Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1918-08-02
YANKEE SOLDIERS
NOW FIGHTING IN
SIX FOREIGN LANDS

Washington. Aug. 1.-The war
map with its trench lines struggling
athwart international boundaries
shows American lighting men hold
ing their footing on strangely alien
soils. AS it now stands army units
| Of the United States are at their
grim work in six countries. France.
| Germany, Russia. Austria, Italy and
( Belgium.
| The swelling volume Of their move
ment overseas has been 50 necessary
! a response to the emergency Of the
! nations responsibility, SO thoroughly
! implied by the original war declara
/ ton, and so entirely natural picture
to a people prepared by three years
! observation Of world war, that il
/ may take a historians perspective 10
visualize completely the departure
from traditions and the smashing Of
/ precedents that the movement in
! VOWED.
! Checking the six American artil-
| lery has been reported on the French
! line opposite Mulhausen, several
miles inside the border of the Ger
/ nan empire. In Austria. the olive
drab uniform supports Italian sectors
which swing round the toe of Lake
Garda, and American 1iers have
unanswered over the Venetian low
| lands. where the Austrian drive was
! forced back this spring. IN Belgium.
/ they have gone over the top with
Australians and in France their
forces in action now can be counted
/ by army corps. In Russia at Nlad-
livestock and now on the frozen
reaches Of the Thurman coast they
( are putting disciplined force behind
the manifold manifestations of ma
tioral purpose. Likewise, in Eng
land, scotland and Ireland, they i'll
! up the school camps and prepare
| themselves for action.
/ These men, drafted nearly all, are
! the agents in the far flung Journey
! ings Of Il nation whose military his
! tory has shown more than one in
/ stance in which volunteers, ordered
TO cross boundary, have sat down.
private and officer alike, to debate
4 the constitGtionality of warlike ex-
petition to foreign soil. and still
more instances where militia organ
izations have successfully opposed
/ national attempts to send them be-
I yond their own state lines.
Yet today. under the urge Of the
war resolution which directed the
administration TO exert all Of its
power and employ all of its re-
sources TO carry on war against the
Imperial German government and to
! bring the conflict to a successful
conclusion" drafted men and volun-
teers have not raised a single pro-
test Of serious import.
1t was not until January of the
present year that the supreme court
formally construed the Constitution
to allow any sort of war operation
the nation desired TO carry on. The
court said of contentious opposing
that view that they were too friv-
olous 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
large and interesting mile post to
| build in the future. but for the av-
erage American, the news Of the
day shows that this interest is pure
ly abstract. 1t having been defnite-
~ decided. upon due and formal con-
sideration, that complete defeat Of
! Germany was necessary to democ-
racy in the world. the nation has not
even remembered presidents Of his
tory or traditions of the past.
Apparently, the men least inclined
to consider that have been the SOL
diers who have gone gravely but with
good cheer into the valley of the
shadow overseas, and there are MAX
ing good the purpose.