Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1922-05-31

such q mood. to step into a great vir-
gin forest. On all sides the great
giants Of the forest tower heavenward.
The light of the sun can scarce Irvine
its way through dense foliage, and
even the rain falls difficulty. The
great cathedral of nature is vastly
more impressive than that constructed
by the art and device of man. You
feel as though you were in the play
ground of the gods. You almost ex-
pect to find the gods Of Greece on
their ancient frolics. You watch care
fully as you 60 in order that you may
miss nothing. And all of the time you
are wishing that man could build such
a playground for himself.
you remind yourself that man has
done many wondrous deeds. He has
spanned continents with railroads. He
has built skyscrapers up into the
heavens. He has pierced the clouds
with his machines that play upon the
, elements of the sky with their wings
Of steel. And yet he cannot build the
forest. This is the gift of the past,
and with this realization he must
satisfy himself. 1t takR 80 years to
make even an ordinary wooded plot,
and hundreds of years to make the
beauty of the great forest. A man can
only plant his plots of seedlings on
the barren ground and turn to the
forest which the past has given him
for any real accomplishment or en-
joyment.
The nation is like this. You and
I can and should plant the open
places with the little seedlings. We
should perform our duties to our ma
ton. But all of the time we know
that our true national greatness does
not lie in anything that we do. 1t,
like the forest, is the gift of the past.
We turn to it in gratitude, seeing at
last that we owe a great debt to the
past. We owe our liberty to the sol
diers of America. We owe the privi-
lege of living in the finest of all ma
tons to them. They fought for and
protected all that is most precious in
been a curse to some nations; to us he
He has stood with the implements of
savagery in order that he might pro-
tect the most precious thing of civili-
zation. He has fought that other
generations might be free of the curse
of the he'll which he was forced to
endure. AT the beginning, every man
was a soldier, fighting for the place
of our nation on this new continent.
And in the end every American must
be a soldier of peace struggling for
the preservation and enlargement of
the honor of a nation that in five
wars have fought for liberty.
To the Altar Of the Past
aJt hos hnon co;I tLot - %oJ.z- r..
generations to make an artist or a
musician. 1t requires more than five
generations to build a nation. The
blood of the martyrs and the devotion
of saints have made the America
which you love. Let us on this day
bring up our mighty nation to the
altar of the past. Let us with CRATE
full hearts acknowledge, We all
that we are and all that we enjoy to
thee Confession is as good for the
soul of a nation as it is for the soul
of the individual. 1t is thus that we
can perhaps best honor the dead.
This is the main request of the soldier
for his comrades on this day. l have
marched in Memorial day parades,
when the dust from the automobiles
of the careless. t~houghtless public as
they went to their day of recreation
has beat into the marching ranks. /
did not begrudge the day to them, but
! wondered why they could no pause
for but a moment in honor of the
great invisible army of the dead who
now march before the throne of God.
Shall we not say with kipling.
lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget, lest we forget
zone result of recalling our debt to
the past will be the determination to
carry on to its triumphant completion
the work for which these men gave
their lives. A Greek youth who was
thinking of the victory of the Athenian
general, M%iltiades, over the Persians at
Marathon, exclaimed, The trophies of
,Miltiades will not let me sleep The
trophies Of Washington. of Grant. of
Dewey. of Pershing, will not let any
true American sleep. 1t is we'll that
we take pride in the glorious victories
Of these men. But we would not rest
in this pride. Rather we would vindi-
cate the faith of these men. We would
prove valid the conviction of Lincoln