The Wolf Point herald. (Wolf Point, Mont.) 1913-1940, 1930-06-06
MEMORIAL DAY SHOULD
INSPIRE MEN TO SERVE

INSPIRE MEN TO SERVE
Continued from page one)
for they being dead yet speak.
They tell us of the dearly bought
privileges which we as a nation
and as individuals enjoy today.
They remind us of the blood
bought heritage of liberty, of
equality, of fraternity. This Day
is not in honor of an event but
of a cause, a principle, a spirit
the cause of freedom, the prin-
ciple of self-government, the spir-
it of sacrifice.
Every marked grave signifies
that there is something more
precious than life-the right to
live under right conditions.
Peace at any price has many
advocates today. They argue both
from the costliness of war and
the profits of peace. They tell
us that what was once the dream
of poets is now the worlds nee
essity," that peace is essential to
the salvation of civilization. War
is contagious now and rap
idly spreads to all nations, it
numbers as its victims not only
the soldier in the field, but the
civilian in the home and the cit
les behind the lines. War, they
say, has ceased to be a profit
paying adventure-he who wins
loses and he who loses wins.
They say there is not only the
shell shock to soldiers, but a
worse shock to the moral sense
of all, that unleases the inhuman
passions and leaves a great foe
of u~nrestrained lawlessness in it's
wake. War has ceased to be brut-
al-man against man, but science
against science has made it dis
tinctly devilish, that "war is hell".
Civilization And War
l can sympathize with much of
the sentiment of the pacifist, but
I cannot agree that present day
warfare has ceased to be civilized.
War has always been civilized.
With the advance of civilization
war has kept pace. Civilization is
a movable term. AS applied to
warfare it has moved from fists
and rocks and arrows to muzzle
leaders, breech leaders, cannon
ball and she'll, machine guns and
Big Berthas, bombing planes and
only the next progress of civil
cation can disclose what will be
the next progress in war. The
forces that build up are the fore
es that destroy.
But, they tell us, peace is a
necessity. But is not war also a
necessity? Is there anything worth
dying for? Is there anything that
justifies killing? Have those
whose graves we decorate, and
the soldiers living whose service
we acknowledge, died and served
in vain? Was it only that we
might know the horrors Of war
and appreciate the necessity of
peace? Have they suffered and
died as a heather offering to the
God of War? Or has their sac
rifice been a righteous one In
the defense and furtherance of a
cause? There are many
who still maintain that war may
be a necessity, and that the right
to live under right conditions may
be more important than life it.
self.
War May Be Necessary
Nations have not died because
they fought righteous wars, but
because they did not live right
eous lives. What is worth living
for is worth dying for. What is
wortk dying for is worth living
for. The nations that want to
live under right conditions may
need to shed blood for the priv
ilege. But that blood is shed in
vain that is not productive Of a
life in harmony with the cause
for which life has been given.
This Day is not a day set apart
to the Qualification of the art
and science of war; its purpose
is not to reincarnate the preju-
dices, hatreds and bitternesses of
conflict; nor to revive in the
hearts of the living the killing in