The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1921-06-16
An Open Letter
To Hon. William Lincoln West of Belfast
Maine.

To Hon. William Lincoln West of Belfast
Maine.
My Dear MI West:
have asked permission of the Mayor
to answer your open letter addressed te
him which appears in the Bangor Daily
News under date of June Is, 1921.
l wish to answer this letter, not that
desire to enter into any personal con-
troversy, but because as circumstances
have made me Commander of the Ameri-
can Legion, | feel responsible for the
original suggestion that the new bridge
across Belfast harbor be dedicated to the
boys of Waldo County who died in the
recent war.
| am answering the letter not that |
expect to change your opinion in the
matter, but because you have called the
public'S attention so strongly to your
objections in having the bridge so dedi-
Gated
Lest the public misunderstood the fail
ure of the American Legion to respond to
your objections, | am replying to you by
an open letter so that the people of this
community may understand fully why
the Legion has asked to have the bridge
dedicated as referred above.
Frankly, | am surprised that at this
late hour you should so decidedly voice
your objections in the matter During
the winter months we published at regu-
lar intervals the list of names of the boys
of W aldo county which are to appear on
this Memorial Tablet, giving motto. there
by that such tablet was to be erected,
and inviting objections, if there were any,
to be raised. During this time you, by
your silence, apparently, had no strong
objection / believe that it is your duty,
and the duty of every other influential
citizen to lend his effort in having such a
dedication supported unanimously by the
whole community.
We do not object to you using your ef-
| forts in erecting memorial which would
be better and more fitting than the one
we are advocating. In fact, we would
support such a movement whole heart
edly. We do, most seriously, object to
the endeavor on your part, and on the
| part of others, to put obstacles in the
way of the completion of our project
without definite and possible alterna-
tive to take its place.
The new bridge is, in the opinion of
those who are acquainted with such mat
tiers, one of the finest structures in this
| State, representing an expenditure of
over one quarter of one million dollars.
1t is the only structure in the city or in
| Waldo county which represents such an
expenditure of money, and which has
been constructed to withstand the severe
vicissitudes of this climate, and to be so
far as it is possible enduring for all times.
AS this bridge is primarily built to
serve the people of this county, it is most
hat hrid h.u he daIi f.
ed to the sons of this county who died in
the recent war. The bridge is main
link in the Atlantic highway, and as
such, will be travelled over by tourists
from all parts of this country. Not only
then, would the memorial be viewed with
esteem, honor and reverence by the peo-
pie of our own county, but all those who
come here from the farthest corners of
our continent. The objection that tour
lists would blockade the bridge and tie up
traffic is not log!cal-it is imaginary, not
real.
1t is worthy of note that in our en-
deavorS to compile an authentic list of
the names for this tabletF.hat no parent
or relative has placed an objection to
such memorial. Rather the contrary is
true, that in many instances complete
approval has been voiced and praise ex-
tended for so commendable an under
taking
read in your article the following: so
fail utterly to visualize a splendid, heroic
figure of one of our grand soldiers of the
Legion, with the features of Greek God
standing through all the con, of eternity
on guard at the Bridge gazing with the
sadness of reproach upon the malign
malodorous mud flats of the raging Pas.
sagassawaukeag." Truly, there were nc
such animals in the recent war! If tha
is your idea of what an American soldier
on the firing line in France looked like
may l correct your halluclnation? Ht
was not an heroic figure in the senss
which you use the term. He was, how
ever, a rugged youth, wearing shabby
olive drab uniform torn away at tnt
throat; probably his leggings were tori
and ragged, possibly riddled by machine
gun bullets; and on his head he wore
steel hat tilted jauntily to one side. Ii
this attire he went plunging, stumbling
crawling thru the mud, thick underbrus
and barbed wire, his whole motive being
to serve and to do the Job which was i'm,
mediately at hand. He plunged on thru
whatever obstacles he met until he over
came the resistance, or else was dropped
by an enemy bullet If perchance com
rade stopped to help him, he brushed hin
aside and told him to ''Carry on" Mue
covered, besmirched with blood, he was
not the picture you paint of a Greek God
but he was living personfica ton of the
word Service" and can we imagine
such one wishing to be immortalized by
something which is of no use, and some
thing which does not serve mankind? II
is certain that if this same American
soldier could have died within smelling
distance of this same Passagassawaukeag
he would have felt that he had surely
reached his heaven!
1t has been rightly said that the erec-
ticn of statues and shafts, arches and
maUsoleums rightly belongs to the ole
era of generations gone by. Certain it is
that such monuments, even the best oil
them, fail to symbolic the idea of ser
vice to humanity, and the ideals OF
brotherhood we now seek to perpetuate.
Can you imagine granite column which
you suggest PLACID in the cramped Ell
closure between the Memorial Hall ano
the Court House affording proper me-
mortal to these sons of Waldo County
'who gave their last full measure of de-