HOW AM AMERICAN THOUGHT AND DIED.

Taranaki Daily News, 10 November 1916, Page 7

HOW AM AMERICAN THOUGHT AND DIED.

/■ i'Ol'NG HERO 01< TWO NATIONS,

HIS CONFESSION OF FAITH,

"London Observer), . London, September 4. Wo hope readers will bow their heads in honor and in reverence of a splendid young American citizen, Second Lieutenant Harry Butters of California. Tie lias laid down his life for England, the country he loved next to this own, and for the Allies' caaise he held, to he the best and greatest that had ever been at stake in the world. At the age of -24 he was killed 011 Thursday night, August 31, by the same shell that killed his battery commander. He was no ordinary man.

As his example and purpose are better understood, his memory will win more than a passing thought from many on both sides of the Atlantic who never knew him.. Those who did know him on this side mourn with deep sadness his early death, and will always hold him in mind with affectionate pride. He is to be honored not only like our own, but with especial gratitude. .Our own boys go forth in a temper that makes dross of all careful egotism in respect of their safety or ahy other personal interest. But they go forth in duty. This American boy—and what a straight, upstanding pattern of youth and strength he was—owed 11s no duty, and he gave us all. He gave it not impulsively nor in adventurous recklessness, but with a settled enthusiasm belonging to ''the depth and not the tumult of the soul." How much he gave is worth considering. His personal endowments and opportunities were such that when he made up his mind to quit everything in his bright California and to come into the war, his choice was heroic in the fullest sense of that word.

Born in South Africa, where his family had business connections, Jie was the only son of the late Henry Butters, of Alta Vista, San Francisco, who had large interests in mines and.railways. Ik. was the nephew and heir of the well-known mining engineer,, Mr. Charles Butters, who is still resident on the Pacific Slope. The boy who was to die in action as a British officer was educated at first in California, but then came to tljis country and went to Beaumont College, Old Windsor. There lie learned to knew the meaning of England, her scenes, licr history, and lie was enchanted. He was devoted to his school. That devotion, one thinks, played its part in bringing him back when he thought that the Old Land was in the fight for all her centuries, that she, too, might have kept out of it, but that her cause wag pure and glorious, that her entry into the struggle was a saving decision in the everlasting choice between right and wronf /■" THE CHOICE. "When lie went back to America he was a young man of mark, framed to excel botli in sport and affairs. He was very tall, supple, active, frank and comely of face, as gay as he was goodlooking. You saw by a, glance at his hands that ho had a born instinct for management and technique. He had been a good deal at sea. He knew all about horses and motor-cars. He was a crack shot and a fine polo player. His business ability was shown as soon as lie look over the management if Ilia father's estates. With this practical talent that could turn itself to anything he had other qualities. One remembers what a delightful level measuring glance he used to give suddenly from under his browns when he had finished rolling a cigarette and went on with his keen questioning about men and things. To talk with him was to receive, a new and promising revelation of the mind of young America. Like so many of our own young spldiers in their attitude tovards politics, he was not content with either of the old parties in the United States. Ho thought that his; own generation if it were earnest enough might make a better hand both of social problems and world relations. He hoped to play his part. Though he always thouglt of himself in a fine spirit as ''an American citizen," he wanted the United States to take a full share in the wider life of the world, and especially to work as far as possible for common ideals with the whole English-speaking race. v So when the news -of the war came to Sail Francisco he put aside as fair a prospect of wealth", (success, happiness and long life as could well open before la young man, and determined to throw | in'his lot with the Old Country anil the Allies in the fight for civilisation against all the armed might of lawless iniquity which had flung itself 011 Belgium. He was then 22. He arrived in England in the early part of 1915 to join the British Army, and 110 military eye could doubt that the British Army had got a. rare recruit. Ifarrv Butters got his first commission 111 the 11th Royal Warwickshire Regiment. Afterwards his technical faculty found more congenial scope when he transfered to the R.F.A. While training he stayed a good deal at the Rectory, Stow-on-the-'Wold, Glos. The rector writes; —-''lie was a warmhearted, fearless young officer—as fine an American gentleman as ever crossed the Atlantic." It is much to say, but it is true. A SPLENDID TESTAMENT When he went, to the front last year he saw heavy fighting in the British offensive of September, 1015. He described that action with graphic directness in a long letter which was printed in the San Francisco Argonaut last January. Tiiat letter at the end changed its tone and ended with words which may well stand in remembrance 011 both sides of the Atlantic; as the confession of faith of an American citizen in the Great War.

"I am now no longer untried. Two weeks' action in a great battle is to my credit, and if my faith in the wisdom of my course or my enthusiasm for the cause had been due to fail it would have done so during that time. But it has only become stronger. I find myself a soldier among millions of others in- the great Allied armies fighting for all I believe right and civilised and humane against a Powsr which is evil and which threatens the existence of all the right \+c prize and the freedom we enjoy/ "It may seem to you that for me this is all quite uncalled for that it can only mean either the supreme sacrifice for nothing, or at best some of the best- years of my life wasted; but I tell you that not only am I willing to give my life to this enterprise (for that is comparatively easy except when I think of you), but that I firmly believe—if I live through it to spend a useful lifetime with you—that never will I have an opportunity to gain so much honorable advancement for my own soul or to do so much for the cause of the world's pro-

gress, its I have here daily defending the liberty that mankind ha<: so far giiijied against the attack of an enemy who would deprive us o v f it and set the world back .some centuries if he could have bis way. 1 think lps of myself than I did, less of the heights of personal success I aspired to climb, and more of thu service that each of us must render in payment for the right to live and by virtue of which only we can progress. "Yes, my dearest folks, wo ait indeed doing the world's work over here, and I am in it to the finish." " IN IT TO THE FINISH." ■His captain writes:—"lie was with his guns and 110 one could have died in a nobler way. . . He was one of the brightest, cheeriest boys I have ever known, and always the life and soul of the mess. , , . We all realised his nobility in coming to the help of another country entirely of his own free will, and understood what a big heart he had. He was loved by all." Ha is in it to the finish indeed with comrades of his adoption who have passed with him. He takes his last sleep out there with so many of the brave and true where none was braver and truer than he, and amongst the recollections of the great war his name will not be forgotten. Beaumont will take caie of that. In his old college we doubt not he will have liis permanent memorial. In oui thoughts the flags of Britain and America cover his heart with double honor. We shall never see them entwined again without thinking of him. }fo American can read these lines without being proud of him. No Briton can read them without feelings deeper, more moved, than can be said in any words. We are grateful, as he would have liked, to his America that bred him. We are grateful to his "dearest folks," though they were not at all with him in his course, for 110 man could be what he .was without being the scion of a strong stock.