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We who grew up from the edge of
the Civil War grew up in the belief
that the glory of the country was in
the past.
There had been days of old when
knights were bold, but they were the
old days. As for the present, it was
as shy on glorified opportunity as it
was on hostile Indians. It was finished,
trimmed and enclosed in a white
washed fence of settled peace and
order.
So we of the “seventies’’ and
“eighties” watched the Decoration
Day parades go by I
We know better now.
The glory of the country is now,
and hereafter. Boys who were playing
marbles in the street a little while ago
are in a greater adventure now than
men ever took part in before; and they
are coming back to a bigger work of
planning and building and developing
and governing than the controlling
powers of a country’s citizenship ever
did before.
The reason we who stay at home
arc confident is not because of the
consciousness of an adequate strength
within ourselves, for we know the job
is too big for that—the war jab and
the job after the war. Our confidence
is part of the tremendous thrill we get
from the fellows in khaki—officers and
men.
Wc have known they would have
courage. No one ever doubted the
American soldier would have that. We
Whenever success crowns German
effort—the Kaiser did it.
As the great battle on the Western
front was hunched and the pressure
of the ore. whelming numerical supe
riority of the Prussian hordes forced
the Allies to give ground—the Kaiser
did it.
The newspapers of the Empire
stirred by the first signs cf success—
or, to put it less poetically but more
truthfully, prodded by German bay
onets—gave glowing accounts cf the
Kaiser’s battie.
The War Lord was pictured as
standing on an elevation—far removed
from the scene cf battle, of course—
and studying the movements in close
detail, through a powerful glass. Also
he was pictured as weeping crocodile
tears and exclaiming with an agony of
woe in his voice, “What have I not
done to prevent all this?”
Then the tide of battle turned. The
newspapers still called it the Kaiser’s
battle, but they looked afoout for some
one to blame for crossing the signals.
The mad War Lord was quick to
recogniie the turn in the tide of bat
tle, even though he did not venture
far forward. "I must not lose,” he
exclaimed, and, calling two or three
generals emphasized his resolve. “I
must not lose. I cannot lose. I will
make a new attack—send some new
divisions.”
President Wilson’s proclamation
urges upon the people of the United
States the observance of Memorial
Day “with religious solemnity.”
The President comes from the
South. His mind has spanned the
years to those first observances of this
Tlmm it was a holy day, not a
Page 6
TRENCH & CAMP
,„ F • 'veckljr M tbe National Camps and Cantonments tor t’ <• .«'■•>- n ; iha
National Headquarters
Room 504, PalUxer Baihllng
New York City
JOHN BTEWABT BRYAN
Chairman of Advisory Board of Co-operating Publhlierx
„ < ..nip and location Newspaper , I'uldlsbar
.amp Bvauregard. Alexandria, La New Orleans Times Picayune . D D. Moore
"Jrtwrim*?,. P .? rt ™°, r ! h ’ Toxas ' Fort w ‘ >rtb star Telegram Amon C. Carter
.arlslrom Aviation Field, Arcadia, Pls,,Tampa Times .. D B McKay
_amp Cody, Deming. N. Mex .El Paso Herald H. i>. Blate*
Lamp Custer. Battle Creek, Mich Battle Creek Enquirer-News A. L. Miller
Camp Devens, Ayer, Mass .....Boston Globe Charles H. Taylor, Jr.
Lamp Dix. Wrightstown, N. J. . .. . Trenton Timas James Kerney
Camp Doniphan. Fort Sill, Okla Oklahoma City Oklahoman E. K. Gaylord
Camp Forrest. \Chltkamauga. Ga Chattanooga (Tenn ) Times H. C. Adler
Camp Fremont, Palo Alto. Cal San Francisco Bulletin It A. Crothers
Funston•^? rt . R,, 2 r ' Kan Topeka State Journal Frank P MacLennan
Camp Gordon, Atlanta, Ga Atlanta Constitution Clark Howell
Amp Grant. Rockford, 11l The Chisago Dally News Victor F. Lawson
Camp Greene. Charlotte. N. C Charlotte Observer w P Sullivan
/,' m £ Hancock. Augusta, Ga Augusta Herald Bowdre Phinlzy
Camp Jackson, Columbia. 3. C Columbia State w W. Ball
Camp Johnston. Jacksonville, Fla -Jacksonville Times Union W. A. Elliott
Kearny. Linda Vista. Ca! Los Angeles Times Harry Chandler
camp Lee. Petersburg, Va Richmond News Leader John Stewart Bryau
Camp Lewis, Tacoma, Wash Tacoma Tribune F. 3. Baker
Camp Logan Houston, Toxas Houston Post Gough J. Palmer
Camp McArthur, Waco, Texas.... Waco Morning News Charles E Marsh
Anniston, Ala Birmingham (Ala.) News Victor H Hanson
n-a.- dß r A? Wash., D. C., Evening Star Flaming Newbold
Camp P«kc. Little Kock, Ark Arkansas Democrat Elmer B. Clarke
Caw»> cbvler. Greenville, S. C Greenville Daily Nows » fl. H Peace
Lamp Shelby, Hattiesburg, Mbs New Orleans Item James M Thomson
camp Bhertilan, Montgomery. Ala Montgomery Advertiser ... , C. H Allot)
camp Zachary Taylor, Louisville, Ky.. Louisville Courier Journal Bruce Haldeman
Camp Travis, San Antonio. Texas. . i.. .... a-- "
Kelly Field and Camp Stanley j San Antonio Light Charles S. Diehl
Camp Upton. Yaphank. L. 1., N. Y.'. .New York World ..AT? Don C. Bolts
Camp Wheeler, Macon, Ga Macon Telegraph W. T Anderson
.. r ? b ’! she<l u “ d9 ‘' tb « auspices of the National War Work Council, Y. M C. A. of the
United States, with the co-operation of the above named publishers and papers.
