Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1919-04-01
BY THEODORE TILLER'
WI T ASHINGTON.-This story concerns
wv tragic subject-yet its writing

small we ask JnGn TO S6nQ our boy > UOuy
home or shall it remain where it fell on the
field Of battle?"
The navy department issues statement
presenting this sorrowful issue to every fam
lily bereaved through the casualties of the
navy and marine corps. The navy announces
it's intention TO bring home the bodies of all
it's dead except where there is specific re
quest that there be no disturbance of the
grave in foreign soil The war department.
with much longer casualty list, has reached
no decision about the return Of the bodies
OF the hero dead. Public scnt,- 1t in the
end will likely prevail.
Before Theodore Roosevelt died the war
department suggested that at an oDpOrtune
time it would return to this country the body
of his youngest son, Quentin, American avia-
tor, killed in combat with a German foe
Army officials doubtless believed that Colonel
and Mrs. Roosevelt would want Quentin S
body inferred eventually at Oyster Bay.
In reply the former president wrote brief
note declining the offer to bring home his
dead boy He quoted two lines expressive
of the wish of the Roosevelt family:
''Where the tree falls,
"There let it lie
Since then Mrs. Roosevelt, a widow
as we'll as a mother with a service star OF
gold, has left this country to go to the grave
of Quentin Roosevelt. Enemy airmen gave
him military burial and erected a cross in
dicating the spot where he fell and was
buried. Mrs. Roosevelt probably will erect
some permanent monument there and then
will leave at rest, far from hOme-but on the
field of glorious SacTifice-all that is mortal
of her youngest SON
This same question now presents itself to
thousands of other mothers and fathers.
Many Of these are not able to go to France.
They will never see even the grave of their
dead. They will not possess so much as
photograph of the mound. The best VOucb-
safed to them is the mental picture Of
grave, rude cross, and the hope that some
body will sometimes put flower upon it, or
green mantle Of grass will protect it a biz
and that the scene about is not as lonely and
unsheltered as they, lover here" have mag
ined No Mans Land to be.
Yet the transporting of thousands Of bodies
home would be a grewSOme thing. There are
more than sixty thousand on the killed, died
of disease and died Of wounds casualty lists
of the war department. The navy anu
marine casualties, of course, are comparative
ly few, probably about three thousand dead in
all.
If all these bodies are brought home it
means the ocean will be dotted for weeks with
"coffin ships" Railroads will carry across
continent in box cars thousands Of hermeti-
cally-sealed baskets.
Funeral parties will meet trains at prac
tically every station. The grief that came the
night the war department telegraphed that
eve regret to advise that your son Cor
brother) has been killed in action" will be
made new again more than a year after the
end of the war
Many officers of the army doubt the wis
dom Of removing these American bodies from
the soil of France and Flanders. They be-
ieve there would be little comfort to the
parent in the arrival Of a metal box said to
contain the body of a soma box which would
not be opened but merely taken to the local
cemetery and lowered into a new grave.
Despite the attitude of the navy, as an
nounced today, there is a probability that the
J011T n
ferent policy, that the tree will lie where it
fell. In December the adjutant general Of
the army said that plans were under way for
returning to native soil Americas hero dead.
Subsequently there came diversity of opinion
in the department itself and in the country
concerning the propriety and humanity of
opening up the graves in France and taking
our soldier dead from the battlefields over
which, they fought. Today the war depart
ment's course is undetermined What is dore
finally will depend largely upon the desires Of
the bereft families-Whether the majority be-
Iieve like Colonel and Mrs. Roosevelt or are
overwhelmed by the sentimental desire to
"bury our boy at home
At any rate, the navy department and Sec
rotary Daniels have agreed upon policy and
unless parents express desire that their lost
ones remain undisturbed where buried
abroad, the bodies of the dead in the navy ana
marine corps-at ChateauThierry and else
where-will be brought back home.
Here is the official announcement of the
navy department, which acts independently
of what the war department at last may de-
eide to do:
cat the outset of our participation in the
war, the navy determined to continue it's pol
icy of returning home the remains OF the
dead, and only when facilities for preserving
and encasing the bodies could not be obtained
or where laws Of the various countries inter
vened, have burials been made abr Jad. All Of
| the elarger naval ships and transports We're
equipped with embAlming outfits and mate
rails, and explicit instructions given for their
use; in many instances the services If licensed
embalmers were secured by enlistment in the
navy and naval reserve and the department
| feels that these efforts have been amply re-
Warded by early return to their homes of the
remains of several hundred men from the
ships and naval stations in the war zone.
but, despite all endeavors burial abroad
has been necessary in many cases, including,
of course the remains of all officers and men
| OF the marine corps who died while serving
with the army in France and Belgium. The
! graves of these have invariably been made
semi-permanent in character, marked in SUCH
manner as to guard against error, and have
| been carefully tended and preserved, while
| minute and accurate burial records have been
| kept in the navy department at Washington.
| at naval headquarters in London, and in the
| files of the various stations.
The plans under consideration include
| three lines OF action, dependent upon the eX-
| pressed wishes Of the next of kin in each
! case: CD the bodies to be allowed to remain
| in the country where death occurred; GU to
be returned to the United States for RENTER
ment at Arlington or any other designated
national cemetery; or 60, to be sent to the
next of kin in any part of the United States
| for private burial
Concerning the first alternative although