Article March 29, 1919 Issue

Extracts from Letters

"The Welfare worker met three captains in the mess hall who were all interested in Christian Science. One of them made the statement that not one man in his division had been down with influenza during the epidemic, and the other two verified his statement. As conditions at this particular camp were very bad, all felt that this was a demonstration. One of the officers said that he tried to protect all by realizing each morning the promise in the ninety-first psalm, 'There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling.' Another expressed gratitude for the protection realized while doing construction work at one of the buildings where the most deadly gas is made; while others were all affected by it more or less, he felt no effect whatever."

"We have received orders ... which will bring us back over the ocean—back into the harbor and by the statue of Liberty (we passed it with wild cheers going out—imagine how we shall greet that symbolic figure coming in!) and so up the Hudson to the piers where waving flags and shouts of welcome await our return! ... Oh, my country! God has indeed blessed and given thee to me and blessed and given me to thee! Never in quiet times of peace and lazy plenitude could I have been worthy of this blessing. But, now—oh, now do I know full well and clearly! May my strength and courage never be less than equal to my love for you—America! For, love you I shall, as never I could before, and defend you from within and without unto the last drop of my lifeblood, I shall, from this day on! This is my pledge, and there's a million more over here who join me! ... The boys who came over here will be as leaven in the mass when they return and enter again into the affairs of the country. We have seen what other countries are, what other people are, and we (I speak of our Army as a whole) have fought and bled and died for our America—for that land of great ideals, of liberty, freedom, love, and charity, and hope, joy, and individual opportunity.... We have seen, as we could have seen in no other way, that this America, this United States, is the garden spot of all the blessed seeds of civilization and progress and of all the budding blossoms of priceless spiritual plants....

"It is like a great field wherein grow the precious plants whose sprigs and seedlings the nations shall come and pluck and plant in their own gardens, where they shall flourish and renew themselves and make all the world a heaven of peace and justice and goodness. O, my countrymen, let not that fertile field ever lie fallow! Let us be the leaders of the world. Let us be real leaders, good leaders, ever watchful, ever moderate, deliberate, and sincere! Do not let us fail this trust! Be true to America, true to the nations, firm and clear-headed and just, and we shall yet make paradise of a world!"

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