New Ulm review., 1922-03-08
What Lincoln thought of the men
who offered themselves for battle.
By Charles N. Wheeler. b


who offered themselves for battle.
By Charles n Wheeler.
STAFF Correspondent ''The Republican"
. The nation has just observed the an
niversary OF Abraham Lincoln's birth.
It was most fttingly, and honestly, OBJ
served in the schools. The children re-
spond quickly to the picture Of Lincoln.
Their is no guile in their love.
Out in the trade narts, in certain
temples of worship wheredthe dollar sign
is over everything-in the millionaire.
clubs of the country and the scheduled
nests of the war profteers they also OBJ
served the anniversary hung out flags
and applauded the panegyrics. Such is
Hypocrisy
The insult to the memory Of Lincoln
was aggravated in some instances by
grave warnings from the billionaire and
their sympathetic press against the pro-
posed bonus to American soldiers who
offered their lives in France that the idle
rich might continue in their idleness at
the expense of the exploited workers of
the land. ..+ 49,. .....
The trouble is that the looters get
away with these things because so many
people don't take the time to fami iarize
themselves with what Lincoln said but
accept the Interpretation of what Lin
coin was from the little bootickers of
Wall Street. t." +% gs 1s -
That the record may be kept straight
and that this poisoning of the public
mind may not go on without encountering
some protest, it is we'll to write down just
what Lincoln thought of the men who
offered themselves for battle. In his
second inaugural address he said
''Let US strive on to finish the work
we are in; to bind up the nations wounds
to care for him who shall have borne
the battle, for his widow and orphan
to do all which may achieve and cherish
just and lasting peace among ourselves
and with all nations"
To care for him who shall have borne
the battle! That was Lincoln's idea of
the eternal gratitude and common honesty
of nation in it's dealings with the men
who were ready to die on the field of
battle at the command of the superior
officer, and without questioning whether
he died for a good or unworthy cause.
How have we kept the faith with the
American boys who crossed the ocean
to fight for foreign monarchs because they
were told to do so by their superior officers?
Have the nations wounds been bound up?
Has the nation achieved lasting peace
among ourselves and with all nations?
The answer to each question is de-
cided NO! The nations wounds are wi
der open today than ever before. Greed
in the high places is more brutal, more
ruthless, more Oppressive today than ever
before. The toiling masses are being
blackjacked with ferocity that is ap-
palling. Public officials who attempt to
do something for the masses rather than
spend all their time scheming with the
plunderbund pharisees are pilloried, black
ened and destroyed wherever possible by
the very agencies that were set up to pro-
tect the people against just such machi-
nations of tyranny and organized greed,
Against this perversion of the agencies
OF government and public opinion, both
Washington and Lincoln warned their
countrymen. But it still is being carried
to an extreme in some instances that
mightashame even the old Black Hundred
Of the Russian aristocracy
Men still languish in jails for having
dared to quote the lords Prayer and the
Sermon on the Mount against the pro-
posed plunging Of Washington's and Lin
coins country into the battlefield quar-
rels of old world monarchies.
How have we cared for him who bore
the brunt of the battle-not for the high
salaried, bomb-proof expert who never
saw the ocean, or, if he did, from the
deck Of some pleasure craft, but the plain
American boy who went into the trenches
and took his chance with death, or, what
was worse, a terribly manned body or
broken mind?
Almost five years have elapsed since
this nation flung it's voll1p manhood into