The daily star-mirror. (Moscow, Idaho) 1911-1939, 1919-06-03

many of these latter in Europe All
of those who died of wounds and many
of those who were victims of dis
ease are buried in foreign graves
Shall their bodies be brought home
That is the question that is being ask
ed me in letters and by many people
whom I meet In brief, let me say
that it will be the policy of our gov
ernment to bring home the bodies of
our dead to the extent that the rel
atives of those who have fallen de-
sire that the bodies be returned home
for burial
The graves are being marked with
greatest care, charts and records are
benig faithfully kept in Europe. In
Chaumont, I checked up on this ques-
ton and General Moseley assured me
that he was confident that the rec
ords and the marking of the graves
were so carefully done that practical
ly every soldier would be accounted
for. I believe that this is true.
Will our people desire that our SOL
dier dead be returned? Many OF
them will On the othre hand, others
will prefer to follow the lead of Col
onel Roosevelt who, when the great
sacrifice was asked of him by the
giving up of his son advised the war
department that he believed "the tree
should lie where it fell' and so his
son will make sacred forever a grave
in France.
1t may be interesting for me to say
that already cemeteries are being
planned for the American dead in
France and in other countries where
our soldiers fought and it is my judg-
ment that the nations in whose soil
our dead lie will take the same pride
in caring for the cemeteries, of our
dead that we take in honoring the
memory of soldiers of foreign coun-
tries who in the great war of the Rev.
olution came to our shores and Sacri-
feed their lives
A Floating Mine.
1t is hard to have thrill after the
cause for the thrill has entirely passed
away AS we entered New York we
were advised for the first time that on
Tuesday last, we had narrow escape
from one of the floating mines that
had found it's way into the regular
trail of ships across the Atlantic.
The Leviathan was notified of the
lllilC NY WliCiOo w ee N'iiAP
that had passed it the day before. The
course of our ship was changed some
what but in spite of this fact as for
tune would have it, our ships course
was precisely in line with the mine
when suddenly Commander Cunning
ham, was on watch with numerous
other officers and members of the
ships crew, noticed it and was able
to give the signal that turned the
course of our ship suddenly and help
ed us to pass by in safety
1t is not even wise to shoot float
ing mine unless it is at considerable
distance from the ship. Again with
the sixteen thousand people on board
and with eighty shell-shock victims,
it was out of the question for the
Leviathan to attempt to have little
sport. so that ships officers showed
that they could keep a secret by omit
ting to let the passengers indulge
in a thrill until we were
fast approaching our own shores.
Could Not See All Idaho Soldiers.
One of the deep degrets of Repre-
sentative Smith and myself is that we
could not have seen all of our Idaho
boys who were in Europe. We tried
hard to see as many of them as possi-
BILE and at every stopping place would |
work out lists of Idaho groups so far
as the records would indicate. We
also took with us memoranda showing
he location of as many of our sol
Tiers as possible.
We were so persistent in hunting |
)ut Idaho boys that we were tkidded"
by our colleagues on the trip who
wanted to know if we thought that
10 one but Idaho soldiers were in Eu
.ope, and if the Idaho boys had alone
Won the war. We came back at both
by the assurance that we
'ould readily be convinced of either