OCR Text |
Show A SOLDIER'S VIEW OF THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS Thto Is a Fourth of a Series of Ar-tlcUa Ar-tlcUa Written by America's Ace of Aces, Captain Rddlo Illrkenbacker on the League of Nations. An American noldlor of tho line does not talk m h about his mother. moth-er. Something i olds him back. But ho thinks about I or. When ordered lo tho front ho writes last to h r. When letters como from home, he looks first for hers. When ho i tuins from war, hers Is tho first f-.co ho seeks. If in battlo he faces death, It, Is her features that flash upon him. If ho has tlmo to remember his homo it Is her form that means homo to him. This, I believe, Is truo of ninety soldiers In a hundred. No man feels more deeply than the i American soldier what war means to lAmerlan mothers especially a foreign for-eign war. So ono of the first thoughts that como to a soldier after reading the League of Nations Is this In it right to cxposo tho mothers of America to all tho grief of war, Just to help a foreign nation settlo a boundary quarrel or win a political dlsputo? Tho one consolation of tho American Ameri-can mother, when her son said good- byo thnt ho wore the uniform of his country nnd marched away under tho flag of tho United States. Ho went becauso tho government ofYis country called him. He would tight to uphold tho honor of the United Slates. Ho would faco death to protect pro-tect his country nnd his people. He would risk his llfo to punish the enemies en-emies of his country. This pride In their sons American sphlt and American loyalty carries a million mothers through the anguish ang-uish of sleeplcsB nights. It was what bi wight them through the torturo ct tup days when the American young men wcro dying by thousands and no nevs camo to tell who still lived and j who had gone Ndw Just Imagine a war which had not even this comfort for a mother's heart. Could anything be sadder? Think of the mother whoso son would bo sent to Asia to protect, tho Mesopotamia oilfields from Russia, or help Franco rivet tho bonds on Syria. Or to got a plcco of Turkey for Greece. Or to turn somo nasty llttlo territorial trick for a people wo have ncter seen and a causo nobody Co u Id understand. Are the mothers of America to be crucified for foreign quarrels that never end? Can an American Ima-glno Ima-glno a more needless outrage to bo imposd on America womanhood? Can a Boldior think of a moro painful sacrifico this side of death? I know that somo men, who hare not felt death facing them la front and anguish waiting on them at home, hare said much about fighting fight-ing for mankind. An American states man has oven said "Theso men garo their lives to secure the freedom of mankind.' But no soldier can accept that. If tho statesman had been a soldier ho would not liavo said It. Why? Becauso ho would not havo felt It. Tho soldier of the United States fought for tho United States. He had no Hko or dtsllko for mankind In general. Ho thought only of his own country. That was his main pride and consolation; for his mothcrt thnt was the sole prldo and consolation. consola-tion. And for the mothers of Amer-lca(, Amer-lca(, If not, for themselves, American soldiers would resent any scheme of world politics which, In tho days of war trial and war misery, would lake away this la,st vestige, of comfort and leave nothing but a killing anxiety behind. No soldier can bo for a covenant that Is so cruel to her whom he loves . best. . |