Evening star., 1939-11-05
BY KIRKE L. SIMPSON.
Axk0ciatAd Press 4ta6 Wrifar


Autumn has woven again its gor-
geous garland Of remembrance for
Americas Unknown Soldier amid
the quiet hills Of Virginia where
he sleeps. aloof In the majesty of
his sacrifice.
Through the marching years since
that Armistice Day 18 years ago
when he was laid to rest with all
the reverence war-weary Nation
could devise to do him honor, his
countrymen have made a shrine of
that tomb.
Great folk and small have beat
en- their own path to it. They came
in the thousands, year by year, not
only in homage to his valor and
that of American World-War dead
wherever they sleep, but also in the
yearning hope that these dead had
not died In vain, that a day of last
ing peace for a world done with
war at last had dawned.
Scene at Entombment.
It was not to be. Just 81 years
from the first Armistice Day that
stilled the guns in France, where
this nameless American fell, an
other Armistice Day finds them
laundering again In sullen wrath.
A new generation of the youth
and valor of France, of England
and of Germany is marshaled for
more dreadful war. Its legions
are mastering and its guns are
echoing among the battlefields,
still deep SCARED by the havoc Of
the old war that was to end wars,
where the Unknown Soldier and a
host OF comrades were MANNED or
died-in vain.
Around the bier of the American
Unknown 18 years ago. vying to do
him honor, clustered a company of
great men Of the world such as
rarely has assembled in any age.
Nearly all the highest command
which led to victory in the World
War were there-the generals and
the admirals. With them were
many of the worlds leaders in
craftsmanship. No mighty monarch
Of history ever drew more of the
pomp and circumstance of great
ness to witness his entombment.
Generalissimo Was There.
Foch OF France. generalissimo of
the victory. was there. Beatty, who
led Britain's lean, gray battle cruis-
ers into action to test the mastery
of the North Sea that is again at
stake in another war. was there.
Jacques Of Belgium. deeply stirred
by the high emotionalism of the
scene, ripped valor medal from
his own breast to lay it above the
valiant, still heart of the unknown
Diaz of Italy paid his tribute to a
dead comrade in arms.
Prince Lubomirski. Minister In
Washington Of the war-born Polish
republic that now is a war refugee
in France, government without a
country, laid the Polish Virtuti Mill
tari on the unknown's casket. DR..
Stepaner, of the war-created Czecho-
Slovak Republic-now destroyed
placed the valor token of his country
beside the others.
Pershing of the A. E. F. trim
and soldierly, stood a moment in
grave salute to his unknown hero
of the legions he led in France
woodrow Wilson, Americas war
President. dragged himself from q
sickbed to ride in the funeral train
His successor, Warren 6. Harding,
at whose call so many world leaders
were to rally soon to talk in high
hope of ending war forever. trudged
afoot behind the gun carriage that
bore the unknown's casket.
Presence Lent Meaning.
BRAND Of France was there,
BRAND who in little while would
share with an American peace ad-
vocate, Secretary Kellogg, sponsor
ship of the worlds first universal
treaty. That treaty was designed,
futilely, to outlaw wars Of aggres-
sion. Balfour of England was there,
too. On the morrow he would throw
British pressure into the scales for
curbing battleship rivalries in both
the Atlantic and the Pacific as
America proposed; but would balk
at dropping England's guard against
the U-boats that again today are
rowing the North Sea.
Many of those towering figures
in World War history are dead now.
They have gone on to join the in