Baraboo weekly news. [volume] (Baraboo, Wis.) 1912-197?, 1919-03-20
Nav Study in France

May Study in France
B. n Robinson has received letter
from his son, Captain B. n Robinson,
now in France, in which he says in
part:
February 16, 1919
Dear Dad:
| Your letter came to me the other
day but l have been too busy to an
swer it. Have moved since I last
wrote you. Left Anglers Feb. to re-
join our division and now we are back
with the 340th and the S5th for the
first time since last July. We are
filing up with casuals from the third
army, and the division will soon be
! on the move toward home. However
/ do not expect to come back with it.
| have put in an application for an
appointment to either a British or a
French medical university for a four
months post graduate course in med
! icine before coming back, and | really
do expect to get it. 1t will be a won
derful time for me if do land it, as
. it will mean retaining my commission
for at least four or five months longer
and being on detached service, draw
ing my pay and at the same time get
, ting an European training that will be
worth very much to me when | get
back into the harness.
Your comments on the situation
here are very amusing (not that they
are not sincere, for l know that they
are), but the way things are seen de-
ponds largely upon ones location on
the map. The folks back home can
never see things the way we see them
and their feelings of course are but
the expressions of the way they Wis
ualize things. That LA Fayette, we're
here" stuff looks good on paper and
sounds good for the political silver
tongue, but that is about all that it
amounts to.
My main object in wishing to re-
main is to study the political situation
here better, to get a grasp upon moral,
social and economical conditions here
SO that / will be better able to see our
own strong points and weaknesses
when | get home.
About the wet question at home I
can draw but one conclusion, with my
present light, and that is that itis the
greatest demonstration Of national
solidity that has occurred in the his
tory of the country. Why? Because
if we are to be able to solve the great
problems that the immediate future
holds in store for us, if we are to re-
main from fifty to one hundred years
ahead of the other civilized nations
Of the globe, as we are now, it is alb
soluteIy necessary that we be nation
ally clear headed and keen Drained.
National non-indulgence in alcohol
will do this for us and we must guard
this great epochal stride with our ut
most endeavor. I speak from observa-
ton and not from sentiment.
I hope that President Wilson'S
peace plan works, but oh! how /
doubt it. If I we're prophet my
words would be something like this:
Europe will run red with civil wars
and social upheavals for a number OF
years; Russia will bleed herself white
but will survive; Germany will disin-
tegrate, being split up into number
of small units; Austria will suffer the
same fate, in fact has suffered it.
Greece and Italy viii both strength
en-; England will stand, but with
gradually waning power; France, poor
France Only many many revolution
airy changes of systems will recon
struct her. Her hope is in her women
and may God help them as He must
pity them.
The United States! Father, the
center of power and civilization has
taken the greatest journey it has ever
taken in it's gradual westward course.
It has crossed the Atlantic! 1t has
taken up it's residence for the first
time in the history Of the world IN the
western hemisphere. We are it. We
a nation less than one hundred and
fifty years DID, are the dominating
power in the world, and we will re-
main so only just as long as we heW,
absolutely to the lines OF our national
idealism. Our national activity in the
next thirty years will determine our
fitness or our lack of it. This will be
the work of the A e. F. when we all
get back. I hope that we will meas
ure up to it. AS ever,