The Emmett index. [volume] (Emmett, Idaho) 1893-1925, 1918-02-28
BY ONE WHOSE
COUNTRY CALLED

WE are the men from 81 to 81,
those from whom our country
is soon to ask the supreme sacrifice
of citizenship. Some of US were boys
only few yesterdays ago. Those of
us who were have become very sud
denly grown up, very suddenly serious
and sober of thought and action. For
we realize that we are about to be
called upon to perform the most ap-
palling task that has confronted
Americans in more than half a cen
fury.
All of us have had our dreams and
hopes for the future, plans that
reached far into the coming years.
These we have put aside gently, but
none the less definitely, there has
been a shearing off of our outlook
We can look forward now only about
year and that year mostly is to be
given to our country. After the end
of that year no man of us can say
what will happen. Many of us, of
shelved dreams and hopes-others
will not
1t is this sharp and sheer readjust-
ment of our viewpoint, our manner of
looking upon life, that is the most
difficult. All of us had become so
definitely linked with the common
place, civilian life about US that the
sudden wrench of war finds us little
unready in spirit and mind. We can
not comprehend all at once this phe
nomenon that has enveloped us.
To say that some of US do not have
misgivings, moments of dependency,
would be quite untrue. The routine
of commercial life is deadening to the
danger-questing spirit, it does not
a great adventure. But these SEN
sations are sensations only of man
who is thrust into unfamiliar and un- /
fashionable conditions. 1t is like en-
tering upon dark and unplatted road.
We know that our allies in Britain |
who are fighting the battle that is now
ours have undergone the same ex-
perience that we are about to en-
bark upon. We observe the splendid
capacities that they have unfolded
in a work that was new to them as
it is to us, and our hopes are quick
ened. We feel that we can do as well
too, shall be able to hit and to hit
hard.
We accept our task as the duty that
has fallen to our generation. We
expect, if necessary, to give to it like
the men of Gettysburg "the last full
measure of our devotion" 1t is our
solemn obligation as Americans, an
obligation that we owe for the lib
critics and the pleasures that have
been ours and our fathers and which {
we hope shall belong to those who
come after US. This view can never
be that of the Stacker, because the ,
Stacker sees only his countrys obi
cation to him, never his to the coun- '
try. We hope that when we go there
will be no slackers in America, for we |
want to feel, when we stand in the
trenches beneath the showering shells,
that those who have remained behind /
would not permit them to be among t
us.
We are thankful that we shall car !
ry with US into the great game the I
spirit of fair play and full justice E
that we have learned upon American I
baseball and football fields and in |
American schoolrooms. We know j
that it will forever preclude our
sinking to the levels of those whom
we shall fight. We know that it has r
given us of bitterness and steeled our !
wills. We shall better leap to the :.
charge, because back in our boyhood @
days we learned to plunge into the 7
firmly set line on the grid /
iron; we shall better fight on when I
the battle may seem to go against US, '
because we have learned that a late a