The Oroville weekly gazette. [volume] (Oroville, Wash.) 1905-19??, 1918-12-27
A sOLDEIR's POINT OF VIEW

| N"W6 II u letter writer
oy Lieutenant Frank NJ. Dallam. Jr.
TO an uncle in Illinois who Is publish.
er OF the Warsaw Bulletin. from which
paper the communication is cooled
The letter is in the nature of a protes,
against the American habit of boast
iuihess, which Is too often carried far
beyond the limits of good taste:
Saumer Artillery School,
American Expeditionary Forces
Nov. Z, 1918.
Phillip Dallam, Warsaw, Illinois.
MY Dear Uncle: Father forwarded
TO ME your letter in which you ex-
pressed desire to have letter from
me giving something of experiences
and Impressions over here.
First, L want to thank YOU for the
complimentary reference to what |
nave written, though I feel that the
praise is too generous and nos a little
due to partiality (Which / prize more
than the praise) that somehow biased
your Judgment.
| In your letter you referred to the
unfortunate tendency in our country
to boast Of our accomplishments in
the war and the manner in which COM
ment on that weakness is resented.
However. that is tendency that
should be checked before we are made
ridiculous in the eyes of the world or
earn the contempt of those people who
bore the burdens and made the ter
rible sacrifices of the first three years
OF the war, while we let them fight
and die for us with an ineXplicable
refusal to face our duty, smugly con-
tent to count the daily gains and enjoy
the daily pleasures that their untold
suffering and awful martyrdom, in the
titanic struggle to preserve not only
their own future but ours and the
future of cOvilization itself from the
ruthless purposes of the barbarous
Hun, brought to us. Instead of boast
ing, we ought to bow our head in
grateful humiliation in the presence
of English, French, Belgians and Ser
bians. We ought to pray that our
efforts now may be great enough to
compensate in a measure at least FOR
our failure to see or acknowledge our
duty sooner and save us from the
stern and impartial Judgment of his
tory. There can never be entire justi-
fication for the unhappy course Am
erica pursued in the early years of
the war. We waited nearly three
years before We accepted the chal-
lenge Germany had flung at freedom
and liberty and Christian civilization;
and during that strange and unac-
countable period of waiting we did not
do single adequate thing to prepare
for the inevitable. No folly could
have been greater. What is there in
that course to boast of? Surely no
one with sense of the fitness of
things could boast of those indisput-
able facts.
But what about our valorous SOL
diers and their glorious deeds? What
of their fearless daring, their wonder
full tenacity and determination, their
splendid heriosm and uncomplaining
endurance, their unselfish devotion,
their marvellous initiative and excep-
tional intelligence?
All! there Is no praise too high to
bestow upon our boys in the battle
line. They have won immortal glory
and redeemed America
But is it seemly, or becoming, or
appropriate, that we should shout
about what they have done and are
doing? The highest possible praise
has been ungrudgingly, yet admirins-
ly given by the veteran soldiers of our
allies who have fought with them and
seen them in action, and who have
deeds throughout these long weary
years in the face of encouragement
and hardship and sacrifice unbeliev-
able. Can we add to such praise from
such a source? And do we add to it
when we boast so loudly? Can we not
far better take pattern from the mod
est and reticent manner of our noble
compatriOts?
Think of what France has endured
and suffered all these years. Think
how she has given her blood without
stint, how she has devoted all her
resources and her energies to this
struggle, always valiant, brave un-
yielding, uncomplaining and silent
about her tremendous sacrifices and
her marvellous shining accomplish
ments.
Think of the gigantic efforts put
/; forth by Great Britain. The terrible
| sorrow and socrifice borne without
whimpers, doggedly carrying on in
| the unbeatable British way; every
| fibre of the whole structure of EN-
pire-commercial, industrial. political
and social-all devoted to the one
great purpose.
Think of the silent millions of Bel.
gim reduced to slavery, forced tc
look upon the rape and demolition ol
their country and endure the horrible
torture of a beastial brutal, AFRO
CANT foe; and of the grim silent little
Belgian army clinging desperately
and heroically to the sodden fringt
of this home land; living-rather ex
isting-in the mud and cold of low
Flanders coast; hanging on with un
conquerable spirit though their heart
were burning with anxiety and dreac
of what had befallen those of thei
own who had been caught in the toll
of the cruel and CONSCIOUSNESS Huns.
Think of Serbia, overrun and devas
! ltated by a remorseless foe, its arm.
driven entirely beyond it's borders
yet more splendid in defeat than tn
, proudest army in its hour of creates
triumph. Now, thank God, the victo
is in complete possession of it's nativ
| land and capable of exacting just re
|tribution from that lands oppressors
: Thinking Of these things and tn
/ thousands of accompanying horror
that these people have endured,