Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-10-17
Yorktown.

All hearts and thoughts this week end
are attuned to the sacred memories that
cluster around the name Of Yorktown.
1.-THE spirit of rs" fires the country's
emotions as the President Of the United
States and distinguished company OF
Army, Navy and civilian officers Of the
Republic move on the Virginia country
side to celebrate the 150th anniversary
OF the battle that sealed the triumph
OF the American Revolution.
1t Is fittingly Franco-American
love feast that will have its climax At
] Yorktown on Monday, for France shares
in amplest degree the glor1es and ira
ditions that have come down to us from
the belle alliance" which ended British
rule on this soil. AS we salute Marshal
Petain We think not SO much OF the
savior of Verdun as We do Of those de-
parted heroes of 1881 whom he has
come to represented Admiral de
Grasse, of the Marquis de Lafayette. OF
Count Rochambeau and Of all the gal
liant French soldiers and sailors whose
presence at Yorktown. by land and sea.
enabled our own immortal Washington
to strike the last great blow for Amerl-
can independence.
The Sesquicentennial commentator
of yorktown would have been luol-
crously incomplete without the partici-
nation of eminent French enissaries.
Our own part in it will be as lamentably
lacking if, first and foremost in our re-
Elections of what the event means In
the Nations history, We do not place
Americas undying gratitude for the
providential aid rendered the Cont
mental Army in Its most critical hour
by the 1nvincible forces Of France.
The appearance OF the French light
cruiser division in the waters Of York
town is an especially appropriate SYM
Dol of the decisive weight cast by sea
power in the victory of october 10, 1881.
Nor should the American branch Of
the English-speaking family at this
reminiscent hour fail to rejoice that
time in its all-eradicating course has
beneficently obliterated the acfimony OF
q century and half ago. We no longer
think of the British people as the red
coated foe that Washington vanquished.
Twisting of the lions tail long since
ceased to be either popular or prof.
liable pastime in the United States.
Yet the day can never come when the
stirring story Of the Colonies struggle
for independence will be deleted from
American school books or an iota de-
tracted from the epic which 1t consti-
tutes. Lexington and Concord, Patrie..s
Henry and Paul Revere, Bunker Hill,
Brandywine and Ticonderoga, Valley
Forge and Trenton, Yorktown and
Washington-these are the stars that
will nlume the American heavens for
eternity, twinkling through the most
prosaic of ages as reminders that the
founding fathers, their faith and their
fortitude, bequeathed to us q heritage
which we shall safeguard, as did they,
30 the last ounce of our strength and
eacred honor.
The festivities at Yorktown fall in the
midst of a business crisis, whose blight
has been upon the American land for
| more than two years. Is it not meet
tthat We should invoke the spirit OF
George Washington and the Revolution
. airy patriots, as we contemplate what
setill has to be done to Subdue the foe
that is besieging our economic life as
the hosts of Britain beleaguered the
gsThirteen Colonies? The Colonies de-
clared their independence in 1776. It
was five long, bitter. sacrihcial years be-
fore yorktown came, browning their
hopes and fears at last with victory.
! Bad times will not hold the United
States in thralldom as long as oppression
sbore down upon the embattled Americans
Sof hundred and fifty years ago. The
faint but certain rays of the rising sun
are already breaking over the horizon.
sPending It's full eniulgence, let us re-
member that the men and women Of
sgWashington's day declined to succumb,
endless as their privat1ons appeared to
! be. They fought on. They hoped on.
|sfThey never let disappointment become
stiespair. Their Yorktown, they knew,
would dawn II their courage did not
erumble.
AS surely as their valor and conf
Gence were rewarded, 30 will those Of
Sne American people, If they plod on as
doggedly to enforce the surrender Of the
CORVALLIS of depression.