The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1919-05-16
1865-191e

In Jacksonville today are many
young soldiers Just returned from a
victorious foreign war and many old
soldiers who fought successfully to
defend the land of their homes. We
are proud of our boys and their vic
tory. but we are prouder of the men
who inspired them by doing all that
men could do and failing only be-
cause the task set before them was
impossible
! Southern soldiers were first thru
the Hindenburg line-not simply first
of all Americans but first Of ali the
men of the allied armies. The sol
diers of a northern state were very
little behind them and these two
American commands have the high
est admiration and the warmest
good feeling for each other. But
our boys had something to help them
and shell and wire entanglements
and deadly gas The old men who
are the guests Of our city today had
set them a mark and they had to
come up to it.
There is no need TO laud the Con.
federate soldier as a fighter In this
respect his fame might rest entirely
on the testimony of his foes and
stand as high as any the world has
ever seen. 1t is of the Confederate
; soldier as a builder that it is more
necessary to speak for in this respect
the world has not done him justice.
The south is the poorest section of
the union and the average man real
ICES this fact without bothering
about the cause. But when we think
OF the depths of poverty from which
our people have climbed we realize
that the men who went to the war in
, the sixties have performed a miracle
in recuperation and upbuilding that
was equal to theft most heroic deeds
of the battlefield.
| We do not like to talk about tae
condition of the south fifty years ago
for what we say may be considered
as an indication of bitterness but j
is not. The south took it's chance
less chance than hundred to one
shot-and lost, and lost like dead
game sport. Back in the days Of
! deepest poverty the majority of OH:
people charged this misfortunes not
I to the malice of the enemy but to
, the fortunes of war and without kit
!. terness or repining went to work.
4 Belgium in a financial way suffered
only a small part of what the south
suffered Fully half of it's assessed
did not mere depreciate-it became
, worthless paper. 1t was a land of
paupers, but the Quickest paupers
the world ever saw
! If Germany were required to pay
an indemnity of fifty billion dollars
she would not be SO completely
crushed financially as the south was
No nation in modern history ever
sustained such complete loss.
. These old boys who are with us
today went to work, denying themsel-
YES everything they could live with.
out but working and hoping. Every
year they climbed little from the
depths into which they had been
plunged 1t is not wonderful that
their progress was slow; the wonder
is that they made any progress at all.
II they had not worked as hard and
as intelligently as they fought this
land that is now prosperous would
never have been lifted from the
|, depths into which it was plunged.
The Confederate veteran built with
nothing to build on. but he handed
down something worth while to his
/ son who built more and today the
|; south leads the nation in It's upward
progress and we can see in the dis.
!, lance lessening so rapidly that we
have reason for confidence of first
place before the lapse of a very
long time. What we haze done and
what we will do we owe almost en-.
tirely to the men who fought to a
finish Of the lighting and then began
the work Of rehabilitation when