Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1918-08-29
AMERICAN SOLDIERS
IN MANY COUNTRIES
World War Brought Smashing
of Cherished Traditions Of
Uncle Sans People.

Washington, D. C.-The war map,
with it's trench lines struggling athwart
International boundaries, shows Amer
lean fighting men holding their footing
on strangely alien soils. AS 1t now
stands, army units OF the United States
are at their grim work in six countries:
France, Germany, Russia, Austria, It.
ally, and Belgium.
The swelling volume of their move
ment overseas has been so necessary a
response to the emergency Of the ma
TONS responsibility, so thoroughly i'm
piled by the original war declaration.
and so entirely natural q picture to a
people prepared by three years OBJ
servation of world war. that it may
take a historians perspective to visu-
alize completely the departure from
traditions and the smashing of prece-
dents that the movement involved.
Checking the six: American artillery
has been reported on the French line
opposite Mulhausen, several miles n
side the border Of the German empire.
In Austria the olive drab uniform sup
ports Italian sectors which swing
around the toe of Lake Gardn, and
American filters a Unanswered over
the Venetian lowlands where the AUS
trian drive was forced back this spring.
top with Australians. and in France
their forces in action now can be
counted by army corps. In Russia, at
Vladivostok and now on the frozen
reaches of the Thurman coast, they are
putting disciplined force behind the
manifold manifestations of national
purpose. Likewise. in England. Scot
land n Ireland they fill up the school
camps n prepare themselves for
action.
These men, drafted nearly all, are the
agents in the far flung journeyings Of a
,~ts~ HyH@~~ vNSvS<@~Ny h3~A~~Ny hoo
shown more than one instance. in which
volunteers. ordered to cross a boun-
| Diary, have sat down-private and Off
Ger alike-to debate the constitution
atty of a Warlike expedition to foreign
soil. n still more instances where
opposed national attempts to SCI them
beyond their state lines.
Yet today, under the ri Of the war
resolution which directed the admins
tration ito exert all of its power and
employ all Of it's to carry on
war against the imperial German gov
eminent and to bring the conflict to q
successful conclusion" drafted men and
volunteers have not raised a single pro-
| test Of serious import.
1t was not until January of the pres
ent year that the supreme court for
mally construed the constitution to al
low any sort of war operation the ma
ton desired to carry on. The court said
of contentious opposing that view that
they were too frivolous for notice."
Yet long before the decision the first
drafted American had fallen in battle
overseas and legions more had streamed
after him to every quarter. almost. Of
the Eurasian continent.
Thus the historian has been given
a large and interesting mile post to
build in the future; but. for the average
American, the news Of the day shows
that this interest is purely abstract.
1t having been definitely decided, upon
due and formal consideration, that a
complete defeat Of Germany, was nee
essary to democracy in the world, the
nation has not even remembered prece-
dents of history or traditions Of the
past.
Apparently, the men least inclined
to consider have been the soldiers who
have gone gravely, but with good cheer.
into h valley OF the shadow over
seas. and there are making good, the
purpose.