The Glenwood post., 1918-11-23

England. We wnt to help wherever
we are needed. My troops are at your
disposal" Tha, message will live in
history like the expression, "Don't
Give Up the Ship or Remember the
Maine,' or "Doa t Fire Until You
Can See the Whites of Their Eyes,
and some other stirring sentences ut
tered upon like occasions. General
foch accepted the offer. American
marines were rushed to the front in
auto trucks, freight cars, wagons OF
anything else that would carry men.
rhey were "raring to go.' They were
shooting through the windows before
the train stopped. Those Yanks were
the sort of fellows vino would spit in
wildcats face or call IA mountain lion
by his first name. They moved the
Warworn veterans up closer together in
places to make room for the Sammies
The Boches were charging over the
crest of small hill. Our men were
| ordered to fire at will Soon it was
noticed that as soon as German head
and shoulders appeared above the ton
of the little hill that German dropped.
They kept coming until they were piled
up five and six feet deep then they
stopped because they couldn t climb
over the piles of their dead. When
they went out later to bury the dead
1t was found that every one of them
mad one small hole in his forehead and
not mark anywhere else. The waver-
lhS line of allied troops held steady for
day, then it began to move back and
1t has been travelling in that direction
ever since and going more and more
rapidly all the time. The world knows
now that the American marines saved
farls. There are no mutilated women
and children found in the wake of our
army, no burned churches, no ruined
orchards nor farms. No American mazda
shells were found inside Red Cross hos
ptals. Our men didn't fire upon ambu-
lances. They didn't cruelty babies nor
ravish helpless women and girls. They
were clean and manly clear through.
Place the record of our men beside that
of the Germans and ask which army
God Almighty would rather be in part
nership with, and then forever turn
sick at the blasphemous "Me uni
Gott claims of the Beast of Berlin.
The fighting is over, / think, and
now how are we going to act in the
hour of victory Will we maintain the
high standards of the past or will we
allow thoughts of retaliation and re.
venge to fill our minds and cause us
to stoop to low conduct? This is no
time for soft and sloppy sentimentality.
We must be firm. but we must be men.
We would have liked to have heard
the band play Yankee Doodle on the
streets of Berlin. The stars and
stripes flying over the city hall in the
capital city of Germany would have
looked good to us, but when they quit
and cry "kamerad' what can YOU do9
We all feel like the man who, when he
had a quarrel with his neighbor, de-
manded an apology, but angrily added
81 hope I don't get ito Our men
would like to have fought the Germans
on their own soil, but they had enough
before they got to the border and
agreed to terms that are decidedly hu.
initiating.
Some folks are saying: "We ought
to go in and clean them up anyway
just as they did little Belgium" "We
ought to do to them all that they did
to France and would have done to us
if they had been able" / feel the
need of being careful in answering the
man who speaks that way, but really
ism 7 that just asking our men to stoop
as low and to become as foul as
Hun: If we do all that they did,
what's the difference between us.
Lloyd George was right when he said:
eve must settle the terms of peace not
ON the basis of revenge or hatred, but
on the basis of justice and righteous
ness and fairness to all' If we let
the spirit of the Hun rule us we must
sink to his level and meet the fate that
he has met, sooner or later. If we act
like degenerates we will degenerate. IF
we act like Huns we will hpcnma uuus
in character. The man who asks MS to
do as the Germans did is placing the
seal'of his approval upon the conduct Of
the the Germans and is holding them
up to us rs models He doesn't say
this, but 1t is what he is doing never
theless.