SAYS U.S. MUST SHARE BURDENS OF WORLD

"This is a day for memory, pride, and consecration to duty", declared Professor Bliss Perry in his address at the Memorial Day Service in Appleton Chapel yesterday. Professor Perry read the general order which was issued 55 years ago explaining the purpose of establishing the holiday and outlining the spirit in which it was originated. "Today as for the last 55 years past", he went on, "men gather to do honor to those who have given their lives for their country". Professor Perry related a recent incident in which a Civil War veteran had told him that the Civil War seemed as far away as the Battle of Marathon. To this he answered. "No, you mean it seems just as immortal".

This, the speaker said, was the spirit brought out on Memorial Day. "Causes live though generations die, for a country does not forget the valor and sacrifice of youth... On Memorial Day we bury petty things. Big things seem bigger and the small things smaller".

Professor Perry then showed how today we believe our civilization is insecure for we have doubts about ourselves, and our accomplishments, but he added that we could have no doubts about the accomplishments and sacrifices of the dead. The unfortunate part is that sorrow must remain. "We remember how we said good luck when we could not say goodbye". He then showed how there could be no help for sorrow in words but only in the thought expressed by words. At the news of Lincoln's death a wave of sorrow went over the country but those who felt it most said least.

Differences in Reconstruction Period

Professor Perry briefly outlined the unfortunate differences which arise in a period of reconstruction. The consideration of a national policy has caused a rupture in our thought but on Memorial Day we should put aside all differences of opinion. "All democracies", he said, "are easily panic stricken and our nineteenth century machinery is not sufficient to express our twentieth century feeling". He said that we did not know how to spell the word "world court". "It sounds too complicated for us. Lincoln was generations ahead of his time in thinking of the good of humanity as a whole. We may walk together today in patriotism but we may be centuries apart in our thoughts towards humanity".

In concluding, Professor Perry described a big line of telephone poles all of which but one were swept from their foundation and were supported only by the lines of sagging wires. The one sturdy pole was doing more than its share in keeping the lines in order. "Today", he concluded, "the wires of civilization are sagging down. The Lord grant that the United States be strong enough to carry more than its portion of the burdens of the world--only so can we complete the work of our gallant dead".

President Eliot, President, Lowell, and a number of members from the Harvard Memorial Society, the Shannon Post, and the Grand Army of the Republic attended the service, which was conducted by Professor E.C. Moore and the Reverend Kenneth MacArthur.