(See front cover)
From the halls of Montezuma
To the shores of Tripoli
We fight our country's battles
On the land as on the sea;
First to fight for right and freedom
And to keep our honor clean
We are proud to claim the title
Of United States Marine.
The U. S. Marine Corps does not sing Christmas carols. When it is Christmas in the Marine Corps, "the toughest soldiers in the world" on foreign duty sometimes startle the natives by dressing a Christmas tree under the tropic sun, or—as in Nicaragua last year—by knocking together a make-believe chimney out of packing boxes, filling the "hearth" with tinsel for fire, and hanging up their biggest socks to be stuffed with joke presents. But hardboiled fighting men on the outer marches of the U. S. Empire have little use for hymns of peace. More likely are they to drown out anything suggestive of home or homesickness with their corps anthem, "From the Halls of Montezuma," a song of many unprintable versions.
With Christmas at hand, a picture of the world distribution of U. S. Marines was published last week in the annual report of the No.1 U. S. Marine, Major General Wendell Gushing Neville. In Nicaragua were 1,800, in Haiti 887,* in the Virgin Islands 111, in Guam 572, Philippines 215, Hawaii 395, Shanghai 1,049 Peking 486, not to count the men aboard Navy ships around the world.
For General Neville, of course, it was to be a Christmas spent at home. But no Marine better typifies the service than the present Corps Commandant. A fighting Virginian, aged 59, he was graduated from Annapolis in 1890. He helped capture Guantanamo Bay in the Spanish War and relieve Peking in the Boxer Uprising. He served as a provincial military governor in the Philippines, won the Congressional Medal of Honor in the seizure of Vera Cruz. Through Belleau Wood he led the Fourth Marine Brigade to Soissons, St. Mihiel and the Meuse-Argonne, then on to the Rhine and Coblentz. After 39 years of almost continuous and always victorious fighting, General Neville, familiarly known as "Whispering Buck," still possesses the most powerful drill-voice in the service.
Less and less do Marine-manned outposts demark a U. S. Empire upon which the sun never sets. They are but the military manifestation of that empire and for every Marine spending Christmas away from home this year there are more U. S. civilians abroad than ever before. From countless U. S. homes this month have gone forth Christmas boxes and bundles to countless far-flung civilian Jacks. Toms, Ikes, Petes. The year had been generous at home but many a son could not be present to share its holiday rewards. When other U. S. citizens were turning homeward for the year's greatest family celebration, Jack was converting heathen on Luzon, Tom was selling Standard Oil up the Yangtze, Ike was with National City Bank at Bombay, Pete was peddling vacuum cleaners out of Stockholm—all manifesting the U. S. Empire invisible.