The Daily Alaska empire. [volume] (Juneau, Alaska) 1926-1964, 1939-05-30
THR0NG HERE
FOR MEMORIAL
DAY SERVICES
Boat Arrivals, Ceremonies
and Ball Game Add
10 Holiday

w l'CPtAtNNANAA NCN'et
augmented by several hundred with
the arrival of four passenger ships
during the day. one of them, the
Aleutian, loaded with Seattle Cham
Der OF Commerce tourists, Memorial
Day on Gastineau Channel took on
real Holiday aspects.
Streets we're thronged with new
arrivals and town residents, the AM
erican Legion sponsored colorful
ceremony, and a baseball game is
scheduled for this evening to cap
the day.
At 1918 o'clock this morning, Lee
gionaires formed with other patriotic
organiza tons and marched to the
Elks Hall where services we're held
in memory of the nations war dead.
In the line of march with Legion
aires were Legion Auxiliary men,
bers. Junior Auxiliary, Sons of the
Legion, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts and
a handful of Spanish American War
veterans.
AT the Elks Hall, Legionnaire John
E. Pegues delivered the memorial
address, Rev. John Cauble delivered
invocation, and Mrs. Lola Mae Alex
ander and her son George gave a
number of patriotic musical rendi-
lions.
From the Elks Hall, the parade
reformed in march to the Alaska
dock for water ceremonies in honor
of the Navy dead. and then to Ever
green Cemetery to decorate graves.
This evening, at $50, if the wealth
err is still favorable, the Elks ball
club will meet Douglas Island nine
in a seven inning game
In his Memorial Day address MIR.
Pegues said:
friends. With heads bowed and
minds at rest we pause once more
from the hurly-burly of our daily
lives and stand again before The
bivouac of the dead TO pay our brief
tribute to the military dead of this
great nation. They we're ready and
willing when their homes needed
protection, when the land that was
theirs was in danger. They gave
their all that we might be free; to
them we owe a gratitude greater
than we can hope to show Greater
love hath no man than this that
they have displayed. Let us accord
them due homage
In this wise-cracking generation
we are aware that there are those
who sheer at all patriotic fervor;
those who hold it smart to make
cheap, flippant remarks about our
heroic dead. There are those poor
spirits incapable of deep emotions,
of generous enthusiasms, or of
thrill before such objects as the
great memorial to Lincoln in Wash
ington, and who cannot feel lump
in their Threats as the grave of the
Unknown Soldier, or tingling of
the spine as the Flag is lowered at
sunset to the strains of the national
anthem.
Are to Be Pitied
"Such eviscerated and lop-sided
Americans are more to be pitied
than condemned. In them is no
sense of the great traditions of this
nation. Our ideals have passed them
by, and our current struggle to
maintain these ideals and our prin-
ciples of government against the
minions of certain European powers
who have invaded us with their bar
barrie isms Nazism, Fascism and
Communism finds they coldly Gym
ical.
$50 today I deem it indeed high
privilege to talk to you on this &C.
casion as a member of the American
Legion and as plain American citi-
zen, one who has served his country
in an humble capacity. I can say
for the Legion that no observance is
more sacred than this Memorial Day
service.
I'm the preamble to the constitu-
ton of the American Legion each
member pledges himself as an indi-
vidual to serve God and country and
to carry one, in the same spirit OF
constancy that characterized those
to whom we render homage, the
task they left behind-the preserva-
ton of nation, free and independ-
ent. 1t is our duty and our very
great privilege to hold high the
torch of American liberty and pre-
serve our principles as they fought
for them-pray God we may not fall
short.
How Day Originated
Historically, observance of these
rites began seventy-one years ago.
Although groups of Southern women
had initiated earlier decoration on
May 30 of graves of Confederate
soldiers, it was not until 1868 that
Gen. John A. Logan, Commander in
Chief of the Grand Army Of the Re-
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