The Bemidji daily pioneer., 1922-11-10

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..-~ ARNHSTIcE 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 a waste of public time, and
are meaningless displays of public senti-
rnent, ALPHABETICALLY or superstihously OBJ
served. Fortunately the direction of the
nations is not in the hands of such. blind
guides. men who can see. nothing beyond
heads have managed, from generation to
generation, to gain control of our destinies.
Such men have always realized one card
iIal defect of human nature-the shortness
Of it's memory for the great moments of
history, it's significant instructive crises Of
achievement and warning. A great object
is achieved, great danger is passed. In
the hour of triumph and escape, men rend
the skies with jubilations, 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
ot1 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, commerative days for
oo4 n1 %h1~0,l
forgetfulness, fall into bondage again.
Heroes, saints, fighters, workers, dreamers
the dauntless martyrs for ideas, for these
it IL not merely we'll, but necessary, that
there should be. abiding memorials, by
which men looking up from the dusty pre-
occupations of their daily tasks shall be
sharply and inspiringly recalled to that
something in our lives which we call the
spy. ~, -. ...:-. -, 49,, j..
one Of the gravest crises in it's history. But
already, like men who have survived
tidal wave; that has laid their city in ruins
We;haye begun to minimize the danger that
threatened u.s. 1t is past and gone, and once
more we return to our work and our play.
Fhe dead that died for us sleep, and the
grass grows. "
4Yet, as the sea but waits for it's hour to
sweep once more against our careless walls
81 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
me1nory of the vast gladness that swept
The world a its nightmare came to an end
5he memory of the universal resolution
that no such infamy should ever stain the
human record again.
4 In the past war has been regarded as
Necessity, the only method of deciding con-
flieting issues between races and nations,
and it's evils have been systematically congs
Gealed Qbeneath the various bedaZzlements
q its fictitious glory, so that we forget.
( But the time has Come for US to see the
monster assit sa Whatever be the matters
ii dispute between nations; it is now real
lied as imperative that some other way Of
deciding them must BE found. Differences
must inevitably arise, but the sword shall
1lo longer deal with them. Surely, if slowly
j aLeague of Common Sense has been form
Ing among the most advanced people of
the earth which condemns war as obsolete
as it is criminal--Elks Magazine.
T.. A NEW COUNTY
: We Congratulate the people Of Lake of
the Nv oods County. They deserve much
credit for putting over a. proposition that
will without doubt be to their benefit. 49, sr.
u IT is up to the mother county to banquet
heboys from the north end. They are en- :
May they prosper and grow.