Arizona republican., 1921-11-19
Gold Star Mothers

A resolution of indignation at the neglect of gold star mothers has been adopted by the local post of the American Legion. It appears to be directed against the government for having failed to make nrovsion for their presence ceremonies of the burial of the "Unl<nown Soldier
 Viewed from one point that would have seemed to he a fitting arrangement at least to mothers of unknown dead soldiers; that is those who have been accepted dead, though no information mas been gained as to the fact of death
 Though viewed from another point, such an ar ranrement would have a recognition in a meas ure of the identity of the "Unknown Sodier"-some- thing contrary to the object sought In these solemn ceremonies-the symbolism of all the heroic dead If 1t had been the purpose to recognize personality that could better have been done by se ectng for this Ceremony the body of known soldier
 TO have brought .iI the gold mothers to- rether would have been impossible task. Many of them for could not have made the long journey. Others would not have wanted to do so to open their wounds afresh.
 The ceremony was not really occasion of mourning. It was not intended to be an expression of national woe but renewal of the vow of the na- tion to live the things for which all who fell in the person of this Unknown Soldier had died The occasion was similar to of the dedication of the monument at Gettysburg and of the cemeteries throughout the country where our heroic dead in all buried
 There was not in the failure of the government to provide for the attendance at this ceremony sign of the ingratitude neglect of the government The nation been remss in it's care for those who defended it in the great This remissness began to manifest itself immediately after the signing of the armstice. There let down in the care or our troops abroad the failure to set machinery for their transportation home in the care Of them on their long beated arrival in the lack of provi- fhe s slowly steadily remedied by substituting efficiency for con- fusion and incapacity The government may not now be moved by sense of gratitude but by sense of justice
 But is the government less grateful or has 1t grown more callous than the communities where these gold star mothers live. William Allen White in a recent article in Golfers touched upon this incidentally in description of gold star mother of an unknown soldier She not imaginary mother but one who lived Emporia, Kansas
 This fall she. is running the farm alone The war is receding Last fall only a few neighbors came help her, and two years ago the legion boys just back from the war came out from town In great truck to gather and shuck her corn. Now they have their own problems. But in 1918, when the that boy missing came, the whole township gathered to help her with her fall work and the Gazette (AIr. Whites paper) printed item about the fine neighborly spirit of it. and moralized upon the way the lifting us out of ourselves, and in spite of its cruelty and barbarian. was teaching the divine habit of fellowship. That was to be foundation of the heaven and the new earth; that was Gods gift to for the pain and wrack of the war-three years ago.
 She alone in the field last week until after sundown. night after night gathering her corn She could not afford to hire to help her. with corn bringing only 30 cents bushe And she was up before dawn to get her cream out on the o'clock train. The chickens will keep her. but she will wear her black straw hat to Bethel church all winter Still she is a singing and goes about her work in the field and in yard in the house singing her gentle old tunes; mostly old hymn tunes.
 In the foregoing that to be new heaven and earth" MT. White conveyed doubt his disappointment "A New Heaven and New Earth" is the title of chapters of his book, "The Martial Adventures of Henry and Me" Fresh from France in the midst of the war, he expected that cruelty, neglect and barbarism would be dis placed by "the divine habit of fellowship"