THE COUNTRY’S GLORY IS IN THEIR EYES
By A. L. MILLER
Publisher of the Battle Creek (Mich.) Enquirer-News
’ didn’t know that in the mass they
; would each have such character—we
hadn’t reasoned quite that far.
j Character they have.
We cf the cantonment cities who
know them as near neighbors and
daily companions know that. Our
joy is in the certainty that not alone
will they finish the job “Over There”
—with the help that all of us who
stand by expect to give them—but
that they will come back to properly
do the work which is waiting for them
over h’ere.
They who save the Nation must re
turn to guide the Nation.
And we look them over, officers and
men, and thank God for the certainty
that both jobs will be well and safely
done—done by American gqntlemen.
An army that had muscle and nerve
might dnve the I-.-riser back. But
the army that makes America safe,
now and hereafter, must have ideals,
must be clean, must have strength of
mind and soul as well as of body.
For this army must live for the
flag, hereafter, as well as fight for it
now.
To these of us who see the army at
•close hand there comes, a hundred
times a day, the assurance that this
army will “do!”
We thought the glory of the coun
try was in the past.
And all at once, the crisis of all
times, and—tramp! tramp! tramp! the
boys are marching, and the country’s
glory is in their eyes.
THE KAISER’S BATTLE
So the new divisions were sent, and
slaughtered. Again the Kaiser called
the general officers, “I will attack
again—send more divisions,” he said.
His mental precesses were much
like those of a New York City Editor
who, sending a reporter to interview
a famous man, learned that the re
porter had been very rudely ejected.
The reporter complained that he had
been kicked down the steps. “Go back
again,” said the City Editor, “no one
can intimidate ME!”
The Kaiser’s literal application of
his statement, “I will attack” was to
give the order, “Send some new di
visions.”
But the reinforcements were un
availing. And the Kaiser drawing his
mantle about him, like the villain of
the piece, said to his generals, “I am
going away; but I will return.”
Emissaries ran ahead and told the
newspaper editors that they must stop
calling it the Kaiser’s battle. The Kai
ser had nothing to do with it. Who
ever told them it was his battle, any
way? It is Ludendorff’s battle, or
Hindenburg’s. Now it is lese maieste.
or something awful like that, to refer
to “the great drive” as the Kaiser's.
Soon a minor engagement may go in
fayor of the Prussians. The Kaiser
will be hurriedly summoned to ex
claim, “I and Gott have done this.”
A DAY OF RE-CONSECRATION
holiday. Families that had loved and
lost made pilgrimages to the graves
of those that had given their all to the
best they knew and strewed them ten
derly with flowers.
In 1868, General John A. Logan.
Commander-in-Chief of the Grand
Army of the Republic, set aside the
thirtieth of May “for the purpose of
TRENCH ANU CAMP
strewing with* flowers or otherwise
decorating the graves of comrades.”
So the North and the South joined in
the same form of observance.
New generations came. To them the
day was a day of rest and recreation, a
day of sport and festivity.
To them the President’s proclama
tion is an educating force. It calls them
to an understanding of the reasons for
the observance. Surely they will do
as he asks, and go to the churches
“with offerings of fervent supplications
to Almighty God for the safety and
welfare of our cause, His blessings on
our arms, and a speedy restoration of
an honorable and lasting peace to the
nations of the earth."
Confessions Os A Conscript
(This is the first of a series of diary entries written by a young man
called from his civilian pursuits by tlie operation of the selective draft. It
is a frank, outspoken record of Iris own feelings, thoughts and emotions,
which, peritaps, have been shared by other American men now overseas or
in training. These diary entries are commended to the soldiers of the Na
tional Army as a truthful portrayal of the process of converting civilians into
soldiers of “the finest army ever called to the colors by any nation.” The
writer Is Ted ‘Wallace, a luxury-loving young man, who, at the outset has
no settled convictions, except selfish ones, and who is transformed by the
purging process of war into a red-blooded patriot.)
