Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-12-09

American youths are made. Until
then we had leaned on the President
that perfection of patriotism, who
had sought by every means with re-
gard to duty end honor. to keep this
Republic in the paths of peace. We
depended upon other wise men, and
we thought out of the fullness of ex-
perience and the judgment born of
years, they would preserve us from
the tragedy of war.
I'VE did not put our faith in vain
in leader and statesman. They were
wise guides of free people, and their
deliberation and their foresight
brought us through divisions and
doubts into the clear united realiza-
tion of our national duty. But when
the Congress declared that a state of
war existed between this country and
the Imperial German government to
| what strength of granite and intre-
pidity of courage did we turn? 1t was
not to men in high places, serving
however as well, but to the boys all
about us who suddenly emerged as
the very rock of our trust.
"They had. as we must all recog-
nize, now, mainly left to older heads
the course their country was to take
| but as destiny was crystalizing they
| knew 1t was their young feet that
must tread the pathway through fire
| and death If the decision spelled war.
| who does not remember in those
tense days, the quiet spirit of the
boys and young men, and young wo-
men, too! They were, most of them.
under the spell of the call they had
! resolved to answer. Sometimes their
righteous indignation famed up as a
consuming fire. Some of them early
hurried across the seas to fight in
| Canadian regiments.
| These were the exceptions, the
| noble few. AS a rule the men who
were to compose the main fighting
forces of America hurried nothing
and evaded no duty. When the hour
came-the hour of decision-they had
| already decided. They had set their
house in order and it remained only
fol the machinery of government to
be act in motion and assign them the
place of danger, and with a look in
their eye which not even their moth
ers had seen before, these lads of ours
sailed across the seas, singing that
they would not come back until 1t
was over, over there
Tribute to Dead
| There was, too, the CLINT of steel
In their eyes, out of which it re-
quired all their stoutness of heart
u keep back the tears as they stiffen-
ed the hearts of their womenfolk
How light hearted and joyous they
are was the expression often heard
as with purposeful look, fearing moth
ing, they marched to the train or
took passage on the transport. And
that was what they planned for the
nome folks to feel. However, un-
derneath the happy exterior, let no
body ever doubt that these youths
went as seriously as they smiled
blithely to the grim duty they en-
! braced
L sometimes wonder if those who
did not and could not go with the
poys Will ever get over the disap-
polntment and regret, the longing
Whlch was in us all, no matter how
nara we worked nor how much we
| gave ourselves at home. to 60 with
those who were offering the greatest
sacrifice of all, and yet, here, now.
lies before US the opportunity and
outy or giving ourselves in the spir-
ltcal problems which the world faces
to-day even as they gave. 1t was
theirs to die for their country. 1t Is
ours to live for it.
short were their days. They COM
passed into a few years a rich, full
life and went quickly to the heaven
" SH| pioNc' OuF uutleS, calling for
no such military courage as they
possessed, are not less worthy or less
important If we catch the heavenly
vision of service and are not disobe-
dlent to it. 1t is our privilege and
duty, even as we erect monuments
ana set up memorials in our sacred
houses OF worship in memory of
those who gave their lives, to erect in
our hearts the white cross of their
memory, symbolic as it is of that
cross on Calvary-the cross of sac
rlhce of self for the undying things
of God.
shortly after the signing of the
aTmlstlce IT was my privilege to visit
ooo,OOO Americans battled gIori-
ously as crusaders of right. How men
could go forward in the bursting
fury of Argonne and like bloody
ground Is beyond understanding
Those who survived seek to forget the
blackness of the night.
Inc outstanding memory of a visit
TO the sacred places in France where
brave men loved to die-made sacred
by their DEATHS not the devastated
villages the ruined cities, the ground
converted into billowy seas of de.
s,ructioh' though the photograph OF
'NNASS VI ueSoldllOn mlrrOred
on the eye can never fade. 1t is the
uplifted white cross marking the
graves of our best beloved who sleer
IN that loved soil. No majestic OF
enduring monuments mark their
resting places No tablet tells their
deeds. For them no storied urns or
animated busts.'
IF they could speak to us thew
would tell us they wish no epitaphs
on their graves other than the i'm.
mortal words: We who rest here die
content Officer and private lie side
by side in the democracy of death
Each grave of the $4,000 is marked
by simple white cross, symbol of
truth that they gave their lives in
the spirit of the Christ, and evermore
the cross has a new and blessed
personal meaning and uplift to us
teaching that those are the greatest
among us, who following in His
train find death in the place of duty,
we speak to-day of the heroes of
the World War as if they were dead
but ought we not rather to feel that
tEey live and live forever, always by
their sacrifices stimulating us to ma
t11otic achievement? There is no
death to those who do not face IL.
These men. we lovingly call them
| boys OF this church, whose passing
leaves the world poorer are not dead,
They can never die because they will
never be forgotten"