The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1922-05-30

desire to kill. They portray him as
being who knows not the feeling
of fear, being as much at ease
carrying a rifle in No Mans Land
as engaged in athletic contests on
the fields of sport at home.
Conquered First Enemy-Fear.
But they fail 10 understand that
a man is just as human in uniform
on the shell-swept line as he is at
his desk at home Life is dear to
US all, and it was just as precious
and sweet to him over there as it is
TO US here today. They went forward
toward the enemy and death not
without fear, but in spite Of fear,
and the greater the fear the Drawer
the man who conquered it.
There are pictures of service
that will always remain in the SOL
dier's mind, pictures that words
seem inadequate to portray 1t may
forward toward a German trench
with the constant put, put, put of
the enemy machine gunner or the
roar of the artillery shell as it
screams its objection to that ad-
vance, tearing a gaping hole into
that advancing line. 1t may be a
picture of battalion of khaki in
dense wood in France. surrounded
by the enemy, outnumbered ten to
one, short OF ratious, being literal
ly torn TO pieces and yet refusing
to surrender. 1t may be hand
to-hand struggle in a trench in ut
ter blackness, except for the spit
ting fire of rifles, the sudden flash
of an exploding grenade or the half
minute light OF a soaring star she'll.
Or it may be that picture of the lad
from Tennessee who objected to
war, and yet with his rifle carried
on a battle with a platoon OF Ger
mans, which resulted in the death
or surrender of that entire platoon.
And it may be the thought of a IL
year-old boy who knew not the
word fear, who, taking a position
behind a tree, bark out defiance
to the advancing enemy and held
the line, giving his comrades time
to retreat to a position more advan-
tageous until a German bullet ended
it all. Oh, those are pictures that
make the blood run quicker and
cause us to say with pride He was
& true American soldier
But after this picture of battle
there comes the picture of suffer
ing and death. In the cold. bleak
light of an early dawn stretcher-
bearers carrying away the wound
ed, those lads who still were fight
ing, but now battling for life
against death. Others lying where
they fell, those that had fought
their last fight and had been called
to their Creator. Death found
them at the post of duty as ready
to die as to live for the sake of the
cause to which they had dedicated
their lives.
Tribute to G.. A. r
And today we have placed flags
and flowers on the graves of many
old soldiers of the Civil war who
have answered deaths call many
years after the guns of that war
ceased sending forth their messages
of death those old veterans whom
God spared 50 that they might go
back to civil life and keep the fires
of patriotism burning on the affairs
of liberty They were the men of
the Grand Army of the Republic
who taught our boys of the last
war to be strong and brave. We
today mourn their absence, yet we
thank God that He spared them SO
they could form that bulwark of
strength that carried US through
the critical reconstruction era aft
er the Civil war.
Let US, comrades of the last
war, members of the American le-
gicn, profit by their example. Let
us organize as they did for the
purpose of preserving and strength
ening those bonds of friendship