The Bemidji daily pioneer. [volume] (Bemidji, Minn.) 1904-1971, 1919-05-31
Who
FOUGHT {; | THAT H \
!. NATION MIGHT
!. / LIVE H0N0RED
Russell Pays Tribute to Dead
Heroes and Veterans of 3
7 Wars in Memorial Speech :
THIS GENERATION WILL }
SEE WAR DRUMS MUFFLED
Speaker>Sees Where League Of
Nations Will Rid World of !
: Danger of Future Struggles.

! Danger OF rutufe StruSHAeSE
Paying tribute to our soldier sons
who fought and died on the fields of
France that the whole world might
live in peace and freedom, and to
those who sacrificed that the bonds OF
liberty might be strengthened in the
preservation of the union, and also
to the boys who fought for the same
ideal in the Spanish war, Attorney
P, J. Russell. delivered splendid
Memorial day address at the cere-
monies held in the Grand theatre
yesterday afternoon. Mr.. Russell's S
speech. in part, follows:
"The day has significance this
year as never before. The graves OF
American soldier dead are being dec
GRATED, from East Port Maine to the
Golden Gate, from the Great Lakes
to the Gulf. from Sunny France to
frigid Siberia, from the shores of the
Adriatic to the Golden Horn. 1t is
the first anniversary, after our ac-
tive participation in the world war,
a war which we are waiting from
day to day to see officially ended.
And what SHALL say Of the boys who
took part in it, the traditional glor-
ious part, of the American soldier.
.t.You old soldiers. fought and suf-
feret to make race free. These boys
fought and suffered to make and keep
a world free. To end war for all
time. Il You fought brave and ehiv-
alrous foe., They fought a reonahina-
ton OF barbarjans, scarcely. less
brave armed with all the instruments
of intupan warfare, which He'll it.
self could invent. Whose ears were
ever deaf. to the cries of. murdered,
outraged, muti1ated women and
children, to. the groans of murdered
non-combatants, ITO the pleas for
mercy of women and girls driven into
a captivity Of slavery worse than
death. And in the complete over
throw Of ;Prussian militarism, in
which they took such glorious part,
humanity sees the dawn of the mil
lennium, when this will be world of
peace and good will to all men.
Great Men Favor It.
- "The greatest statesmen of the
world are to day evolving a League
of Nations on the.initiative of Presi-
dent Wilson. A few senators and
congressman, while admitting they
know nothing about it, proclaim to
a war weary world they viii. not vote
to ratify any peace treaty containing
a league of nations. Only a few
weeks ago a United States senator on
the floor of the senate announced that
he would not vote for the League of
Nations, if the Savior himself came
down and advocated it. Others pro-
fess a fear for the Monroe Doctrine
who have absolutely no idea of what
such doctrine is or was. 1t was pro-
roe when he recognized the inde-
pendence of Mexico, and lin his mes
sage took occasion to say that any at
tempt by European Monarchies to in
terfere with established governments
on the two American continents
would be looked on as an unfriendly
act. That declaration was made only
a few years after We had fought an
:undecisive war with Great Britain,
when we were absolutely impotent to
enforce It against aay single great
European Power, not to speak of a
combination of such powers, yet it
4remained unchallenged for nearly
fifty years, and then only in the case
of Mexico when that country was in
a state Of anarchy a combination of
European powers, placed Maximilian
on the throne. with a result known
to every school boy. and it has never
again been challenged.
Settles Disputes.
"Why then cannot league OF ma
tions proclaim and enforce the doc
trine that the rights and TERRITORY Of
all established governments shall be
inviolate. that they shall have the
right to choose their own form Of gov
ernment, and that all disputes be-
tween nations shall be determined
and settled by an International tri-
bunal. as local disDutes are now set
tied in our civil courts
There are others who claim that
wars must and will come. That the
only safe way is to prepare and be
prepared for them by increased arm
aments, increased armies and navies
and universal military service. We
have the sorry spectacle of general,
a political one. in the United States
army. going up and down the land
prea ching that the only way to pre-
vent war is to be prepared for it.
and advocating universal military
service. while his chief is in Paris,
with others of the great statesmen Of
the, world, endeavoring to form a
league Of nations by which and
through which wars may be forever
ended md the people of the world
freed from the curse of militarism
It's the faw which 5conipefs the ply
tfnrtfrued on Page four,