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Show M UTAH VALLEY NEWS Friday, November 11, 1938. $ 1 Utah Valley News Zucceeeor to Public Opinion Journal Publlehed every Friday morning by UTAH VALLEY PUBLISHING IT North niuiuuuiuwtuuuiuumiuuiauuuttiuuimufcti" CO. " Flrat Waat Proro, Utah. aa eecon&41aa matter Satand November II, HIT at the poet office at Provo, UUh, under the Act of March 1, 1171. IN FLANDERS FIELDS Remember the FIRST Armistice Day! Remember the wild cheers and the almost fanatical rejoicing at the cessation of war! Peace meant a lot in those days. We forgot easily, and Armistice Day became just another holiday. Recently, however, war clouds have dulled the world's horizon and now every thinking person breathes a fervent prayer that peace shall be maintained. Armistice Day, you remember, was a lioli-- . day NUT in celebration of war but in celebration of the END of war. It is a holiday glorifying peace. Each year, so we are told, on Armistice Day they cover the grave of Colonel John McC'rea, a Canadian medical officer, with blood red poppies from Flanders. AlcCreu wrote In Flanders Fields" and was buried shortly afterward in 1915, following Uie l(i days of battle known in written history of the World War as The becowl Battle of Ypres." lie died in a French military hospital but was buried near the place where he wrote the greatest poem ever written about the War. The three verses of In Flanders Fields" were written, according to McCreas commanding officer, Major General E. W. B. Morrison, during a lull in battle, and were pencilled on a page torn from a dispatch book. Here is what Ueneral Morrison wrote about the poem: This poem was literally bora of fire and blood during the hottest phase of the second battle of Ypres. My headquarters were in a trench on top of the Ypres canal, and John had his dressing station in a hoie dug in the foot of the bank. During periods in the batue, men who were shot actually rolled down tne bank into his dressing station. Many times during tue 16 days of battle he and 1 watched the cnapiaiiis burying their dead when ever there was a lull. Thus the crosses, row on row, grew into a good-size- d cemetery. We often heard the larks in the mornings singing high in the air, between crashes of sneiis and reports of the guns in the battery just besiue us. John told me he had written the poem jjetween the arrival of batches of wounded." Here is the poem, copied here that we may realize what tne ooys in the trenches went through that the world nugnt be safe for democracy, and that we nnghi uiso get another glimpse, on this twentieth ammerbury oi that first Armistice Day, of the torch" iney handed to us: t i OU told them a war to end war and they gave their lives that other fine young men "IN FLANDERS FIELDS in Flanders fields the poppies grow jut twve the crosses, row on row x nut mark our place; and in the sky Tne uirKs still bravely singing, fly Scarce heard amid the guns below. We are the Dead. Short days ago We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, uovea, and were loved, and now we lie in Jf tanders fields. , ' 1 uke up our quarrel with the foe : 'l o you from failing hands we throw Tne orchi be yours to hold ii high.! ye break faith with us who die ij snail not sleep, though poppies grow in landers fields. iv e t John McCbka. Armistice Day liy Mary Ellen (Mb Twenty yean aco thle morning whletlae blew and shrieked, and screamed; people rushed out into the streets to Join the crowds crowds that cheered, and the World laughed, and wept War was over and Peace had returned to bide upon the earth forever. Then slowly the peoples of the world began to pick up the broken threads and the broken lives; they counted the endless rows and rows of crosses; and too, they figured the costs of the war in dollars and cents the amount was shocking, astounding! Yet this awful price had purchased for posterity a lasting peace; thla war had taught the nations of the world the futility of war there never could be another war. Thousands and thousands of weary khaki clad soldiers eame homo they were boys when they went Boys full of energy and life; and they had smiled as they marched away. Now they were men. Men. old hevnnd their years, rh "War'- - Inwho had been ferno" ihe tad been trained, to kill now they were to step hack into ir'r rlaces and go on - should not be asked for such a sacrifice. They said, If you lose faith with us who and those die, we shall not sleep words drifting across the blood-soake- d field of Flanders were a challenge to all humanity. If the first Armistice Day was a happy day for you, it was a glorious one for the wraiths who patrol the battle fields. The living have not lost faith with the dead, they said. This is a holiday to celebrate the end of war. See, we have not died in vain. The whole world celebrates the coming of peace. This is a . i from where they had left oft For many bewildered and disiUusloned war veterans those were the hardest battles they had ever fought No one seemed to bother much about them now, but why should they mind they had helped to save the world for Democracy. The crippled, the blind, and the mentally 111 entered hospitals to being all over again a long fight a fight for life and for health. Yet today, there are 41,711 World War Veterans who are permanently hospitalised. And during last July and August 11,114 veterans received treatments. And the number of caskets Is increasing daily America's Installments for World Peace." On this, the twentieth Armistice Day Gold Star Mothers will look Into the faces of the youths about them and live over again another war the fears of war while the scars of the last war remain unhealed. From the depth of their lonely, aching hearts and their anqulshed souls, they will cnrnestly pray that through Divine guidance, America bn spared from war. Surely THEIR prayers shall be answered. great holiday.-- ' It will ALWAYS be a great holiday. A year passed . . . live years . . . ten that this was ARMISTICE DAY PROGRAM Friday, November 11, 1938, 11 a. m. Provo High School Auditorium Posting of Colors, American Legion Color Guard The Audience Singing: AMERICA. . (Accompanied by the High School band) Invocation: Jlev. Edwin F. Irwin Reading: In Flanders Fields Miss Gene Reese Vocal Solo: Ted Maynard TRIBUTE TO GOLD STAR MOTHERS Response: Address: PEACE (Aeeletant Mrs. Wilmott Tucker lion. Scott Matheson United State Attorney In Utah) Retiring the Colors. JOIN THE AMERICAN RED CROSS Thli program will be presented by the American Legion with the cooperation of the Student Body of Provo High School. years. The ghosts of those who made the supreme sacrifice still marched. They are forgetting was the sad chant Twenty years passed. War clouds rum- bled over Europe, threatening to burst a deluge upon the world at any minute. And now the Army of the Dead was marching with vigor. Remember, ghostly voices of the Phantom Army pleaded, remember Armistice Day. Remember that it was and still is a holiday to celebrate the end of war. Dont let it die. Keep it in honor of peace, that precious peace for which we paid so much. You wanted the first Armistice Day and you should want a continuation of it and all it stands for. If you lose faith with us who die, we shall not sleep. , life-destroyi- ng W. Center SEARS, ROEBUCK Co., LEVENS Inc. IMPERIAL CLEANERS and DYERS 187 FARMERS and MERCHANTS BANK The Home-OwneFriendly Bank. d, flag-drap- TRI-STAT- E LUMBER CO. BENNETTS in Provo MOSE LEWIS Mens Wear NEW CENTURY PRINTING Co. IIUISII ELECTRIC Everything Electrical The Big Department Store UTAH VALLEY PUBLISHING CaT TAYLOR BROS. SI IRIVERS UTAH TIRE SERVICE Style Leadership I ; -- . -- This Space Contributed in Recognition of Armistice Day and in the Interest ot World Peace, by MORTONS JEWELERS 1 The General Tire t . ; |