The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1920-03-26
THE IsooDEN CROSS ON THE
MARINE

There's a little wooden cross at
the farther end of the Marine bridge
at Meaux. The ancient village car
penter set it there by the roadside
where the peoples grow, six years
ago come September.
God, the simple peasants tale is,
marked the place with His finger in
the sand, and smiled.
The German drive on Paris was to
end there. o..
Not so long ago after all-that
Battle of the Marne-is it?
Remember?
Your newspaper - the headlines
screaming in big, black type-"Ger-
mans March On Paris"
Cruel - Relentless Crushing
everything in the way = On -- On
- On - To Paris - Liege in ruins
- Louvain behind them smolder-
ing heap of ashes - Laughter =
Rude soldier marching songs OF the
Fatherland = On - On = On -
Forty miles - thirty miles - now
twenty miles - now fifteen - the
great gray-green Thing = Death and
Desolation behind--Paris-the Heart
of France-just little way ahead.
Came they then to the River Marine
there where the cross is now
And stopped.
And in all the years of the war no
German boot advanced single stride
beyond.
Papa Joffre-the pitiful hand
full of French soldiers-the little"
army the Kaiser sneered at-the four
days and nights while You and l
watched beside with narrowing eyes.
Remember?
September, Nineteen Fourteen.
A good deal of water has passed
under the bridge since then-All the
World has marched.
Now
Up in the valley above the bridge
the French peasants are tilliHg their
humble gardens-the soil of the bat
tie ground is richer than it used to
be-the Scared trees on the hill
sides will be green again in the
Spring they say - the larks have
come back and are singing in the
| fields
Sometimes at sunset the river runs
red, again.
We gave much to France in the
War-our Sons = our Might = our
Blood.
| We owed her much.
Could we forget our debt to La
fayette-to the France who gave of
her Strength and her Faith when our
Nation was born?
Could we forget those days at the
Marine when France held ''The From
tier of Freedom hurled back the
German hordes who would have trod
the World under foot?
Can we forget?
Nay-Some things we remember
always.
And So
Soon there shall stand, there on
that bank of the Marine where the
little cross is nova Statue such as
the World has never seen-a Statue
that to our children and to our chill
dren shall tell of battle won and Of
a bond of love between two great ma
lions that will hold until the enc
of Time.
| Against the sky, in huge proper
ton, the Statue of Woman - {
Woman - beautiful - though worr
and beaten down by the storm O.
battle-who rises undaunted-daunt
less-and raises high aloft Her Flat
of Liberty-the Flag for which He
Sons and Ours-have died.
On July 4th, 1885, we celebrated
} the birth of our Liberty.
From all lands came men to jOil
our happiness and joy.
Some bore gifts in token of thei
friendship
From France-the Beloved-cam'
the giant Statue-which stands il
New York's harbOr-"Liberty En-
tightening the World''-A Gift from
the People of France to the Peopl
of America.
From all France came the none,
for that Statue of Liberty Of ours
from rich and poor-from the cage
hands of little children-from tn
, palsied hands of old men-the widow
gave her mite
Each gave share.
So shall Our Gift to France b
made.
Not from the chosen few shall
come-but even as we gave to He
our ,Sons-from East-from Yves
and North-from You-from Me-