The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1928-04-14
URGES VETERANS NOT TO
FORGET:


Those who served in the armies
during the late war will recall that
our ideas, at least in the beginning
We're mostly ready made for us-and
how careful the powers-that-be, the
official war machine, were in telling
US how to speak, how to act and even
how to think
Instead of facts we got the bosses
propaganda. Sometimes this was elu-
sive and subtle, but more often it was
direct and to the point, and always
tending in the one direction, to play
up the war; as the class interests of
the bosses saw it-not the war as
we, the sons of workers, should and
gradually did get to see it.
Struggle for Light.
Looking back on it all after lapse
of years we see the dual nature of
this struggle of the workers in the
war for light, and the efforts of the
imperialist war machine to smother
any efforts to obtain the truth about
the war before it had chance to
grow and develop. Even in the train
ing days the realities of things were
forcing themselves upon us with the
help of the hard school of experience
which was more than enough to kill
most of the illusions created by the
bosses.
Then in England and at the chan
mel ports in France, remember how
they watched our every move for the
sign Of rebel, and how those instruc.
tors played up their atrocityl tales
so wildly and so often that they be.
gan to believe it themselves, and how
some Of the fellows flesh would
creep until they got to be hard boiled
and callous. And then that moral al
the end: Remember now there is nc
good German but a dead one," end
ing up with the detailed advice cal
culated to develop all the latent saw
agry within us.
Priest Beats Colonel.
Some will remember at Havr,
where the colonel in charge of tn,
port wasn't militant enough in hi
farewell talk to the new drafts Jus
ready to entrain for the front, so tn,
padre when saying the final wor,
] would get positively bIoodthirsty ant
more than overdid his act.
And then those first prisoner
whom we had a chance to mingl
with soon after they were captured
Here all the tales of our officer
came into sharp collision with reality
While all our training had been alons
the lines that these fellows wer,
devils" yet they didn't look it. bu
instead had the appearance of an,
body of men who had been carryinI
on so close to the border line between
life and death for so long.
In Action.
To see liquid fire eating up tn
bodies Of your buddies while still
alive, but crippled, and to be force,
on into hail of death while lumber
ing tanks smashed all the remainin,
life from their bodies-this was wha
we had to view. The thought of hat
and fear and despair degenerate
under such an extreme mental an
physical excitement, and after sucI
experiences would come a deadl
fatigue thru every cell of the bod
and ! remember at such times HOY
our little group gave the remainde
OF the cigarettes to some fair-haire
Saxon boys who were prisoners. The
mad been carrying out our wounde
Tor hours in what seemed certai
death. With what smile Of com
radeship they received those smoke
to appreciate this one needs to re
member that there was real belief a
that time that all prisoners were line
up and shot. Later more and NOR
got to see thru the imperialist lies O
the war-nongers in all the countries
First Fraternizati0n.
Here | think was the first feelin,
Of internationalism and practice Of
permanent and lasting kind. Vel
such is modern war, but maybe yo
say why bring all that up, let's for
give and forget. No, we cannot d
this as long as the bosses continu
their effort to have us go to slaughte
to protect their private interests. Yo,
may have been too young for the las
war but will be just ripe for the mex
one which we see being prepared be
fore our eyes every day-J
--"TAP VETERAN