Page:Patriotic pieces from the Great War, Jones, 1918.djvu/100

96 through to victory no matter what the cost in time or money or in the blood of our bravest and dearest.

The ultimate task of our young men of today is so to lead the generation now coming on the stage that this nation shall assure its international safety by grasping and acting on the fundamentals of duty. I sincerely believe that on the whole we of this nation have a little finer material on which to work than is true of any other nation; that in our land there are better ideals than elsewhere of the duty of men and women to one another, to their neighbors, to their country, and to the world at large. I do not see how any man can go through the camps where our army is now being trained without feeling a thrill of pride in the manliness, energy and resourcefulness of the men who are there slowly acquiring not only the bodies of soldiers but the feelings of patriots. Those camps are to-day the great universities of American citizenship, and we ought to make them permanent features of our national life. There could be no finer material for citizenship than that afforded by the men and women of this nation.

We can be sure that our armies at the front and that our fleets and squadrons will do well and bravely, and that we shall hold our heads