The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1918-05-23

III WI VI cSldDliSlllliS NUS
for the use of American officers.
This gives him an excellent oppor-
tunity to give our readers accu-
rate and reliable information on
the vital events transpiring in
France.-Editor)
Somewhere in France.-lnto our Of
ficers' club today, direct from the front
line trench, came five as fine lads as
America has sent to France-Lieuten-
ants Reason, Shot, Garfield, Parsons
and Rowman.
They were seeking a bath and beds,
and sorely were they in need of both.
They are already veterans of the war,
as evidenced by the service badge on
the left sleeve of their coats. They
have been six months in the service
in France. SO splendidly have these
chaps deported themselves, so closely
have they applied themselves to the
study of military tactics, so CALAMITY
did they command their men in the
front line trench, that they have been
selected by the general staff at army
headquarters to return home for a
short season to confer with, advise
and instruct officers and men who
have not yet left America.
Before getting into the thrilling
stories these young chaps brought us
from the immediate front, let me con-
trast their return home with the re-
turn of another group of officers who
go by the same boat-this for the bene-
fit of the officers and men who have
not yet left America.
These five ~lieutenants are but a
fraction of a large number who return
home on the same mission. They are
from the common walks Of life, not
gifted above other men, unless it be
the gift Of gripping and holding them
selves in the line Of duty and against
destructful appetites and passions.
They have simply played the game in
diligently. They recognized the fact
that each individual unit OF the army
should be strong-and they became
strong. They did not lose their indi-
viduality or their strength In the as
ISOLATION with their thousands of COM
rades. There's the mistake so many
soldiers. They think the only thing
that counts is the crowd, the thous-
ands; that the individual is nothing.
A strapping, well-set-up private was
arraigned before his commanding Of
hcer charged with being drunk. The
captain addressed him:
private Jones, this is the second
time. Sorry, very sorry. In all other
ways you are doing we'll. Why is 1t?
What's the trouble? Perhaps you
haven't found out how much liquor
you can hold, or whether you can
hold any and be a good soldier. That's
it."
The private nodded assent.
We'll, find out. It's one of the first
things a young man ought to learn.
Want to go to the front, don't you?'
Eyes sir, certainly"
well, we all want to go, but we
can't go till every man is efficient. DO
YOU want to be the man who kept the
rest of us from going?"
IL. 7 ,,ro do not
"All right, then Whenever you
want to drink just say to yourself. If
| do I'll keep the regiment back"
That lad learned that the individual
counts. In a day or two, as soon as
the ship yonder in the harbor is un-
loaded. our five lieutenants who have
made good, will sail for home, and
no one doubts that soon they will be
wearing on their shoulders the double
bars of a captain, which will be re-
placed later by the gold leaf of a ma
jor or the eagle of a colonel. And
with them go another small group of
men from whose shoulders the off,
GERS badges have been removed.
Most of them have been d%ishonorably
discharged from the army for ICON.
duct unbecoming an officer; one for
ineficiency.
AS l write at midnight in the still
ness of our camp these two groups
of men have retired to their rooms
the one group to dream of a joyful
dawn with a glorious day; the other
CONTINUED on Page Nine)