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Show PAID THE PRICE OF PEACE First Thought That Should Inspire Americans on Each Memorial Day Anniversary. If Memorial day emphasizes to the American people one fact more than any other, it is that the price of peace is human life. Fifty years have passed since Grant and Lee met at Appomattox, Appomat-tox, during which period a war debt of billions has been practically paid, a ravaged country wholly rehabilitated, industry and commerce developed, and wonderful achievements made in the arts and sciences, all accomplished at tremendous cost. Yet touay the millions mil-lions paid, the tremendous effort put forth, the great burdens then assumed, count for less than the loss to the nation na-tion in human life. Today, North and South, only men, brave men, are mourned as their graves are strewn with flowers. It sometimes seems that, in the rush and roar of life, even the price of peace has been paid without regret. But life is dissimulation. In hundreds of thousands of homes there are faded portraits, tattered uniforms, little reminders re-minders of a thousand sorts which in a quiet hour are again and again baptized bap-tized in tears, as they suggest personal per-sonal loss, blasted hopes, destroyed happiness, and still, these but quicken memories that are ever with those who really paid the price, just as the ceremonies and exercises today bring back more vividly the partings, the anxious days, the terrible news of 50 years ago. In the very words "Memorial "Me-morial day" there is a wealth of meaning mean-ing to some which those of the present generation cannot understand as fully as they should, to appreciate the significance sig-nificance of observance of the day. And yet, those of the present generation gener-ation have only to look across the Atlantic, At-lantic, and contemplate the carnage and destruction there, to gain a better appreciation of the price paid by this nation before they were born. Figures tell something, but hearts tell more broken hearts which time cannot heal. Let imagination touch the sorrows of the countless widows and orphans this great war has made, let it reckon the prospects of life dashed to ground, yes, buried beneath blood-soaked sod, and there will come some conception of 50 years ago in this country, and of the significance of Memorial day dedicated ded-icated to the men who fought and died, constituted the real price of the peace this country has enjoyed for half a century. |