The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1921-12-29
ARMISTICE DAY
Editor Pilot:


Arlington cemetery on Armistice
Day. Every true American citizen
of this country endorses all he said
so well, as well as the eloquent ad-
dress of the then President Wilson
at the same or some other cemetery
about two years ago on Decoration
Day. Beautiful word pictures of the
human sacrifice of millions of human
lives in wars red orgy both of these
addresses are.
In some small measure these ideas
clothed in well chosen words and
nicely rounded periods coined for the
occasion, bring joy and pleasure to
the living, but Notwithstanding all
these and the lofty inspirations
aroused thereby within us, there is, to
a reflective mind the ever present
thought, why and what use are all
these talks, the flags flying, the bands
playing patriotic airs, the large pro-
cessions, the cheers and smiles all
over this great country of ours, on
such occasions, worth, and why is
mankind so weak as not to be able in
this twentieth century, to stop, pre-
vent and forever more stay the awful
scenes and sacrifices of bloody wars?
War carries with it as its toll many
millions of human lives, of money,
means, and property and leaves be-
hind it in its wake a blight on the
world that time nor effort will never
overcome or blot out What small
comfort all these eloquent words, all
this Haunting pageantry brought to
heal the millions of broken-hearted
mothers, wives, sweethearts, who
now wear a golden star" for their
loved and lost ones who went forth
to battle, to do and die for ones
country that it and its liberties and
institutions should live forever, as the
land "of the free and the home of
the braveW
Eloquent orations, dropping ban
ners, large parades, the boom of can
mons, the presence of great con-
course, the praise and homage of a
greatful nation to the heroic dead,
will never replace or restore the dead
and gone, and what is all this but
empty show and verbiage to those
mothers, wives and sweethearts and
sisters, whose hearts are withered and
buried in the millions of graves of
their loved dead ones all over the
world? Talks, parades, and praise
for the heroic dead, seem a mockery
when we realize mans finite powers,
or lack of powers, to forever do away
with and prevent wars,
Craftsmanship, "the men of the
hour" are not the politicians and or
ators who talk glibly and eloquently
of the past and Of our brave dead,
fed by mans impotency into the hop
per of the moloch of cruel and blight
ing wars, but the men who can devise
and establish way to hinder, pre-
vent and forever do away with wars,
and thus lead womanhood all over the
world to realize that they are not
producing sons to be soldiers, and to
die in battle, but to live and pursue
some peaceful and honorable avoca-
ton throughout life, creating and
producing for the benefit Of mankind,
assets to the worlds value, material
ly, socially, scientifically, and educa-
tionally.
President Harding spoke as presi-
dent should on such an occasion, and
yet he joined while in the senate and
was one "of that little band of will
full men" whose votes defeated the
League Of Nations" the plan formed
in response to the heartbreaking cry
of womankind the world over, TO stop
and prevent wars in the future, to
preserve peace, to save the mothers,
wives and sisters the awful pain of
ever again parting with their loved
and dear ones marching away to
wars wicked call When men go
forth to war how sad the home part
ing, the last clnging embrace had,
the last kiss pressed on lips ashen
white with fear they are parting for
ever, the last good bye spoken that
she who stays behind will likely ever
hear from him who goes, and then
American womanhood cried out why
do we have wars, is there no way wars
can be prevented, no way to avoid and
stop wars?" Oh, devise some way or
means that this shall be the last cruel
war, the last sacrifice mothers and
womanhood shall be called on TO
make to war;" And yet how soon
these millions Of American mothers,
wives, sisters, sweethearts and wild
ows, forgot that wailing cry, and at
the fall election in 1920 for president,
voted against the party of Wilson
which tried to create and put in ex-
istence a League Of Nations to for
ever hinder and prevent wars in fu-
ture, and voted for the party and its
candidate pledged to scrap" the
League Of Nations, and thus to make
future wars like past ones, possible at
the whim or beck Of some nation.