The Colorado statesman., 1923-05-26
Poppy the Memorial Flower.

ular army of today.
Poppy the Memorial Flower.
Some time ago the largest organlza-
ton of ex-service men of the World
war voted to supplant the poppy of
France with the daisy of America as
the Memorial flower of the Legion.
Quickly after this action was taken 1t
was reconsidered and the poppy has
come back into its own. 1t Is difficult
to find any man who served In the war
for civilization who does not hold to
the poppy us the proper floral emblem
Of an order whose men fought In the
fields where the blood-red flower grows.
In Washington today poppies are be-
ing sold for the benefit of the Memo
rial day fund for the graves of the
soldiers of the World war. Possibly 1t
Is not generally realized how many
women there were who actually en-
tered into the armed service of the
United States. Many women were en-
listed for semi-military duty. Some of
these duties involved personal danger
to the enlisted. This month in Wash
ington the eX-service women are en-
gagged In the work of making poppies.
II Is difficult to tell without the use of
the sense of touch that the flowers
which they are making are not the
poppies of Flanders Field. On every
grave of a veteran of the World war
In France and in the United States on
Memorial day peoples will have place
with the flowers of the homeland.
In France the greatest Memorial day
exercises will be witnessed ut Romagne,
where about 10000 American soldiers
lie awaiting the reveille. The French
gave to the United States forever the
great tract where the majority of the
American dead lie buried. From a
height near Romagne can be seen
Mount Faucon and the shadowing out
lines of the ArgOnne forests with all
the fields of battle which lie in be-
tween. There on mountain, on hillside,
on plain and in valley Americans gave
ND their lives for liberty. Most of them
lie virtually where they fell, and on
MAY 80 of this year and on May 80 of
all the years to come they will not be
forgotten.
Fund OF SooU,UUU IS Nccocu.
1t is understood that the sum of
S35O,000 will be necessary to insure
that on every Memorial day flowers of
America and France will be placed
upon the resting place Of every Amer
lean soldier of the World war. The
fund will remain untouched, the inter
est only being used. A liberal compu-
ich
that IL the sum of fifty cents for each
grave be set aside 1t will be sufficient
to remember worthily the dead of the
World war.
It has been said that there is salts
faction In the ranks of the veterans of
the World war that the poppy of Flan-
ders' Field, and all Europe for that mat
ter. has been reinstated in its place as
the memorial emblem of the American
Legion. 1t is the poppy of Flanders,
of the valley of the Marne and of the
Moselle, and of the fields bordering the
stretches of the Meuse and the forests
of the Argonne-
For centuries in France the poppy
has been regarded as the war flower,
or, perhaps, rather as the flower of
Ear's aftermath. Its color is signif-
cant of sacrifice, and as 1t grows abun-
dainty on virtually all of the battle
fields of France, and as the whole
country at one time or another has
been battlefield. the poppy has come
to be looked upon as fitting memorial
of the dead heroes of the land.
The French soldier looks upon the
poppy as symbolic flower. Today