The Devils Lake world. (Devils Lake, N.D.) 1920-1982, 1921-08-17
What Of The Young Men
r. E.. MccLINTOCK In COURIER NEWS

Moab is spoiled, M gone III ot # her ciHes, and his chosen young men
ares one down 10 the slaughter
1t vas in ancient Moab, as it is in the modern world Of today, the young men
who g down to the slaughter" All the nations, in the recent val drafted men
the attack nd suffered the greatest LOSSES, were almost invariably made u of The
younger men. It was the young men who furnished the bulk of the 100000 lives
l. 1914 mi November II, 191s-and who still are being sacrificed in the little
wars that still rage after the great cnfagraion has been brought under some
measure of contol.
If these young men had died to make a wond definitely and positively better
than the worlds as it wa before; if by their sacrifice they could have brought real
peace;o or if as a result of the blood they poured out in France the young men who
survived would have hd a faier better chance in life, their slaughter might perhaps
have been justified. We could imagine these boys sleeping more quietly in their
promiscuous' graves in bloody Flanders, in TIL rocky pits Of blasted vnmun, along
the wartorn banks of thu Pave and Vst,la, and in the hot sands of Garipoi and
Mesopotamia. But as the world is today, what excuse can we give to the ghosts
OF these millions of young men Tho were slain?
In the early days of the harvest you could have stood at my railway crossing
scores the men IN the tops Of the box cars. Therew esome older men among Them
but the great majority Of them were definitely young-the m ae Of mena those
who fought the great war for u.s.. Many of themd doubtless were veterans OF the
war-men who lad offered their lives in defense OF democracy. md here they were
stealing rides on the tops Of cas begging food as they could, beating their way to
the harvest fields in search Of work that would give them a few dollars against the
bher suffering that lies ahead # then this winter.
Have W SO soon forgotten all hose fine speeches we made to the boys, back
in the days when they marched away to war, when W told them there would be
nothing too good for them when they came back? They are back, those Of them Who
did not perish, ant we do not even ge them work. OF the four million men VIC
are without employment today fully onequater are veterans of the great war:
The years ago. when our hearts we're ton with the fear THAT our own loved
ones might never return, we were willing to promise anything. But what hash hap
professions of democracy, they were only words that sounded nice The same greco
men to whom we promised democracy. Our land has everything these men need
work, education prosperity. But we can't give these young men work. we can't give
profits, would eat into the wealth that's somebody hopes somehow to carry over into
the life past the grave, if We took shps to give Ill these young mem work an. n
education. ~ #
And so we let or young men,, the hope Of The fture,d drift into The degenerahng life
showed us the last generation wa; we pour out our moneyla vishy in preparation for
the next war;, and " etendedyg guard thu profits Of those blionaresS n miinahes
whosew ealthperverted lives are won at the cost OF unreasonable suffering to millions
Of men, women and children
Moab was spoiled, and her young men slaughtered. And in spite Of the centuries
America Of today? Yet Moab wasp pagan, while We claim Christianity, which is only
another word for brotherhood! I ##M#&#. #0-