The men who fought there came from every State in our country and
from every class of our social life. We sent there the best of our
regular army, and with them, cowboys, clerks, bricklayers, foot-ball
players, three future commanders of the greater army that followed
that war, the future Governor of Cuba, future commanders of the
Philippines, the commander of our forces in China, a future President
of the United States. And, whether these men, when they returned to
their homes again, became clerks and millionaires and dentists, or
rose to be presidents and mounted policemen, they all remember very
kindly the days they lay huddled together in the trenches on that hot
and glaring sky-line. And there must be many more besides who hold
the place in memory. There are few in the United States so poor in
relatives and friends who did not in his or her heart send a
substitute to Cuba. For these it seems as though San Juan might be
better preserved, not as it is, for already its aspect is too far
changed to wish for that, but as it was. The efforts already made to
keep the place in memory and to honor the Americans who died there
are the public park which I have mentioned, the monument on San Juan,
and one other monument at Guasimas to the regulars and Rough Riders
who were killed there. To these monuments the Society of Santiago
will add four more, which will mark the landing place of the army at
Daiquairi and the fights at Guasimas, El Caney, and San Juan Hill.

But I believe even more than this might be done to preserve to the
place its proper values. These values are sentimental, historical,
and possibly to the military student, educational. If to-day there
were erected at Daiquairi, Siboney, Guasimas, El Poso, El Caney, and
on and about San Juan a dozen iron or bronze tablets that would tell
from where certain regiments advanced, what posts they held, how many
or how few were the men who held those positions, how near they were