Page:Harris Dickson--The unpopular history of the United States.djvu/14

 practical person, admits that he generally makes a muss of soldiering, and has set his head to find out why. Uncle Sam has been lying awake at nights ruminating over the salty facts. Having learned better, he does better. He is doing much better now, and means to get ahead of the best before he plows this furrow to the end. Uncle Sam can accomplish whatever he tries, and, believe me, he is trying.

But he needs help, help from you and help from me, from every loyal citizen in the United States. Therefore Uncle Sam desires that all of us should consider what has gone wrong in the past, so that we may avoid the same blunders in the future. Just now we have the errors of our allies to warn us, and no legislator with mule sense should set his foot in a hole when there is a sign board standing right before his nose to point it out.

The average American does not understand war. This present affair is so prodigious that it passes beyond his mental jurisdiction. As for myself, martial science must be reduced