Bisbee daily review., 1919-11-23
THE LITTLE WHITE CROSSES

THE LITTLE WHITE CROSSES
 It does not do to talk too much sentiment to men fresh from France, and it is wholly possible to use too many phrases about their fellows who are not returning with them. But that does not arise from lack of sentiment of the right sort among that worthy things are hard to say. The largest danger is not from {, 0 much sentime but from too little. There has been a grimness about the overseas task that may readily merge into American grimness in getting a fresh start.
 No one ought to wish nor be al- lowed to forget the little whit5 crosses that mark the fields of France. After the way they were spread over with acreas, sometime one alone, then few, then large numbers but all marked with small white crosses. They constituted one of the most families and touching sights of a viey of the battle lines. Most men were buried where they fell. Since then details of their liv- ing comrades have been working to concentrate the graves in special burial areas. Now our honored dead find much closer fellowship in the soil of France. But still in the closely plotted cemeteries as on the open battlefields the white cross marks each sleeping hero's bed.
 The meaning of this symbolism must not escape us. These little white crosses are a testimony to great faith. It may not have been the personal faith of the men over whose graves they rise but it moved the great forces that brought them there and it glorified their heroism when they fell. It is cross that makes death endurable. It chaiges the grave from a chasm into which life falls to a channel through which life flows It points upward when the heart fcces downward. Riding across the fields of battle, the desol- ation seems almost unbearable; trees are shredded out of shape, htllocks are cast up and hollows gashed out, rusted wire stretches away intermln- ably; everything speaks to death. Then the eye falls on the little white crosses, and there comes remonder of life that vas given in the midst of all this, and d challenge to the hope which holds death to be not ruin but triumph. The cross is the symbol of a victory over defeat, the assurance of 2 settled faith.
 These little white crosses are also challenge to a great service. They are costly bits of Wood ana they stand to shame any men whose fel lows lie underneath if they fail the great cause for which these gave so much. If ye fail, we shall not sleep, though poppies grow in Elan ders fields" But it is not they who may not sleep; it is we who fail whose sleep will be broken with shame.
 Each of these crosses means one less man who might be d burden bearer fer the world. giving up his long service for the short, fierce fight that had to be made. but leay- ing his burden to be borne by ? en brave enough to face the world and do an added share. The sacrilicial service must continue in all loyalty to the dead. So great is the sacri- flee for some that their bodies can never be recovered but their spirit can be kept by men who accept the challenge which their deaths leave
 The white crosses are a protest against great wrong. The cross of Christ is the saving power of his tory but it marks also he high mark of evil These crosses speak l,,.t 4I. ,r.f