New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-02-09
eco Home,
Soldier Boy,
Go HOn1e!''

</R NJ l Wrore tne Olo wan 1he
~ other day not to expect me
~ back in the business. No more
general merchandise for me. This South
America proposition is too good to lose,
too big field, too much money in sight,
for me to go back to be general manager
for Tompkins & Son.
ooh, don't know in just what city
we are going to establish our house,
Rio or Buenos Ayres, perhaps. The
firm Pm to connect with has half a
dozen oil fields under project and I shall
be at some port where the pipe line is
to run, as sort of general supervisor Of
it's shipment to the States and Europe.
A bit better than going back to the little
home town, eh, what?"
He was only another Of those about to
a writer in "'Plane News"-the A. E. F.
air paper-only another one who had
seemingly definitely decided that he had
far outgrown old ways, old prospects.
Perhaps he had; who is to deny the pos
sibility? Yet his statements, if applied
Unfortunately, are capable of great
and serious mischief" And the writer
goes on to say:
"Start discussion among any body Of
American soldiers as to their plans upon
rehabilitation; in the midst Of valid
projects backed by sound interests, what
conglomeration of underlined, far-fetched
schemes one is likely to hear expressed!
There are mind tales of South America,
vast in their lack of detail, easily familiar
discourses upon the golden fruits of sheep
raising, of copper mining, of banking In
unknown cities of the southern continent.
And though South America is prominent, it
is merely illustrative of more modest
trend which many minds have set upon.
Men talk freely of 'feeers' out for various
positions in some city; there is much
aose avowal that one is giving up previous
occupation. SO it goes: plans multiply as
return approaches.
Certainly only the champion cynic could
wish that the United States or any ind-
vidual in them be not affected, be not
chastened by these months.
s'Yet where is this rowing propensity to
end: what will be the effects of an insatiate
ambition the part Of the American SOL
der to 'be off, forgetting the past, to be
different? American trade, American man
ufacturing, the new American merchant ma
rine-the development of these is so OBJ
vious a necessity, their demands so insist
emit upon the wellbeing Of future national
life, that apologies to them need not even
be suggested for the sentiments Of these
paragraphs.
$50 home, Soldier Boy Go home; gather
to yourself the cords OF life as you laid
them down, count yourself but the richer
the more capable, for the experiences that
have been yours, for the broader outlook
by which you have come in the past
months; carry home with you what you
have learned your enthusiasm, your energy
renewed, the wonders of the days that you,
most fortunate of men, have seen with
microscopic intensity. Think on strange
lands; never loose your new-found clasp
be no longer a part of your vocabulary.
Yet remember that the pleasantest part, by
far, Of leaving home is the opportunity
given for returning.
"And with thought for those refugees you
have seen crowdng from Southern France
20 the wastes of Flanders redeemed. con-
slider your great, good fortune that there
are somewhere for you four walls and a
smiling face awaiting. Do not forget that
IL was only the steadfastness 10 home in
the heart Of France that enabled us to fight
our own battles on foreign soil.
"What you have learned, the new being
thst you are, even your added skill army
life may have given you, is not yours alone.
Yeu are but the eonveyer Of this spirit of
the forthcoming era 70 your own environ
ment, your own community. II il for you
70 lead. And that you can best do where
foundations haye been laid. Do not shake
the trust. Go homet"