Archives: To the Animals Who Died in the Great War

In 1920, the MSPCA was honored to dedicate a tablet with future president, then Governor of Massachusetts, Calvin Coolidge. The tablet memorializes the animals that gave their lives during World War I, “The Great War,” and includes the then seal of the MSPCA. The tablet still hangs today in the Massachusetts State House. Below is the transcripted article highlighting that day, from MSPCA publication, Our Dumb Animals, the oldest humane publication in the U.S.

OUR DUMB ANIMALS – Issue 181, May 1920

To the Animals Who Died in the War

The Tablet Unveiled in the Capitol of Massachusetts – Addresses by President Rowley and Governor Coolidge

WHAT is believed to be the first memorial ever erected in the capitol of any state or nation to the animals sacrificed in war, was dedicated in the Massachusetts State House at Boston, Tuesday noon, March 30, 1920. It is a gift made possible through friends of the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, and consists of a tablet, forty by sixty inches, designed in dull bronze, with burnished border, bearing this inscription:

“This tablet is erected to the memory of the horses, dogs, and other animals whose faithful service, whose sufferings and whose death were part of the price paid in the great World War, 1914-1919, waged in behalf of the liberties of mankind.”

Below are reproduced the official seals of the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and the American Humane Education Society.

The ceremony took place just inside the Beacon Street entrance, in the room known as Hooker Hall, which was thronged with spectators. The accompanying view shows Eugenia Frothingham, who unveiled the tablet, Governor Calvin Coolidge, who with his staff was present throughout the exercises, and Dr. Francis H. Rowley, president of the Society, whose address was very enthusiastically received.

Dr. Rowley spoke as follows:

“There are many memorials within this historic building dedicated to those who gave their lives for their country. State and nations have gratefully provided room within their capitols where, by statue and tablet, the memory of their heroic dead might forever be preserved. But never before, I think, has state or nation by act of its legislative body granted place within its capitol for a memorial to perpetuate the memory of those lowlier fellow-creatures whose faithful service, whose suffering and death were a part of the price paid in defense of its liberties. Again does Massachusetts, but what is made possible here today, take one more step forward as a leader in the larger life of the world. For we measure now the progress of mankind not by those material forces that crowd ruthlessly on toward selfish goals, but rather by widening of that spirit of great humanity that is quick to hear and quick to answer the call of pain and suffering, let it come from what source it may.

“Life in our modern world is no longer thought of as sharply divided into wholly unrelated realms. No one now dare say just where runs the line that separates the divine from the human, or the human from the subhuman.

“Never before, as during resent years of war, have men realized their dependence upon the creatures below them. Never before as now has the obligation to treat them with justice and kindness been so keenly felt. They have been with us in the truest sense as comrades in arms in a cause no less holy than that which has swept the whole circle of human freedom. Without them, distinguished officers and men of the army have frankly said we should have failed of victory.

“Often unfed, overworked to the point of exhaustion, the horses of the Allies plodded on through rain and mud and bursting shells, dragging supplies and guns and ammunition where no device of man could force its way. Across many a field where cannon blazed and death swung side his fiery scythe, the faithful dog bore the message upon whose delivery hung the fate of a thousand men. It was “Cher ami,” only a carrier pigeon, cited by General Pershing as a worthy a medal for distinguished service, that brought rescue to the Lost Battalion, and that later, shooting like an arrow through the air, reached Rampont with its dispatch hanging from a leg half cut away and with a streak of crimson across his breast.

“Horse and dog, mule and camel—bird and beast together, knowing nothing of the meaning of the appalling tragedy, yielded upon our demant, all that life had meant to them. Eight million, dead on the field or dying from injury or disease—this is the record for the horse alone.

“To these allies of the earth and air we dedicate today this graven tablet. We do it with hearts touched into tenderness at the memory of their patient service, their dying anguish upon the field of battle. With no hope of future glory lighting the untried road, or beckoning through mist and storm, they gave, because we bade them to do it, their last full measure of devotion.

“In honoring them, we honor ourselves. We and our children will grow into something finer and nobler and kinder by this deed, which is, after all, but an act of simple justice. In the years to come as through these halls teachers from our public schools lead their pupils, pointing out the memorials of historic interest, they will pause a moment here to teach anew the lesson of our kinship with the life below us, and speak of its claim upon us for justice and compassion. Who shall measure the ennobling influence upon the characters of these men and women of the future of a memorial like this? We are all in the same boat, animals and men, said our own Edward Everett Hale; you cannot promote kindness to the one without benefitting the other. The dedication of this tablet in this capitol of Massachusetts will speak a word in behalf of the wide realm of sentient life below us which will be heard round all the world.

“With gratitude to all who have had a part in this undertaking, and especially to the Legislature of 1919 which authorized the erection of the tablet, on behalf of the MAssachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, I now commit it to the keeping of the Commonwealth, delivering it over to that distinguished chief executive whose name and character have matched so finely the high office he bears—Governor Calvin Coolidge.”

Governor Coolidge, in a very felicitous speech of acceptance, said, in part:

“Those whom this tablet honors will never know its meaning, its significance, or even of its existence, but we can understand what it means and how much was done for the benefit of mankind by these creatures who suffered for our sakes.

“A merciful man is merciful to his beast. A just man is just to all. We can show our own worthiness by an appreciation of what these creatures did and how they suffered for our welfare. 

“I accept this tablet as characteristic of the teachings of the commonwealth. I accept it with an acknowledgment of the generosity that prompted those who have made it possible. I accept it as an expression of all that is highest and noblest in the history of the Commonwealth.”