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Show Mill GIVEN ' MTDAL FROM PfflPIFRfll i i WASHINGTON, Dec. ,24 High trl-! bute was paid General Pershing and I the officers and men who served under un-der him by General Tasker H Bliss in conferring upon the American commander the distinguished service medal at the direction of President Wilson. The full address of General Bliss was received and made public by ( the war department today. The high medal was conferred upon General Pershing at the headquarters of the American expeditionary froce at Chau-mont, Chau-mont, France, November 16. After detailing the work done by , General Pershing in creating and I training on French soil an American army of more than 2,000,000 men, with the agencies for its transportation transporta-tion and supply, General Bliss said: "With your aid our ancient ally has regained her former boundaries, and you and your army have played a (glorious part in a world event trans-I trans-I cending in Its momentous importance any other since Charles Martel beat ' back the flood of Moslem inavsion on the plains of Tours. You, like him, have done that which came to you in 'crushing an evil, an aborted civilization civiliza-tion and in preserving a nobler one. "And, in doing this you have won not only the admiration of your European Euro-pean associates in arms, but the admiration ad-miration and love of vour countrymen. "And you have done it all with the thorough devotion of the American army. its. of fleers and men, and of all , who helped to make that army and to "get it there. ; "All that I have said brings mc to I this. It is not for me to speak of history his-tory to the men who have made it. : But it is for me and for all of us to j speak of that loyal and affectionate devotion, from the men In the trenches to the men on the western docks of France, from the men in the ship-I ship-I building yards and mines and logging camps from the Atlantic to tho Pacific, Paci-fic, from the men, women and children chil-dren in every factory and workshop I at home, whose devotion to -the great cause and whose personal devotion to you has stayed up your hands, that they faint not, not from tho rising to the going down of the sun. "But It is not of these alone that I would speak, when I speak of the devotion de-votion that has carried you and your army to such triumphant success. I think with sadness and price of those -who have paid tho last full measure of their devotion; and of weeping (American wives and mothers and mourning children. I have no doubt that many and many a gallant American Amer-ican soldier has, in his last breath, coupled with other names dear to him your name as the custodian and guardian guard-ian of American honor and glory honor and glory and so dear to him for them he gave his life. "Just as it is our prosident who hands to you this medal, also I seem to be from these' thousands of glorious glor-ious graves palo hands reaching out lo you and your comrades the laurel wreath of victory which they did so much to -wln.? |