The Washington times., 1919-07-03
Lest We Forget
If We Have Not Forgotten Already.

Is America to neglect recognize the part its
played in the war?
It has not demonstrated its appreciation yet Is it
going to?
thousand Victory arches have been built to honor
the men who went to war That right and proper.
thousand monuments Of bronze and granite will make
mpeshabe is able the heroic deeds OF officers
and privates That is just and deserved.
But have you heard anywhere of any welcoming arch
to the nurses who came back from the fields and the hos
pitfalls?
Have you heard anywhere of any monument proposed
to the wives and mothers who fought bravey and
vaanty home did their husbands and sons abroad?
Are we to forget what the women did to win the
and with the signing of peace let their herosm slip into for
getfulness and oblivion?
Only two cities in this whole country are beatedy pro-
posing to pay tribute to the women of the war.
San Francisco and Los Angeles have enthusiastically
adopted the suggestion of the Hearst papers these two
cities to devote day to the whoehearted recognition Of
what the women of California and with them the women
Of the whole nation did to bring victory to Justice and
end the greatest and bloodiest conflict in the worlds his
tory. &:
Is the country going let the visible expression of the
gratitude of cities be the extent of its appreciation?
Is Congress to take note of and give recognition
to the who fought at home and legislatures and
city governments to ignore their heroism?
him most to bear the hardhips of the training camp and
the troophp and the trench and the hospital he will say
my mother" my wife" "My sweetheart" be-
when he thought of her the task made easier
the suffering soened and the hope of which she
the foundation gave him courage and stronger for
tude.
Probably there is no man in the world who saw more
of the war; its horrors and its heroes than Philip Gibbs
the greatest of the correspondents and of the most
vivid writers that described battle.
In the July number of Good Housekeeping Gibbs
has written of ''The Valor of Womanhood"
81 want" he says, Ito write of the courage of women
During four years and half at close quarters the
courage of vaor that had in it something superna
uraL But looking back upon the it is the valor of
womanhood that seems to most beautiful and most
derful." d
the country the shops and in the fields the trenches
and in the hospitals at the front and in the factories are
such as inspired the great poets of Greece and Rome write
immortal songs.
BE tells of ten thousand girls of Lille taken away in
night to work behind the German lines Each was ask
ed to sign paper that she went willingly Every one re-
fused when refusal met with threat of death
And as they rode to their place Of slavery they shouted
to other women who being collected Ne signez pas
Ne sgnez pas!' do not sign! Do not sign)
he writes Of pretty maiden of France who working
under whitening shell fire. impressed him with her
bravery that he said You not afraid even of DEATH"
81 do not care a hang for DEATH her reply
he writes of the hospitals and the wondrous deeds of
the nurses Of women American and of the allied nations
who went about among the cots of the wounded when
planes dropping bombs all about them speaking cheerv
words lighting the soldiers cigarettes quoting the alarm
Of the helpless wounded.
His story of largely of the women of the bat
efed and the danger zone But outside the range of the
guns of America abored at machines and in thou
sand other unaccustomed places It largely they who
made it possible to feed and clothe the American soldiers
1t they who kept the home fires burning often won
dering when and from where the supply was coming
For all this for all they gave and all they bore are
they worthy of than the pitiful recognition that
Is being given them?
They gave the lives that lost was blood of their
blood that the fields of France and stained the waters
of the 1t flesh of their flesh that was torn and
wounded It they who sorrowed and will sorrow bear
ing TO their graves the burdens of the unreturnad