Page:Harris Dickson--The unpopular history of the United States.djvu/21

 our children that we have won all of our wars, just as easy as falling off a log, and if a foreign army invaded America, grandfather would reach around, get his scythe blade, and clean ’em up.

One time I knew a justice of the peace to be elected on the platform that he could take a lightning bug, on the end of a corn cob, and bluff the machine-made armies of Europe into the Atlantic Ocean. Maybe he could. But machine-made armies won’t fight with corn cobs and lightning bugs. Rules have changed.

Plenty of grown men believe that still. It is part of public opinion, and helps to shape the policy of this nation.

Some of these days I am going to jump on those “popular school histories” and put them out of business. Publishers print ’em to make money, and folks won’t pay good money for medicine that tastes bad. Just call this the “Unpopular History,” and maybe we can’t give it away. But I want to tell the truth to every fifteen-year-old boy in the United States, want to make every member