent cities or other eenters of population locat
ed near training camps. We don't know what
1t is to the streets one mass Of khaki
through which officer is forced to thread his
way with at almost continuous salute.
All the show of the war has passed us BY and
yet the smaller cities of the country have done
their bit just as thoroughly without this inspra-
ton. Theodore Dresser, in Scribners. tells why
the smaller towns and cities didn't need this in
spiration. He writes:
I sometimes think that in the face of
great conflict as the present one-the Ger
laundering at the gates Of so-called
democracy-we are apt to overlook the spec
tacle which the average man presents here
in ( NOT oJpl1fa wit
him he exists in other lands to present
an Ineligible, let alone an intimate, pic
ture). Here in the small towns, the very
little ones-Painted Post, Blosses Corners,
Sand Center-in any state and in any coun-
ty and across the long fields that lie be-
tween, what a stirring of the spirit we call
American, the dreams we have sometimes
shifted at as democratic! 1t does not matter
really whether one is innately martial
or paciistic in mood Cor was) or has Cor had)
special foreign predictions in any form,
in so far as this latter development is con-
cerned Many of those who are most active
n~Americas rural or urban war activities to-
day were most deep seated in their objec-
ton when America entered the war. They
saw in the war-Americas participation in
t-much that they could not like; the rigors
which go with complete mobilization Of war,
the end or sharp curtaiment Of the ease and
prosperity winch nad come since the civil
war, with the outbreak even of this one,
the vast sales of products to European
lands ..#'
But once we were in it, once sons, broth
ers, sweethearts had volunteered or been
drafted and marched away, the other face of
the situation dawned upon them-they We're
in it, whatever they thought Those German
guns laundering on the west front were for
their sons and lovers. The things which
their boys would need would be clothes food,
warm beds. surgeons and nurses to attend
them when wounded medicines and food to
heal them when convalescent, ships to take
them and to bring them back. gas masks,
machine guns and liquid fire even to protect
them in the trenches, enormous guns to thun-
der against and drive back the enemy so that
their boys should not be injured-should, il
possible, be brought back whole to them.
The war wasn't. circus, colossal enter
tainment, or the popular fad of the day with
the small towns. It was just plain everyday,
serious business, buying bonds and giving money
and watching the young men slip away in tens
and scores and hundreds. And that is why the
small towns and little cities have all the more
reason to be proud of what they have contri-
buted
OF course 1t isn't fashionable to say nice things
about "The Presidents Creel" as Col. Harvey calls
him, and while yielding to none in our desire
to be fashionable in this respect, It Is only fair
to call attention to q signal service he has rem
dered suffering humanity.
Through the medium Of his Four Minute Men,
who are just slipping into obscurity, he has
proved that it is possible for orators to condense
any subject to a four-minute address.
Of course the story OF the Creation was told
in 600 words, but since that feat was accom-
lo1isnad what after dinner orator has raraera-
bered il? The -Four Minute Men have braved
impatient resentful, and sometimes even hostile
audiences. Tor no American audience on aml1se-