THEIR NAME LIVETH FOR EYERMCR"

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 60, 5 December 1918, Page 6

THEIR NAME LIVETH FOR EYERMCR"

Sir, —I like that note you strike* in your inspiring article under the above heading. Truly the Imperial War Graves' Commission have earned the devout gratitude-of all right-thinking humanitarians in their decision to mark the equality of sacrifice by equality of grave decoration. If this high note of pure democracy is sustained by our statesmen and men of letters throughout the Empire, truly the future is full of great promise. We" must see to it that now, while our hearts are full of gratitude for our- deliverance from u powerful and despotic foe, that' we remember always that our. fallen heroes "went West" not only for the- Empire, but for the rights of hnmnnity. Let us hope that never again will we sink back into tho rute of selfishness, Toryism, autocratic ignorance, ami tho materialistic cult of the survival of the fittest. A great opportunity lies before our statesmen.. The people throughout the Empire are watching and waiting—hoping that tho lessons of tho great war will have made for real patriotism, and not the old Roman kind, "when all were for the party and none wore for the State," and that the sham kind of the past will remain just a bad memory. For who can say that we have honestly faced tho problems of "the rights of humanity".? Both the Church and the State have put a veneer of dogma and promises over the problems confronting them, mostly; but let us trust that in order to ensure that "their name • liveth for evermore" our men and women in high places and in low will so serve humanity that a new era will dawn, which will make fqr eternal love and peace through unselfish service toward that great ideal, "the rights /6f humanity." The recent epidemic has brought out gwat qualities in our people. Noblo men and women, imbued with the spirit of self-sacrifice, have laid down their lives tor "the rights of humanity." What are we goine to do to ensure that "their namo liveth for evermore"? Are we going to let the people live and rot in their ignorance and filth and vice in our city slums, or are we going ti> ngnt for the "rights of humanity" and lift these people out of their depths and give them a clean environment? It is well known ihat sordid vice cannot thrive in the healthy open. The people down and out only want a decent lead and they will follow out of the depths Of their milery, and find their feet; but clean out their filthy dens and make them breathe fresh air and think clean thoughts before you ask them to lead clean lives.

We can nil help to influence the trend in the right direction, for like the crippled bov "God has ft plan for every man nnd He has one for you." And so let us ever remember the "rights of humanity," for "men may rise on steppins stones of their dead selves to higher things." If ever there was a time when we should ('look for our profits in the 'earts o' men" it is now, when the great proletariat is asking for bread, not n atone, but the real things of life. Let ue see to it, then, that they ask not in vain, and then truly "their name liveth for evermore."—l am, etc., W.H.'i'.