Ladysmith news-budget. [volume] (Ladysmith, Rusk County, Wis.) 1907-1927, 1919-02-28


sible for the inexcusable failures to de
liver letters to our soldiers in France!
This dereliction we must not charge
against the much censured Post Office
Department which has innumerable
sins to answer for The War Depart
ment established it's own postal force,
or pretended to, do so. What a fiasco
resulted! I doubt if there is a single
Member of this Senate who has not re-
ceived letters from disheartened par
ents complaining of the failure to de-
liver letters to loved ones overseas.
Mr. Curtis. Mr.. President
The Presiding Officer. Does the
Senator from New Jersey yield to the
Senator from Kansas?
Mr.. Frelinghuysen. l yield to the
Senator from Kansas.
Mr.. Curtis Mr.. President, / shotiad
like in this connection if it will not dis
turb the Senator from New Jersey, to
call the attention of the Senate to a
letter from captain to mother who
had written him in regard to her son.
The letter is as follows:
In reply to your letter dated October
3, 1918, would state that no word has
been received at this station regarding
your son.
2. The correspondence that has
taken place regarding the above is be-
coming tiresome to this Office. You
were informed in our letter of August
hot inf nf
at this office you would be promptly
furnished with the same for your in
formation. With that assurance, and
in view of the fact that the proper
authorities have been notified to fur
nish descriptive list of soldiers, 1t
hardly seems necessary to constantly
correspond regarding the same.
/ want to call the attention of the
Senate to this letter, because 1t was
written by a captain to mother who
has not heard from her son since July
last. She had written this officer in
October and received this brutal an
swer. Mothers, fathers, wives and
relatives are entitled to receive cour-
teous answers to letters about their
dear ones whom they have given to
their country.
I wish, as one, to join with the Sen
ator from New Jersey in cOndemning
such letters.
Mr.. Frelinghuysen. Mr. President,
/ desire to thank the Senator from
Kansas for his contribution to the Rec
ord. I have a number; in fact, many
hundreds of similar letters. Let me
quote from one of the hundreds of such
communications I have received, from
Ernest L. Smithers, Maplewood, N. j..
who writes as follows, January II,
1919:
attach herewith three envelopes
which contained letters written to my
son, Eric G., who Is with his brother, a
lieutenant in the Twenty-ninth Divis-
ion, One hundred and fifteenth Infan-
try, American Expeditionary Forces in
France. / may say that at least 20
letters sent to Eric by his mother, my
self, and friends, written during the
months of August, September, and Oc-
tober, have been returned to us, and
they are still coming in. You will see
the notation on the envelopes is "Sick.
G. P. o. Directory Section"
The facts of the case are that my
son was taken sick in August, 1913,
and was in a hospital for two or three
months, which was just the time when
he needed his letters from home.
We had been informed, like others,
that it was vitality important to keep
up the morale of the army. With this
point in mind, both Mrs. Smithers and
myself and many of his friends for
warded letters regularly twice week,
only to have them returned, undeliv-
cred, and marked Sick"
1t certainly does seem like a great
misfortune for letters to be returned
in this manner, especially when boy
in the army is taken sick and is in a
hospital Going through period of
this kind needs consolation, and the
only consolation are his letters from
his parents and friends at home.
My family is so distressed that let
tiers written to our boy were han
died in this way, and he was allowed
to think that he had been entirely for
gotten, that feel it only right to bring
this matter to your attention.
feel constrained to cite another
case from the hundreds which have
been brought to my attention. r. Ire.
ton, Camden, n. j., writes January %
1919, as follows:
My son has received no mail Of any
kind for four months, although / an
writing to him several times every
week. Is there any excuse for this
treatment? He received his last mail
October II, while in action at the
front, with German shells falling al
around him.
He was wounded October q anC
sent to hospital at Blois, France, anG
since in camp II kilometers from Ii
Mares, but has not had piece of mai
for four months now. Talk about
German cruelty! Can you find much
worse than wounded and sick men an(
their mail and pay kept away from
them? He begs to know if we are liv
ing or dead with the "fiu."
He has received no pay since Jul!
and we have not received any allOt
ments since then, either. He can no
even get the money we have sent hin
from home. He was wounded in Aug
ust and received no mail for TIVE
months. He has not received hi
4. - Il N