The Bemidji daily pioneer. [volume] (Bemidji, Minn.) 1904-1971, 1922-11-11


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-. ARMIsTicE DAY
We sometimes hear complaints against
the custom Of national memorial days,
made by those short-sighted, materially ;,
minded people who arrogate to themselves
the word practical, but who in the most
far reaching sense of that word, are the
least practical citizens. Such days, they
complain are waste of public time, and
are meaningless displays of public senti-
ment, ALPHABETICALLY or superstitiously OBJ
served Fortunately the direction of the
nations is net in the hands of such blind
guides, men who can see nothing beyond
the days work, and the days profit. Wiser
heads have managed, from generation to
generation, to gain control of our destinies.
Such men have always realized one card
inal defect of human nature-the shortness
of its memory for the great moments of
history, it's significant instructive crises of
achievement and warning. A great object
is achieved, a great danger is passed. In
the hour of triumph and escape, men rend
the skies with iubilations, crowd them with
flags irradiate them with bonfires. Never
was such moment. Left to themselves,
however, week or two would suffice for
the achievement to become a common
place, the danger to be forgotten. But,
those wiser, far seeing ones, as they look
On at The tumult and the shouting" per-
ceive the eternal significance Of such mo-
moments Great moments of achieved free
dom. For these there must be consecrated
freedom For these there must be conse-
Grated monuments, cOmmeratlve days Tor
ever set apart, lest men should through
all ;,,%o
Heroes, saints, fighters, workers, dreamers
the, dauntless martyrs for ideas, for these
it is not merely we'll, but necessary, that
there should be abiding memorials, by
which men looking up from the dusty pre-
occurpations Of their daily tasks shall be
sharply and inspiringly recalled to that
something in our lives which we call the
soul.
= The world has recently gone through
one Of the gravest crises in its history. But
already. like men who have survived
tidal wave that has laid their city in ruins
We have begun to minimize the danger that
threatened US. It is past and gone, and once
more we return to our work and our play.
The dead that died for us sleep, and the
grass grows. -
: Yet as the sea but waits for its hour to
sweep once more against our careless Walls
80 the danger that was will surley menace
us again, unless we make sure that this
lesson shall never be forgotten, and so
school our minds against it that not only
shall it never again catch us unaWares, but
that it shall in time be wiped out from the
category Of permitted things.
Armistice Day has been decreed that it
shall keep alive in a symbol, from year to
year, the memory Of the horror OF the
cruelest and foulest war ever fought, the
memory of the vast gladness that swept
the world its nightmare came to an end
ihe memory of the universal resolution
that no such infamy should ever stain the
human record again.
In the past war has been regarded as
necessity, the only method of deciding con-
flicting issues between races and nations,
and it's evils have been Systematically con-
cealed beneath the various bedazzlements
of its fictitious glory, sothat we forget. 49,
But the time has come for us to see the
monster as tits. Whatever be the matters
ia dispute etween nationsysit is now real
lied az imperative that some other way OF
deciding them must be found. Differences
must inevitably arise, but the sword shall
no longer deal with them. Surely, if slowly
q League Of Common Sense has been form
ing among the most advanced people OF
the earth which condemns war as obsolete
az it is criminal.--Elks Magazine.
t'e~s A NEW COUNTY
We congratulate the people of Lake of
the Woods County. They deserve much
credit for putting over a proposition that
win without doubt be to their benefit.
s.It is t,p to. the mother county to banquet
he boys from the north end. They are en-
titled to royal feast. We wish them well.
Nay they prosper and grow.