August 1, 1917,
There seems to be no doubt about
it now. The draft will be put into
operation. lam of draft age. I am
in good health. I probably will be
called. Ido not want to go. There
seems to be so much In life that the
horrible idea of giving up everything
to go to war repels me. Am I less
patriotic than the average man of my
age? Am I less of an American? I
wonder!
The night before last I heard Irvin
Cobb tell of his experiences. He said
the thing that stayed with him long
est was the awful stench out there,
the stench of rotting human bodies.
As I came away I could sense that
stench, too. It has stayed with me
ever since. To think of the awful
nights of loneliness out there! To
think of living In a vermin-infested
trench with rotting bodies all about!
I look at my home and the things
that I have bought. And I think of
the day when I shall be cvAJed to give
it up—-for what? For the tMags that
Cobb saw and smelled!
Men have come back and told of
the slory of war. What glory is there
it*. Nothing but awful suffering,
awful privation, and an awful separa
tion from everything and everyone
that is precious. *
What is the world coming to? We
talked of the coming of peace; we
placed a great deal of stock in the
Hague Conventions. We thought we
were getting somewhere. And where
are we? As a matter of fact, we are
no further advanced than in the days
of the Huns.
Last night I came home, feeling
miserable and blue. My little sister
Edith came running out as I reached
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Do yeu suppose it will still be going
on when she is grown up?
home. She seemed so happy, so
blithe—so blissfully ignorant of it all.
Do you suppose it will still be going
on when she is grown up? That
thought makes you wonder whether
life is worth living at all. 1 some
times wonder whether it might not
be better for her If she did not live to
grow up if the war still lasts. What
would there be for anyone? It would
be a case of using every resource,
every energy for war. And what is
war, anyway, but waste? A world
organised only for waste would be a
sorry place for anyone.
But the law is inexorable. I have
to submit. Last night in my blue
mood I took stock of things. I have
been working now for six years. I
have, a good income for a man of
twenty-seven. I have no responsibil
ities, no real cares. I have scarcely
known any unhappiness, except, of
course, when mother died. Ido not
In far-off France and Flanders ne
voted women of France and Belgian!
will decorate the graves of sons ol
America who have died for their cause
and ours.
Here in America let the keynote be
re-consecration, not recreation; re
consecration of all that we have and
are that righteousness may usher in
a reign of peace; reconsecration of all
that we have and are to insure that
righteousness as a prelude to that
peace.
The North and have met.
They join in a common
no longer sectional, nor even national;
but presaging the parliament of man,
the federation of the world.
feel so badly now to think that she is
dead. For little Edith’s sake it would
have been splendid. But I think of
the heartache it would cause when I
have to go.
Father talks enthusiastically of the
war. There is no sense in trying to
argue the matter with him, and, any
way, I don’t quite like to, for it al
ways seems as if there is something:
in his expression that challenges me.;
He looks sometimes as if my views;
caused him pain. Perhaps they do.
But he is not subject to the draft. He
says he would fight if he could. I
don’t mean to be disrespectful to him,
or to seem to discredit anything he
says; but I have noticed that there is
a great deal of enthusiasm from those
that cannot go. i
This morning I went over to the
Exemption Board and asked if they
would tell me the grounds of exemp
tion. The clerk there looked me over
and turned on his heel. He became
very busy with a young man who
wanted to know whether the fact that
he was of draft age would keep him
from enlisting and I know that the
man he was talking to was told of the
reason for my visit. I know it from
the way he looked at me.
Later in the day I visited my pastor.
He Is a kindly old man who served In
the Civil War. When I was shown
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“Tod. you’re going to • get your
chance."
into his study he put his arms around
my shoulder and said, “Ted, you’re
going to get your chance, too. I wish
I were your age.” What could I say?
I had gone to him for sympathy and
support. But there was no way I could
introduce the subject of escaping the
draft.
Somehow the whole place seems to
be getting enthusiastic for war. I
can’t understand it. When the flag
passes by on the streets men doff
their hats as they never used to do it.
There is something more reverential
in their attitude than I ever noticed
before.
Am I less an American than the
average? There isn’t a boy left in
the club. Nearly all were members
of the National Guard and most of
the regiments are already out.
I had no time for that sort of thing.
Drills two nights a week and an occa
sional review. I liked the reviews,
but the drills did not appeal to me at
all; and somehow I had a feeling that
the Government would take seriously
these militiamen and ask them to pay
back in service the years of training
and expense the Government had put
into th'elr work. I certainly am glad
that I was not in the National Guard.
As it is, I can content myself, any
way, that I have a chance to arrange
my affairs. At least I can do that.
iJay
