Page:Harris Dickson--The unpopular history of the United States.djvu/17

 failure of to-day. To provide against the possibility of failure Uncle Sam now pursues the most businesslike plan of organizing and employing his enormous potential strength. Things are being done, in Washington and throughout the country, competently done, to build an army from the bottom up, and of magnificent material. They are doing what has never been done before, training forty thousand officers—forty thousand youngsters who throw into their work every faculty of nerve and brain and sinew that they possess. Whatever men may accomplish, that accomplishment will be theirs; of that the nation can rest assured. Yet the bulk of our people, no matter how wise and patriotic, are uneducated in military details. The grim facts of our blunders may startle you as they startled me. You may be incredulous, just as I refused to believe. Bear this in mind: No statement is herein made except upon authority of Brevet Major-General Emory Upton, as contained in his “Military Policy of the United States.” These are no hostile