Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 128, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 May 1915 — MASTERFUL ADDRESS ON MEMORIAL DAY [ARTICLE]

MASTERFUL ADDRESS ON MEMORIAL DAY

Large Audience Crowded Christian Church Where Attorney Geo. A. Williams Gave Address. . .- ‘-'■l I Owing to the heavy rains which had fallen throughout last week and. the very heavy rain of Saturday it became necessary to hold the Memorial service indoors and the Christian church was chosen as the place. The various orders gathered at their halls and* then assembled at the court house and marched to the church, led by the band. Thirty-four of the old soldiers were in the parade. There were also members of the Sons of Veterans and the women’s auxiliaries and of the Masons, Odd Fellows, Knights of Pythias and Red Men. There was also quite»a number of Sunday school children in the parade. The service was a very excellent one, the address of Attorney George A. Williams being of deep interest and filled with splendid thoughts and a part of it is here given. The music was furnished by Misses Maud Daugherty and Esther Padgitt and Dr. W. L. Myer and Carl Duvall, with Miss Glen Day at the organ. Russell VanArsdel recited Lincoln’s Gettysburg address in a very able manner and Miss Kathryn Watson gave a splendid reading entitled "Appomattox.” Mr. Williams departed some in his address from the usual and ordinary style of Memorial day orations, and laid particular emphasis on the necessity for a better and broader citizenship in order that the nation might be worth the sacrifices made by, and the victories won by the veterans of the civil war. He emphasized the fact that Memorial day is, and should be, a day of worship, on which bhe citizens reconsecrate themselves to a life of service for their country. He said among other things that in 1860 our nation went down in the valley of decision. That the spirit and feeling which prompted the veterans of the Grand Army of the Republic to volunteer in the service of their country, and to offer their lives as a sacrifice on their country’s altar in order that the nation might live, and remain foreVer as a united nation, that this spirit and feeling was not an accident but was the result and development of long and serious thought and study and consultation at the fireside and in the homes and in the pulpits of the land, and was made possible by reason of the knowledge the citizens of those times had of their nation’s history. That in order fbr the present generation to realize and comprehend the importance of the great conflict it is necessary for them to become familiar with the history of their country. That if we would keep alive and perpetuate the spirit of patriotism which prompted the veterans of the civil war to offer their services for their country, it is necessary for us to read and think and study and contemplate more on the serious and more substantial affairs and things of life. That this spirit and feeling and kindred spirits are not born and cultivated and developed by the reading of light fiction, or by spending the time around card tables, or at other fryrolous social pasttimeg, but that such spirit is born, and developed and cultivated by thoughtful contemplation of the more serious things of life.

The speaker emphasized bhe fact that the battles fought and the victories won by a nation and by our own nation in the times of peace are as important and as influential upon

the welfare of our nation, as the battles fought and the victories won in time of war. That while in 1860 and 1861 liberty called for defenders and said to the mother, “giwe me your son, the pride of your heart, and the solace of your declining years,” and to the wife, "give me your husband, loved and honored of your soul,” and to the maiden, “give me your lover, upon whom depends all your hope of happiness,” and that while the mother and wife and maiden bowed to these demands, that the nation today is calling for men and women to volunteer as soldiers in the fight for the solution of the great religious, moral, social and economic problems which present themselves continuously for solution. And that today the nation asks of our citizens that they give to the nation the full force, and strength and influence of a broad, clean, brave, Christian life. That our nation now probably faces a great crisis in its history by reason of the conditions and complications brought on by the great European war. And that while in these times the nation needs as its head, a strong, Christian man, that it also is important that the president of the nation have the support of a brave, loyal, Christian citizenship behind him. That the president would be just as powerless and as impotent to solve the great problems of the day properly without the support and aid of a loyal, Christian citizenship, as the great generals of the civil war w’ould have been to achieve victory upon the battlefield without the loyal support of the private in the ranks. In his concluding remarks he pledged to the surviving veterans present that in the future the citizens of our country would continue to celebrate Memorial day, and that in the future when the last of the surviving veterahs has answered the last roll call, and has joined the invisible army, that the citizenship of our country will continue to hold in sacred memory their lives and sacrifices which they made for their country, and will continue to strive to attain to that high plane of citizenship which shall make us worthy of the great benefits and advantages which we enjoy as citizens of a united nation, and that the spirit which prompted their sacrifices for their country may continue to live in their children and in their children’s children, and that mankind shall thereby progress and advance until the universal brotherhood of man shall be a reality.