Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-05-30
TODAY
Our Dead in France and the War in the
Light Of Their Sacrifice

k,NENIS are moving rapidly to temper
the consciousness of America--to in
terpret us to ourselves. 1t is impos-
sible, for instance. on this MEMORIAL Day
to do otherwise than think first Of the
men who have died in France. Like the
dead of our own wars, they have helped
to fix shining traditions that shall chal-
lenge and guide all mankind forever.
The thought of their peculiar service
must move any gallant heart to wonder
and to tears--but never to grief. Their
end was too proud for that.
To die for ones own country Is noble.
But to turn from peace to torment to
depart from places and things and people
greatly cherished and travel far and die
for Il strange land is a blessed act even
fuller of mystic beauty. The very soil
of France must have thrilled when it
received these men at the end of their
travail. Now they lie in the same earth
with those who came to desolate and to
plunder, to kill and to destroy. Therein
is the whole symbolism Of the war.
This should be day Of flowers and
memories, of course. But it might also
be day of meditation. The implica-
tions of the occasion are like revealing
light on many Of our present concerns.
Tho graves of all the various soldiers who
have died on the French battleficds cry
out with various meanings.
1t appears, after all, that the world
has been mistaken in the secret convic-
tion that the very noise and glitter and
enormity of the German adventure in
volved somehow tingc of grandeur.
The humbcst private in the American
army is nearer eternal knowledge than
the German Emperor. nearer wisdom.
nearer a gentleman. T'lcre is no grandeur
in a nation that permitted itself 20 be
drilled and trained and put on display
like some great. queer circus to satisfy
the vanities of family Of mental defec-
tives. If there is grandeur in the Occa-
sion it is with those men who made of
pity a moving passion and went out to
share the aflliction of strangers. They
waited long. like patient men. They
turned even with something of regret
from their familiar affairs because war
is not the hope or the desire of any
proud or enlightened man. They have
died for their race as well as for their
country. They shared their strength with
the weak. The gods can do no more
than that. The principle of such service
will yet save mankind. If civilization
and all its records were to be obliterated
tomorrow, that conviction would be the
first to spring automatically from the
human sensibility. 1t is allied with the
instinct Of self-preservation. And for
this principle America is fighting and
Americans have died and been buried in
the sea and in the troubled earth of other
lands.
SO they have always fought in every
war. And that is why we need not
greve for our dead. They still live and
lead us on. They have moved always in
our own traditions. Now they will cry
out in the legends and songs of France
and England, Italy and Russia. They
will speak to all the world for all time.
They are as far away as the beginning
of time from the unforgiven dead that
the soil of France has claimed from the
German army. And it will be we'll to
remember all this--so that we may at
tend with greater reverence at the graves
of the men who pioneered it on the diff
cult path that they are following toward
the stars.
If we were frankcr people we should
not only take time to think secretly Of
all the other warriors of ours who are
out upon the great mission; we should
say what we feel in our hearts. We
should say:
"God be with them ,chercrrr then are,
upon the great 1rnters. dying in the face
of the darn on Keeping the rj9ii ot bat
tlefclds for the sake of the unborn gen.
erations.'