The Idaho Springs siftings-news., 1920-10-30
WHY SOLDIERS ARE
OPPOSED TO LEAGUE
Impossible to Arouse Proper
Spirit to Face Death for For
eign Countries.

Rtcken6acker on Wig Soldiers Are
Against the League of Nations" "
Capt. Rickenbacker was the ace of
aces in american aviation on the
front in France. His acquaintance
among the soldiers of the late war
is nationwide. When he speaks for
them, he speaks what he knows.
BY CAPT. EDDIE RIcKENeAcKER.
Chapter 8.
1t is solemn thing to go out to kill
or to be killed Most men do not like
to go. They go because duty forces
them to. Their sense of duty to their
country is stronger than their sense of
self-preservation. They face death be-
cause they ought to protect what they
love at home.
That is what makes spirit in an
army. The West Pointer calls 1t mo-
rale. Without this fighting spirit a
soldier is not worth much, and an army
is no army at all. Every soldier knows
this. And so he asks
"How are you going to get the prop
er fighting spirit into American troops
when, under article 10, they will be
called to fight for Poland against Rus
sia, or for Roumania against Bulgaria,
or for Greece against Turkey?"
What is there to nerve man against
death in the thought that by his death
he will help one of these foreign coun-
tries retain a territory as big as Long
Island and prevent another country
from getting it? Will that thought con-
sole him when his mind turns to the
mother or wife in America? Is there
any inspiration in it? Does man die
gladly for anything so foreign and so
sordid?
The soldier who has stood by the
charred flesh and bones of a comrade
knows there is no spirit or consolation
in any of these things. He knows that
men cannot fly willingly into the face
of death for any such causes.
The whole thing is impossible. To a
soldier of the line 1t is simply un-
making the world safe for democracy
by fighting boundary wars all around
the globe means just nothing at all.
You might as well tell him to die for
the blue sky as TO die for boundary
lines everywhere and for democracy
in general.
l have never seen soldier or an
army that could get the fighting spirit
In such cause as that. Neither has
any other American soldier. An Amer
ican army that had no other inspira-
ton would be an army without spirit,
without morales 1t would be no army
at ALL / defy any soldier to imagine
q fighting American army under these
conditions.
In August, 1918, Ii American avia-
tors were lined up at Claremont,
France, TO go, to the front. They shook
hands with everybody and said good
by" An engineer officer asked the
captain in charge of the aviation
group: "Why all this gloom?" The
reply was: "Well, those American ma.
chimes have no protection; as soon as
a bullet hits that gasoline tank it is
certain it will take fire Immediately
and the men have no chance to get
away. "a month later the engineer
uSUil ilitl tit tlpitlih anu II
those men came back. "They never
came back" was the simple answer.
They never came back
Do men do these things as they go
to breakfast or board a street car?
Do they do these things for political
theories or for general principles or
for miserable piece of land that
some foreigner covets and some other
foreigner will not give up?
Can you expect any soldier who has
seen men do what those 16 did. TO be
Tor the League of Nations2 Can you
imagine his wishing such sacrifices to
De made on the orders of n foreign
country? Can you picture to yourself
an American army sent overseas by
he American people to enact such
.ragedies? Or, if sent, can you think
II possible to inspire an army TO brave
leeds on such hollow pretenses7
l cannot. No soldier can. That Is
Why the soldier is against the League