Imperial Valley press., 1927-04-06
SAVAGE PLEADS
FOR RETURN TO
WARTIME IDEALS
(National Commander of the Ameri-
can Legion Written for the
United Press. Copyright, 1927,

i (National Commander of the Ameri-
can Legion.) Written for the
United Press. Copyright, 1927,
United Press.
! BOSTON, Mass. April, 6.-Fen
/ years ago today the United States
declared itself to be in q state of
war.
Ten years is substantial part OF
4 man s limited life. Even in the
life Of a nation it is a tenth of
century, and but few nations have
endured through many centuries.
These 10 years have been for the
United States the years when young
vigor reaches mature strength.
We have travelled at tremendous
pace in these wears. We have pro-
duced wealth at rate never before
imagined. We have made vast de.
velopments in the things that make
life comfortable and pleasing. But
III the eyes of the great Eternal
have we gone forward from the spot
al which We stood at this hour ten
years agoa
Len wears dSo NihC'iNu "oS uhi-
ed with one clear thought and one
exalted purpose. With no motive OF
aggression, with no wish to profit,
this nation threw itself into a ter
rible war TO vindicate our national
ideals and defend what we believed
to be the rights of humanity.
The American people then stood
nar.Yt.ipfF Sntfnrinn 1NiuO
all for the purest Of idealism.
MAKE the world safe for demoe-
racy.' - To the American people
that phrase was as real AS the earth
upon which they walked. They
stinted their stomaehs for ii; they
submitted 10 obnoxious discipline;
tEev went out and gave their lives
with it alone as the motive. In
these years that have passed what
has become of this idealism Where
l., that spirit which caused men and
women to forget themselves' II is
hard to find among our enormous
new wealth. Our whirrin0 machines
give il no room. Our frantic amuse-
ments leave il no time.
mere are iHOSt bo bfOl u
the very words which clothed the
ideals that men endured and died
for 10 wears ago. The back wash
of disillusionment has swept in. The
torch that America held up for q
moment "a An expectant world has
been dashed out.
But in France lie thirty thousand
4 g. dim
ming Of the light which illumined
the nation. With crosses cleaning
white against the green of French
fields and hillsides we have marked
the places where they rest. They
died with the flame Of the ideal
blazing within them and there at
the hallowed spots where they lie
it must still be burning.
Wa are going pack to france this
year, we men of the American Lee
gion, with our wives and our fami-
lies. We are going to hold our con
vcntion in Paris. we are going TO
revisit the scenes of our war serv-
ice and we are going to enjoy some
pleasures of q trip abroad. But
our greatest purpose in recrossing
the sea is to do thing which we
hope may contribute at least one
small spark to the re-kindling Of
American idealism. We are going
II stand again beside the crosses Of
our dead.
We hope that standing there we
can feel something within US take
fire again from the spirit of those
. dead, something which will cause US
to look up from ourselves and see
bigger conception of life than
that which we have been following.
We will not be able to explain.
Perhaps we cannot even understand.