New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1918-04-02
Nostalgia and the Casualty List

~ r OSTALGIA is the disease Of the up
Il M rooted. 1t is the disease of across
mountains, of long trails and over
Even soldiers suffer from it, And they
die of it. One died in France a few DAYS
ago.
1.-TWO killed in action, said the commu-
nication from the adjutant generals office,
"three died Of accident, seven died Of dis
easc'
Pneumonia killed two of them, diphtheria
three, peritonitis one-then the line:
"Private George Arnett (nostalgia)."
1t is battling word. 1t has the scent of
test tubes about it. 1t is cold with the ice
of science. 1t says nothing Of the forging
for familiar things that lies in wait behind
it, nothing. Of the hopeless yearning for
faces, for voices, for the sound of oft heard
creaking doors, of intimate winds, of COM
forting rain on time-worn roofs.
Homesickness, it used to be called
Somehow it means more that way
Humans are like plants. Uproot them,
and they sicken. Give them ground again
and time to find the mysterious nourish-
ment of underground channels, and they
brighten and grow.
Essential Roots
The mail routes across the seas are roots
to nourish the fighter in France. Cut
these, damage them, lessen the sap that
pours through them, break the connection
anywhere between them and the human
extension of ourselves we have sent to
France, and you harm the soldier more than
gas shells drumfire.
Yet the War Department has done this
very thing in the last few days. On March
26 the War Department issued the follow
ing bulletin:
In future, shipments of any articles to members
of the American expeditionary forces abroad will
be limited to those articles which have been
quested by the individual to whom same is to be
shipped, such request having been approved by
his regmental higher commander. Parcel post
shipments will be accepted by the postoffice
thorites and other shipments by express freight
companies only upon presentation of the above
approved request in each individual
By order of the Secretary of War.
PEYTON C, MARCH,
Major General, Acting Chief of Staff.
The War Department, in its time, when
action was not so imperative and words a
pleasure, made much Of morale.
Morale means nundrcd Things. 1t is
the gunpowder of the spirit. 1t is the
machine gun of character. 1t is the collec-
tive urge onward of a million men. 1t is
thing which has no visible shape, yet it is
born, grows may be wounded and killed, or
stimulated and become glorihed. 1t may
become diseased, and wither. 1t has integ-
rity as men have, and may be crippled by
evil.
Morale Is Tender
Or it may be so strong that nothing can
strike it down and it will survive every
death.
Yet morale is tender. 1t must be nour-
ished. Every soldier who is a part of a
collective morale is himself a part of some
thing else, from which he draws strength.
Does the War Department thus understand
the character and quality of morale?
Surely the War Departments under
standing cannot be measured by its under
standing of the soldier mind, as disclosed
in the order signed by General March.
Dismantled, the order means that the
soldier who is homesick may be saved from
nostalgia if he will go quietly to his regi-
mental commander and ask permission to
receive picture Of his mother. It may
be a photograph Of his sweetheart he
&