The Waterbury Democrat., 1937-06-07

is for US then to keep faith with the heroic dead by cherishing the guarantees of our glorious consti- tion, which gives what no other nation in the world today enjoys so fully, freedom of speech, free dom of the press and what's more important-freedom to worship God in our own humble way.
 It is our faith in these consti- tutional rights that should prompt us to resolve that we shall ever be alert to protect them, that we shall be prepared to defend them against enemies within and be- yond our borders. We know as vet erans and American citizens, and the world teaches us daily, that peace and security are enjoyed only by those nations which are prepared to fight if the occasion warrants it.
 May we Americans always de- sire peace. May we constantly pray for it, but may we be ready to meet the challenge when our homes are in danger, our liberties threatened and our future security imperiled.
 It is appropriate that Memorial day comes in spring time, when Mother Earth and Mother Nature are experiencing their hour of resurrection from the death-like sleep of the long winter months. It is a season when warmth, life and color gleam from hillsides, the fields, the forests and in this beautiful Hamilton park. It is a season of promise, a season that gives hints of 8 glorious summer and a beautiful autumn. It is a time when life seems more attrac- tive, more harmonious.
 Let us in retrospect for a mo- ment visit far-away France when spring came in 1919 to find the shambles that man in his war lust had created. Spring brought life. Destruction, desolation and death were mans own creations. Mother Earth's spring raiment was stained with the blood of youth that ran in rivulets And lest we forget, that blood came also from the crushed flower of American manhood, our sacrifice to the gods of war.
 Above the roar of the guns, however, came the plaintive cry of war-weary people, of suffering hu- nlanity, of innocent victims.
 Give us peace before civiliza- tion perishes from this earth was the prayer that aScended to the heavens. They in their hour of sorrow and distress turned to a merciful God for relief and de- liverance from needless suffering and destruction.
 And peace came six months later when natures life and col- ors of springtime had departed and searching winds herald the advent of winter.
 And so the war to make the world safe for democracy, the war to end all wars, the war to eStab- fish permanent peace was over. The crusading A. E. F. returned home to loved ones, to peaceful pursuits, asking no laurels, seek ing no colonial possessions for America, which had given so much of its gold, SO much of its youth to make the world safe for dem- ocracy.
 But another spring is here, with its flowers and plants, brilliant foliage and song birds. But they are scarcely noticed in Europe as war clouds once more darken the horizon and the world waits breathlessly the signal that may again plunge the world into a mad orgy of death and destruc- tion.,
 The chant of hymns of hate is heard. Swollen national pride has distorted the vision and infiamed the minds of leaders. Americas bid for peace evokes sneers. Treaties have been ignored. War debts to America have been re- pudiated. And even the merciful God to whom millions appealed to in the dark days of 1919, has been forgotten. He has been driven out of the temples of worship and out of the minds of even the little children.
 But here in America we enjoy peace. With Gods help we shall always enjoy it. May America through its leadership, its youth, its strength and its resources guide the nations of the world to peace and to mutual understand ing and happiness.
 And may we on this day in saluting our comrades of beloved memory, say with sincerity that we have caught the torch tossed from their falling hands and we shall hold it high to brighten the path of America to future great ness and prosperity, material as well as spiritual. We pledged our- selves to keep faith with those who died, to follow the leadership of God-fearing men, not Goddess men with Pagan philosophies That we will seek through Divine Guidance the strength to carry on as our fallen comrades would have us do.
 So with salute to our buddies of beloved memory. with salute to the living, especially our dis abled comrades, who are smiling through their sufferings, we once more dedicate sincerely and reverently our future lives to the service, to the honor and glory of God and country!
 OLDEST SENATOR