Mercedes Tribune (Mercedes, Tex.), Vol. 10, No. 16, Ed. 1 Wednesday, May 30, 1923 Page: 3 of 10
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MERCEDES TRIBUNE
PAGE THREB
WEDNESDAY, MAY 30, 1923
The Least We Can Do
(American 'Legion Weekly)
Over the side of the transport Tus-
cania, torpedoed on a wintry night,
our troops were lowered in the life
boats, and .though the readers of
“Three Soldiers” would never sus-
pect \they had it in them, so reliable
a witness as Irvin Cobb (who, at the
time, was hanging to the rail of an-
other ship in the same convoy)
swore that ,the darned fools were
singing as they dropped down toward
the black, tossing Irish Sea. They
weren't singing “The Star Spangled
Banner.” Probably they didn’t know
the words. They were singing “Oh,
boys, say, boys, where do we go
from &ere?”
Perhaps the guards who will pace
the silent aisles of our cemeteries in
France on jthe coming eve of Memor-
ial Day would, if they had ears to
hear, catch a sound of singing in the
ghostly reunion that must be held
there! on such anniversaries — there
where the acres of Romagne stretch
away 'toward the sunset, or on the
hill above Thiaucourt, or at the slop-
ing burial ground on the edge of the
Ourcq, or at that larger cemetery
amid the now yellowing wheat fields
toward which all the eyes of the
world turned anxiously five years
ago next month—the cemetery on the
edge of Bellau Wood.
And at such reunions, surely, sure-
ly, the song is the same one which
was sung with such defiant cheerful-
ness that panicky night when the
Tuscania was hit on .its way to
Liverpool. For just as we all used
to be kept moving, moving, moving
from Seattle and Seicheprey and Ser-
ingees, just as no doughboy ever got
himself well bedded down in a good
French haymow before the orders
would fly through the village that
the company was to pack up and
hike along next morning, just as
no colonel seemed ever able to make
up his mind where he wanted his
men put, so our dead in France have
been kept steadily on the move, dug
up and buried here, dug up and bur-
ied there, jus,t like old times.
Now at last, however, it looks as
if the final “At rest” had been given
them, as if the green that is mant-
ling Romagne this Spring would nev-
er quite leave those thousands of
mounds again, as if the row on row
of crosses might hold their positions
until the Last Inspection. Thanks
to the. funds that have been raised
in this country this year, and thanks,
too, to many an unchronicled French
peasant who does not forget, those
graves wall be brilliant with flowers
on May 30th. But the x-oses and pop-
pies and swaying stalks of Queen
Anne’s lace would seem the fairer
in the sunlight of that morning if
each should be a pledge of something
more.
It is Raymond Fosdick who tells
of seeing a young doughboy sitting
on the side of the road near Belleau
Wood during a lull when his com-
pany of the Ninth Infantry had been
taken out of the line for repairs.
He was weaving a clumsy wreath of
branches from a hedge and meadow
flowers.
“You see,”' he explained in that
mixture of rough talk and gentle
heart which was the bewilderment of
pious onlookers, “you see, my buddy
was bumped off last night and I
thought this dinkus for his grave
would be the least I could do for the
_ »>
The least he could do! Have any
of us done more than that? Is
there one among us who has kept
enough of the spirit of 1918 that we
have done the most we could do?
Not for those who lie dead in France
and in the scattered burial grounds
at home, but, in their name, for the
ones who came out maimed and
weakened forever—is there one
among us who has dene his most fo
them? Each of us knows some fel-
low who, not so lucky as the rest
of us, came out of France less fit
for the scuffle of life than he went
in. Surely there are few of us who
will fail to contribute as generously
as we can to the American Legion
Graves Endowment Fund, giving what
we can so that the graves of our
comrades overseas may be decorated
each year. But, in addition to this,
suppos? we each take to the graves
this Memorial Day the solemn prom-
ise to keep an eye on one of the
wounded and never while we live
let a month go by without doing
something to make his way a little
easier. If the graves here and in
Memorial Day Has Become
International Holiday Since
the Close of the World War
Although originally designated a
day of remembrance for the Union
dead of the Civil War, Memorial Day
May 30, has taken on a new and
wider significance since the end of
the World War and its designation
as its Memorial Day by the American
Legion which draws its membership
from North and South. Since that
designation Legion Posts in all parts
of the country have endeavored on
that day to decorate graves of the
veterans of all wars of the United
States.
