Evening star., 1937-08-01

Rush the men in freight cars from
the transports and patch up the
wounded to fill the gaps in the ranks
at the 'front.' Drive, drive for seven
weeks in that long battle, gaining
ground foot by foot, as We provided
dead for the cemetery We dedicate
today America S largest cemetery in
France. and three times larger than
the next in size.
At last we were over the crest and
sprintlng downhill in the chase. The
war was over-guns silent at the
front and roar OF rejoicing among
the allied peoples.
And the dead? A dead man is of no
further service in wars harsh ma
terialism. He ceases to be fighting
youth and becomes so much excess
flesh. His buddieS NAV mourn him.
but commanders must think in terms
OF living youth.
Get the living back to billets, first,
away from the germ and vermin in
tested battletields. and then get them
home. clean. free of disease-and get
jobs for them. The dead already had
Jobs in eternity. They alone of the
Americans we're still in the area of
trenches, ruins and the gashed. limb
less trunks of trees on the sites of what
had been forests.
Seventy EIGHT thousand American
boys were under French sod in 2.400
separate burial places. aside from
those in shallow. scattered graves
likely to be turned over by the peas
ants pillow. They were in the way of
reconstruction.
Practically all must be moved. To
send them home when our own war
debt and allied borrowings we're
mounting meant a great expense and
narrowing process. The first plan
was to have them lie in selected sites
on or near the fields where they fell
But there were protests against this
from those who had the heartfelt right
to protest.
Il gave him to his country" said a
mother who had a gold star in place
of live son, "fnd the least his coun-
try can do is I'd send what remains OF
him back to be buried beside his faith
er and mother."s
From what I know of European
history" said father, the body OF
my son will be safer in our family plot
than in any cemetery in France which
may be cut by trenches and blasted
by shells in the next war
Wanted Sons Buried at Home.
With decision left to the nearest
relatives of the dead. more than hall
wanted the son, husband or brother
buried at home
Wars aftermath had its supreme
griSly horror in the exhuming of the
bodies. Names of many who hac
fought over the battlefields were still
missing after all the names in the
known burial places had been checked
off. Not all were in the scattered in
dividual graves. The combing search
would reveal skeleton in khaki ir
dense bit of woods; another under
his steel helmet in a tumbled-ir
trench.
Once the bodies were all at home
or in the cemeteries in France, what
about battlefield monuments? Al.
ready regiments and divisions were
beginning to put up their own. But
the French objected that if they hac
monuments to all the regiments anc
divisions which had been in theil
many wars there would be no room
left on which to grow crops.
Congress created the Battle Monu.
ments' Commission, with Gen. Perish.
ing as its chairman. There should bt
one monument for each battlefield
each cemetery, to the valor of al
who fought there. Now all the monu.
ments are in place.
A fountain at Tours is the me.
mortal to the workers Of the Service
OF Supply who kept up the flow of sup.
plies to the front. The Army ha.
erected a granite arch to the Navy
at Gibraltar, the gateway of the
Mediterranean. A tall shaft at Brest
recalls how the sailormen safely
ferried 100000 soldiers through the
submarine zone
Each field of crosses has its non.
denominational chapel. Here are in.
scribed the names Of more than 8
thousand dead whose bodies have
never been recovered. Shellburst.
mixed their flesh with the earth
The only unknown soldier wh<
sleeps at home is in Arlington. Those
in France have marble markers with
the inscription: Here rests il
honored glory an American soldier
known but to God"