Pine Bluff daily graphic. (Pine Bluff, Ark.) 1893-1942, 1919-05-01
THINKING AMONG
The GUNS
A Clergyman's Conversion
10 Universal Military
Training.
by The Rev. Thomas Travis. Phi. u
The Man Who Carried the First
American Flag Under Fire
In Flinders.
Courtesy Universal Service

! N,CSi " slh aTDl, at the flrlng
line IN Flanders. Shall were bursting
around us-just near enopgh to give
point and penetration to our think
ing. From where we lay, we could
look over all the Lys Valley from
Ypres to Amentiers and beyond. We
could see the planes fighting over
Ypres, wheeling, splitting spangles of
fire from their machine guns, dodg-
ing shell-fire, attacking, looping the
loop, talldiving amidst little puffs of
cotton where the anti-aircraft guns
were sending gruff messages to
the clouds.
We could see the great "Wooly
bears" bursting over the roads, and
the flash of our big guns behind US,
as they answered. Even could we
see the signals flashed from plane to
battery where the limbers and lorries
crowded the roads. We could see mile
after nile Of No Mans Land, a desc
lation so utter that the very color and
form Of the earth were changed so as
to be easily observable at distance
of 10 miles. A wreck Uttered sea-
beach under a bowling gale.
! We had walked 10 miles through
mutilated towns and villages. The
little town on whose site we lay was
, a sample--one square brick pillar,
some twisted iron, and red smudge
on the mud--all that was left of a
once smiling and happy little town.
Al! it's men-folk were either killed
/ or MANNED and most of it's women
were broken and scattered with the
strain and horror of the war. Just to
our right lay black ruin where the
enemy had centered his guns on a
thread factory full of working girls,
ard blown them and it to gruesome
fragments
And we four were watching, think
ing. We were an Australian private
in the hanks, British officer. ana
officer in the marines and an Ameri-
can clergyman with a long string
of degrees representing ID years of
steady "education." And here was
what that clergyman was thinking
that day at the front: Those airmen,
mere boys, were playing an active
part. They knew all the complex code
of war signalling; they knew in a
definite and thorough way, the actual
use of the compass in the sky, the
aerostat, map-making from plans
all the complex science of flying un-
der war conditions. The private knew
the signals, wig-wags, the science and
practice of trench warfare The cap
tain knew all the multitudinous
things that have to do with guns,
big and little. their trajectories, pow
ers, range, the ways of laying them,
elevations, practical ballistics, knew
geography and topography, with a
sureness and detail amazing to mere
scholar like the clergyman. The ma
rine officer knew the complex science
of the sea fighter, seaplanes, subma-
rines and the rest. These men whose
total Education" amounted to less
than one half that of the scholar"
were able to carry on great task,
with gertrude, amazing ability and eff
feet. They could handle regiments.
drill men, plan out at least local
campaign, understand at once the
meaning Of every move. And they
were in it doing things, making his
tory. while the clergyman, who had
a classical and scientific education
as the ordinary colleges teach, was
able to do what in this great crisis?
Wash pots and mugs in a "Y" hut;
amuse the boys, and do the score of
little things all of which any one of
these men could also have done. At
their work the clergyman was help
less, at his, even on his speciality,
preaching, there were at least two of
these laymen,- who could stand in his
boots and do good service.
Here was great world crisis, here
were literally millions of lives at
stake: here were anguish and hero
ism, seething human action reaching
over half world. and the clergyman
was helpless to do any one of their
Jobs even at pinch-while every
man of these "half-educated" war
riors could not only do big mans
work in this crisis, but could have
done also if necessary, the clergy
mans work too.
While the clergyman the best
educated" man of the lot was absol-
utelv at sea as to the basic princip-
les of the big job in front of US and
able to comprehend barely enough
OF the prdCClCdl CSlCIlCo W 1HonO SiAS
plan ofsaction intelligible--these men
could follow the whole scheme, know
the why and wherefore of every posi-
ton and move of the great game.
Even the great moral and religious
issues were grasped as clearly and
firmly by these assby him. In other
words. the scholar" of the group,
though just as eager to do his bit
as any Of the others, could fill only
relatively unimportant gaps in this
big job, while the "half-educated"
lads could do the important tasks,
and, if need be, do even when partly
disabled, all that the clergyman was
doing-apd do it as side issue.
And what was true of the clergy
man would be true Of all other men
so far as college education is con-
cerned, if j, they had had Il" more
training than a thorough college
education gave.
1t was q bitter line Of thinking
this the clergyman did in that desc
late region overlooking No Mans
Land. TO be able bodied, clear brain.