Daily Kennebec journal., 1925-06-01
COOLIDGE SAYS
(continued from Page One)

larly in the world war, a poppy an
chor was dropped into the Potomac
river from the bow Of the U. s. S.
Sylph, the secretary of the navy's
yacht.
After his address in the Arlington
amphitheatre, President Coolidge
walked to the nearby tomb of the un-
known soldier, and reverently placed
on it a lnrge wreath. Mrs. Coolidge
laid small bouquet of roses on the
top of the tomb.
At the memorial exercises, Arling-
ton National Cemetery, Saturday
May 80, 1925, at / p. M, President
Coolidge spoke as follows:
For those who are the inheritors OF
a noble estate and a high place in the
world, it is a good thing to pause at
intervals and consider by what favor
of fortune and of ancestry their lines
have fallen in such pleasant places.
Thus to mediate upon that course
of events, which has given them
what they have and made them
what they are, will tend to remind
them how great is their debt and
how little is their share of merit.
This is the day on which the
American people each year acknowl-
edge that they have such a debt. 1t
has been set aside that a grateful
Nation may do fitting honor to the
memory of those who have made the
greatest and most voluntary contri-
button to 1t. Here about us, in this
place of beauty and reverence, lies
the mortal dust of noble host, to
whom we have come to pay our
tribute, as thousands of other like
gatherings will do throughout our
land. In their youth and strength,
their love and loyalty, those who
rest here gave to their country all
that mortality can give. For what
they sacrificed we must give back
the pledge Of faith to all that they
held dear, constantly renewed, con-
stantly justified. Doing less would
betray them and dishoner us.
To such a memorial as exists here
we can only come in a spirit of
humility and of gratitude. We can
not hope to repay those whom we
are assembled to honor. They were
moved by a noble conception of
human possibilities and human
destiny. But we can undertake to
find what was their inspiration and
seek to make 1t our guide. BY that
they will be recompensed.
High Moral Courage
These who are represented here
were men in whom courage had
reached a high moral quality. They
had been brave enough not to
shrink from looking at facts and in
stitutions. They had been honest
enough to admit that they saw there
much that was not good. They
CLOSED over no wrongs, they hid
away no skeletons. They did not
pretend that wrong was right or
ever could be right. They had put
much thought to the lessons of hard
experience, and had frankly ack-
nowledged that they must deal with
a crisis in the Nations life. They
were sure that union was a blessing,
that slavery was wrong, and that
domestic war was the supreme
human fragedy. This settled, they
saw that one of three courses must
be taken. They could have had
peace with disunion, or they could
have had peace and union, with
slavery. Freedom with union, they
saw at last, meant war. We know
how they decided. We know at
what fearful cost they supported
their decision.
We live far enough away from
that sincerity and honestly did not
all lie on either side. We know the
conflicts of loyalties, traditions, an
cestry, and interest which drew men
to one side and the other. I doubt
If fhnrn
and elemental a conflict from which
men emerged with SO much of
mutual respect, with so little of
bitterness and lingering hostility.
The struggle brought the whole Ma
tion at last to see that it's only as
surance was in unity. United, it
could go it's way in all security;
divided, both sections becoming the
prey of jealousy and intrigue, would
have dissipated all the power they
now have for good in the world.
The Value of Union
Our generation has recently lived
through times still so vivid as to
seem but as yesterday, which have
taught us deeply to appreciate the
value OF union in purpose and effort.
We have come to see as through9a
crystal that In the national variety
OF talents and resources, of cultures
and capacities. OF climates and OF
soils. OF occupations and OF interests,
lies the guaranty OF both our power
aud our authority. More than that,
they have taught ue how heavy and
IL our responsibility In the
world.
Conscious OF strength which re-
moves Us from either fear or
trueHlebes, satisfied with dominions
AMI resources which free Us from
lpst ~ territory ef empire, we sss
that euf highest interest VIII lie pro.