The following is quoted from a I
statement issued in 1922 from Legion
Headquarters in Indianapolis regard-
ing the day and its national and in-
ternational significance:
“When the Inter-Allied Veterans
federation, made up of World War
veterans of France, England and
Canada, Italy and the others of the
allied nations and of which the Le-
gion is a member, adopted the Le-
gion’s date for the observance of
rites for the dead, May 30 became
an international holiday, comparable
only in universal observance to
Christmas. In the years to come it
will be observed by Legion posts and
allied veterans’ organizations in the
following countries other than the
United States: Canada, Belgium,
France, Poland, Turkey, Mexico, Ar-
gentina, Cuba, Guatemala, Japan, Pe-
ru, Porto Rico, Portugese West Afri-
ca, Santo Domingo, Spanish Hon-
duras, India, Venzuela and the aCnal
one, Hawaii, Phillipine Islands and
the territory of Alaska.”
In years gone by the Legion has
endeavored to secure funds for the
decoration of the graves of those who
died in the service overseas during
the World War and whose bodies re-
mained in foreign soil. This year
the Legion has endeavored to raise
a fund of $100,000 to be kept in per-
petuity, the income from the fund to
be used annually for the decoration
of these overseas graves. In the last
issue of the American Legion week-
ly $38,000 was reported as havir
been raised for this fund. This
amount is expected to have been
greatly increased during the last
week before Memorial Day.
FIRST BROOM CORN
BRINGS FANCY PRICE
The first broomcorn sale to be
made in the Valley of ,the 1923 crop
was made last week when a grower
named Polk residing on the Mission
tract sold four tons of the brush to
“Broomcorn” Perkins 6f McAllen at
$350 per ton. Earlier in the week he
had been offered $300 per ton, but
by holding out was rewarded with
the additional $50 per ton.
The crop throughout the Valley is
said to. be in fine shape with an
exceptionally good brush being put
out in most of the fields. It is ex-
pected that the crop will bring:
throughout the season prices approx-
imating those paid to Mr. Polk, as;
contracts at $250 per ton were made
by the buyers last winter.
With all danger of an embargo on
the Valley crop dissipated, the 20,-
000 acres of broomcorn in the Val-
ley should net the Valley growers-
a substantial figure. About 7,000
tons, or 700 cars are expected to be
harvested in the Valley this season.
With the price between $200 and
$250 a million and a half dollar crop
is in sighifc.
France could be heaped with such
flowers of friendliness, they would
be bright with colors beyond the
power of mortal eye to see.
Homage to our soldiers of all wars, who gave their
all in the cause of Liberty and the welfare of this Nation.
They gave service without regard to personal safety or
gain.
We all join in honoring the dead and are happy that
our strong nation has the wisdom to cease material tasks
for a day and turn its thoughts to the lofty and spiritual.
We all stand on common ground,—duty bound to make
this nation better and greater. That only can be our last-
ing tribute to those who died for us.
HARREL DRUG CO.
c
T TNDER THE light of a great new truth,
^ America was born. It was a thought
in government so new and overwhelming
that it thrilled men’s souls. For it they would
face any fate.
It was the idea that all men are bom
free and equal. The most receptive brains
of that time couched in a wonderful phras-
ing our Declaration of Independence. In
that setting, we have cherished it to the
present day and will cherish it for all time to
come. It has been the big theme about
which have clustered big deeds and big sen-
timents for a century and more.
Both fos- America and for the world, let
us keep firm the high resolve and meet the
enemy of our flag, whether that enemy be
here or overseas. Only by so doing can we
hope to honor our soldiers and sailors for
their high, unselfish and heroic services—
only by so doing can we prevent those who
made the supreme sacrifice of giving their
lives on the altar of liberty from having died
in vain.
J. A. GARCIA
POST NO. 172
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Holland, W. D. & Buell, Ralph L. Mercedes Tribune (Mercedes, Tex.), Vol. 10, No. 16, Ed. 1 Wednesday, May 30, 1923, newspaper, May 30, 1923; Mercedes, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1003826/m1/3/: accessed July 11, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Dr. Hector P. Garcia Memorial Library.